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El-Paparazzi For those who have already read this chapter before, I urge you to reread the ending.   Dench took in a deep breath, inhaling all the moist air the night had to offer. He preferred the dark of night than the light of day. It really set the killer in him free. Notwithstanding that, he also found the daylight less bothersome than most of his tribe did.     Thinking of his tribe caused his face to darken, those fools could not understand his thoughts in the first place. He sometimes wondered why was he blessed with such intelligence while others of his tribe could not even learn a single alphabet of the human language. Maybe it was because he was an half-orc?     It was often true that a bit of human blood gave a warrior just the right mix of cunning, ambition, and self-discipline to go far indeed, as Dench had. He was the chosen inheriter of his tribe's heirloom, the Bloody Sickle, and his strength almost surpassed that of a rank-five fighter. So maybe his assumption was really spot on?     Anyway, what's done is done, those brutes were too dim-witted for my aspiration to begin with.     Recollecting his thoughts, he took the stock of his surroundings. The fire had almost died out, ashes flitting about in the air. No sound could be heard, except for the swish of distant leaves and some occasional activity of nocturnal animals. Utter darkness enveloped the area.       However, thanks to his orc blood, he had superior vision in dark and dim conditions. He could see in dim light within 60 feet of him as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light, albeit he couldn't discern colours in darkness, only shades of gray.     Huehuehue, it seems like all of them fell victim to my drow sleeping poison.     He had paid in blood to get a few drops of this poison from the merchants on their way back from that evil land of drows. All one had to do was to merely expose it in the air for it instantaneously vaporize and take affect in a few hours.     However, the evil of this poison was that it didn't differentiate between a friend and a foe. So to defend against it, you'd either have to possess an extremely strong immunity to poisons, or some kind of a powerful spell to negate the damage inflicted by it. However, an easier way to protect oneself from the poison was to hold one's breath for a few minutes, which was exactly what he had done when he used it on those humans.     Those naive humans...     Detecting no movement from the other tents, he felt proud of his cunning. He had deceived the humans to make them lower their guard against him. His initial plan, however, had been to fight them, or run away if things didn't go well, alas, it seemed Lord Gruumsh's blessings were with him.     He looked up at the sky. The two moons appeared to a have a tint of red as they now hovered a lot more close to each other than they had ever been. Beyond them rose a hue of white that made the sky above look errie.     ''When the mortals rebel, the gods unleash their wrath…" he murmured to himself, silently thinking of a daunting legend.     This phenomenon was a rare occurrence that was only sighted once every three years. The first time it had been witnessed was after that demon and his family had been annihilated by the joint effort of all those nations. Thinking of those rumors caused even him to tremble in fear.     Like hell a being like that would exist!     He shook his head, forcefully dragging himself out of his reverie. Remembering what he was here for, he closed his eyes, trying to sense the location of its mark. It seemed like it was still nearby. According to the imprint he left on it, it was not moving. The animal must be slumbering right now, he figured.   After shooting a second glace at the tents—but not detecting anything out of place—he slowly melted inside the forest. ☯☯☯☯☯☯   Late at midnight, a man emerged out of dense thickets. He trod forward with a heavy gait, as if every step consumed a great deal of his energy. Moonlight shone on the mutilated carcass of an animal, possibly a boar, that rested upon the man's shoulders. In comparison to the man's size, the animal looked humongous. However, the man carried it as if the animal's size did not matter. Drops of blood dripped down the animal's body at every step.     If someone studied the man's walk carefully, they'd notice that there seemed to be no specific pattern and rhythm behind it. The man walked around the campsite in an erratic manner, taking a few turns after every few seconds and leaving behind a trail of red blood. The man would ocassionally mutter something in a harsh and grating language with hard consonants.     Eventually, the man's walk ceased. He dropped the animal onto the ground with a thud and chanted a spell, which caused the corpse to instantly catch fire. Within seconds, the corpse turned into ashes which quickly dispersed into the air.     "The preparations for the ritual have been completed," Dench murmured and released a sigh of relief. "All that's left is the sacrifice..." He licked his lips in anticipation.     He willed it and a blood-coloured sickle appeared in front of him. With a curved chine and sharply pointed toe, the sickle emanated a baleful aura. Every time Dench tried to earnestly look at the weapon, he felt as if a demon was gauging him up with a glint of dark, malevolent eyes. It honestly made him feel uncomfortable.     The weapon so evil that all those who forcefully tried to lay their hands on it went insane, their souls devoured by it in a flash.   Only in his hands could the world witness its true terror. Not to mention, after the ritual had been successfully carried out, the weapon would become even stronger.     Smirking evilly, he went inside the tent where the female human was sleeping in. Due to the inside of the tent being compact, he was forced to incline his head down a little. The adventurer slept soundlessly with a tranquil expression on her face, unaware of the dangers that lingered in the night.     As he lifted her body up in his arms, the woman grunted unconsciously and her eyelids twitched in response. Realizing that she had no more reaction to offer, Dench let out a sigh of relief and slowly made his way out of the tent.     He put her body on down on to the ground. The ritual required him to sacrifice offerings at different intervals, so he thought it was better to commence the ceremony with the female adventurer first. He bit his thumb, causing dark red blood to spill forth, and smeared the woman's face with it. The blood was so dark that one would might even mistake it for black.   He noticed that the air had grown much colder all of a sudden. No night animals disturbed the silence with their cries, an observation that set Dench’s nerves on edge. Griping the sickle in his hand, he brought it closer to the female human's neck, wanting nothing more than to get this over with. With a quick swing of his hand, he had already decided the fate of the human just when his attack stopped halfway through.     —A naked finger was blocking his sickle from granting the female the swift release of death.     He caught the sight of someone standing only one feet away from him. Blue eyes that glittered with an otherworldly presence in the dark, looking at him with a tinge of amusement flickering across them. He backed away a few steps in panic, while feeling frightening at the same time.  He recognized the man; he was one who persuaded his warrior companion not to resort to violence. The only impression he had of this individual was that of a meek man.     How did my poison not affect him? More importantly, how did he block my strike with his puny finger?!     "…who are you?" Dench asked, a hint of grim playing across his face. He reckoned the man to be formidable opponent, so it was better to feel him out first before taking any other sort of action. He was indeed cautious, otherwise those of his tribe would've long since roasted him alive.     "Oh? That's what I should be asking you, don't you think? To keep trailing a four-star adventurer party for more than six hours without them noticing takes some skill and a sinister motive at the same time," Completely undeterred by Dench's menacing glare, the man calmly stated.     How did he know that?!     It was certainly true he had been following them for quite some time to ascertain their strength, but for the man to know exactly how long he been stalking them for and yet, do nothing in response gave birth to a profound sense of unease in Dench's heart.     Seeing him pondering, the man went on, "Not to mention, for you to escape the power of Shihle's spell, while still being in its range indicated you had something to hide. Though, after seeing what you have been up to all this time, it seems like you have been hiding a lot from us, eh?"   Dench now had a gloomy expression on his face, his leisure attitude had long since faded into dust. It was true that his presence went undetected when he stepped into the range of the spell-caster's spell, but the members of Silvar Cavalry, including Shihle herself, had been under the impression that Dench must have been outside the spell's range for him to go completely unnoticed. Yet, this anomaly did not escape Malazan's eyes.   "So what if you know?! All of you are not living past this night! Just surrender willingly and I will leave you with an intact corpse," Dench said in annoyance. Albeit the man came off clever, but this was all he had going for him. Dench naturally considered Malazan to be far weaker than himself, so it really irked him the wrong way when an inferior being tried to put-him down like this. Gathering his wits, he prepared his body for fight. He would just end this with one swing to the man's throat.     "Hahaha, I see. It's good to have some arrogance. Certainly, Cloven wanted to kill you the moment you started following us, but I held him back as I wanted to see what you had in store for us," the man said cheerfully, as if he was talking about something worth celebrating for.     What the heck is he blabbering about?!     Dench furrowed his brow slightly. He did not like how the man showed a complete disregard for him.     "But, your actions so far have declared your intent to kill these people that I took the time to save. Does that strike you as a very nice thing to do?”     Malazan's hair flapped dramatically in the wind. The same gust maintained its force and blew through Dench as well.   The wind blowing over the forest had just happened to come from Malazan’s direction, that was all. Feeling the chilly wind all over his body, Dench cleared away the thoughts that had popped up in his head.   That wind didn’t actually smell like death… It was just my imagination.   "S-so what?"     Although he was feeling a bit overwhelmed, he maintained his taunting attitude with a sneer. As a former chief of an orc tibe, who possessed the strength nearly surpassing that of a rank-five individual, he was not going to be fazed by one guy—no—he couldn’t afford to be.   "But, do you know what angered me the most?" The man took a step forward. It was only one step, but he looked huge now. This presence was unbelievably overwhelming. Dench himself had never been so overawed. Having gone through countless life-or-death situation and taken countless lives, Dench for the first time felt like he was going to be crushed by the pressure exerted by this unknown man, Malazan.   "Who in the world gave you the audacity to threaten me?"     Dench's scalp went numb, his hair standing on end. Cold shivers shot through his body and his hands and legs were trembling. The sensation of a thousand cold needles penetrating every inch of his body spread no sooner than it took him to gather his thoughts, or at least gather enough of them to think a little clearer.     The man stood there, his lustrous black hair glittering with sparkle of red while his piercing blue eyes appeared to be as cold and hard as sapphires. The image of dignity and otherworldliness Malazan currently portrayed formed a contradictory contrast to his usual mild front. For a moment, Dench couldn’t believe his own eyes.   This man—no this godly being—possessed a strength every other being dreamt of, yet he now knew how impossible it was for them to reach this peak. Realizing the significance of this power, he prostrated on the cold hard ground: "O' Forsaken One, please let this lowly being aid you on your bloody path to carnage."     "You have already forfeited your right to do so," the godly being declared in a chilling tone.     A feeling of great disappointment gushed inside him. He had been a fool. How could he dare to plot against a man of this caliber? Dench smiled bitterly, as he realized that he had missed a chance of a lifetime.   "Now, then, I shall bring you to judgement for all the sins you have committed," a cowing voice reached his ears. Soon, a blinding light seared his eyes, forcing him to close them.    

"What a pain in the neck," the words surprisingly came out in a hoarse, dissonant voice. Darkeye wondered what happened to his usual canorous voice. He coughed and cleared his throat. In the distance he could only see a land filled of grass. Crickets chirped in the night, and combined with the noise of nearby playing children to form a clamorous melody.    Though a few roads ran down this village, but they were not paved with any sort of concrete or stone. Seems like the king's treasury isn't enough to cover these lands, Darkeye thought. Be it due to the difficulty of implementing reforms, or the opposition offered by those hoggish nobles, the king must have been hard-pressed to reach these villages, he concluded.     "Haaah..." A sigh escaped his mouth for the thirteenth time. He really didn't like the air of this place; the smell of soil which was overwhelmed by the dung of various cattles that grazed the field.    Having to choose between staying here for a night or continuing their journey, they had decided, or rather had to go along with the latter due to the merchant insistence. Of course, it's not like he did not understand the man's fears. Scores of monsters lurked in the darkness, preying upon the anyone that dared to pass their sight.    Though, unlike the merchant, he and others had no need to fear them. Unless a monster with a difficult of 50 or above assualted them, they would have no issue keeping themselves save. Not to mention, they were also traveling along with them.    "The wise say constantly sighing is a sign of distress," a voice rang out from behind.   Oh, think of the devil…   Out of the corner of his eye, he faintly spotted two men approaching him. A barely discernable smile could be spotted on the face of the man walking at front, he carried a lantern with him, lightning up his path in the gloom of night.    Behind him followed a hooded man. Compared to his partner's warm presence, a certain air of gloom enveloped his body. Darkeye certainly knew what it was—Bloodlust. Having gone through hundreds of life-and-death, Darkeye realized that it was a kind of killing aura that one could only accumulate after treading on the bodies of countless people.   The aura was pretty faint, almost unnoticeable. The man must be trying his best to suppress it, for Darkeye to take so long to recognize. However, if this were true, it would be even more horrifying. Bloodlust ony grew stronger and harder to control as one's kill count increased.   Therefore, the level of precision required to almost suppress it was daunting, to say the least. Darkeye shuddered at such a prospect. What sort of life must the man have had before becoming an adventurer?    "Beats me, maybe it's just the air of this place affecting my mood," Without turning, he replied.    "I cannot say I am surprised," Malazan answered, as he arrived beside him. Glancing at him, Darkeye saw him looking at the sky. Bemused, he asked, "Is there something strange up there?" Although he said so, but all he saw was a clear night sky.   "It's going to rain soon."   "Huh?" He tilted his head confusion.   "Look at those crows," Malazan said while pointing at the sky, "although you might not be able to clearly spot them, but they are flying restlessly in this dark hour."   "So?"   "Think about it, the Karez crows don't fly when the nightfalls. The only thing capable of making them do otherwise is the arrival of rain. They have an innate ability to sense the changes in weather."    As if attesting to Malazan's words, a prickling sensation soon settled down his exposed skin. Looking up, he was a greeted with a murky, overcast sky, a sharp contrast from before. Water droplets fell on his face, a few of them invading his mouth. It tasted sweet, he thought. Rain started lashing down from the grey sky. Darkeye turned to stare at Malazan, amazement visible in his eyes.   "Alright, we should probably get back," Malazan said while shaking his hair, brushing all the excess water off them.   Darkeye nodded. Although he liked rain because it would usually clear all the dust and smell in the air, alas, his steel armour could not afford to bask in its lashing.    They made their way through the night, past the children running and giggling around in the rain, and soon reached an almost run-down building. From outside, the building barely resembled an inn. The sign board which had the words 'Stonehall Inn' written on it was hanging loosely on a few nails that supported its weight.   As soon as Darkeye entered, a foul smell assualted his nose. He saw Malazan raising his eyebrows in response, betraying his displeasure.   While he was adjusting himself to his surroundings, a woman came out of a door to their right. "So here you guys are! Come, the dinner is ready," she motioned for them to follow her. He couldn't quite remember her name, Shihla? Or maybe it was Shuhle instead? He knew little about the woman, except for the fact that she was a spellcaster of astounding abilities.   News regarding other adventurers found it hard to reach the capital, because of the lack of travelling going on between it and the other cities. Some strange events had been occuring throughout the Kingdom, many merchant caravans had disappeared into thin air. No one knew what or who was causing these disappearances, though he suspected it to be the work of monsters.     "Hey, Darkeye, do you not feel like eating?" Seeing him standing there, Malazan turned to look at him.    "Eh-yeah? No, I am coming." Breaking out of his redundant thoughts, he followed them, his stomach rumbling in agreement. All his previous worries had been put aside.   She slowly opened her eyes. It took a few heartbeats for her eyes to adjust themselves to the dark that enveloped the room. She gingerly placed the rough Sanderian blanket aside and cautiously got up, so as to not disturb others in the room. She poured himself a cup of water from the jug placed on the bedside table, and drank from it.    As expected, sleep was not something easy to come by when one called for it. Realizing that trying any further would be a waste of time, Shihle stood up. Taking a stock of the room, she noticed no particular movement. Thank goodness I didn't wake anyone up, she thought.    Hmm, what's this?   Her ears detected a sound coming from outside the inn. Slight thumping sounds could be heard. Compelled by curiosity, she fumbled for her staff. The wooden floor beneath her creaked, as she vigilantly made her out of the inn. She gently pulled the door open and peered out in the darkness.    Shihle flabbergasted to behold the sight in front of her; instead of some kind of monster hiding in the dark, she saw a handful of townsfolk surrounding a bonfire, singing and dancing merrily. Noise of pounding steps echoed through the night, as they sang in a language unknown.    "Can't sleep?" She jerked fiercely in response to the light tap on his shoulder, holding her staff high in the air.    "Woah, easy there! I'd rather not die so young."   "Then, how about not sneaking up on people like this, Malazan?" She addressed the man who wore a mischievous grin on his face, as if he had successfully managed to pull a dirty prank on someone.   "Alright, alright. I am sorry." She pouted in displeasure. Malazan continued, "Anyway, isn't that wonderful?" She followed Malazan's gaze to the dance going on outside. "How so?"    "To be able to dance so joyously to a song so sorrowful" Malazan replied in a soft voice. "Do you know why they are dancing and singing like this?"   She shook her head in confusion.    "There is a tale whispered in this town, about a young girl. Some say the girl was so beautiful that no one could resist being charmed," Malazan glanced at her before continuing, "On a certain day, she was kidnapped by a village ruffian. Her mother, in her absence, used to cry and often wail for days. Her lamenting changed into words and formed into the song that you and I are hearing right now. When the rain does not fall for a long time and drought lasts months, these townfolk will come out of their houses and start singing. It is said the group lamenting is so heart rending that even the sky's eyes become wet and it starts to weep with torrential rain." Malazan's low voice drifted about in the hall, sounding like a gentle whisper.    Shihle was lost in thought, picturing the scene of a mother crying for child in anguish. Although Malazan was still looking outside the door, Shihle noticed there was something different about him—an air of melancholy surrounded him.   That said, it was unknown whether he was lamenting over the fate of the child and her mother, or some memory of past. A gloomy atmosphere permeated in the air. The two lapsed into a deep silence for a long time, until it was breaked by Malazan, "Alright, it's getting late, Shihle. I will be retiring now, so should you. Tomorrow's going to be one hell of a hectic day." She saw him turning around, wishing goodnight with a wave of his hand.   "Just who are you, really?" The back of the retreating figure suddenly seemed very heavy, as if it carried way too many burdens.     Weasel was the third son of a farmer. His father's farm was not large. At least that's what was left of it after being divided through several generations. Being a 'spare', he was not welcomed by his family. An unwanted mouth to feed, his older brother would sneer. As he got older, he started having nightmares. In them he would sometimes see himself getting kicked out of the village, other times he found himself stranding between the rope of death, as his brothers plotted to kill him. He thought the day was not far away when they actually tried getting rid of him. Alas, fate had someone else in store for him.    On a certain day, famine struck his village. To alleviate their suffering, his father sold him to a rich merchant. At that time, he didn't fully understand the looks of pity on his brothers' faces, but later on he came to know of the merchant's strange tastes. The merchant forced Weasel to perform various unusual acts whenever he returned home. His consent, however, was never taken into perspective, for it was something he wasn't permitted to have.    One day, unable to bear any longer, he fled, but not before thwacking a knife up that lecherous merchant's ass. Through a series of events, he got introduced to a ragtag group of mercenaries. If he were to be less polite, then they ought to be called a gang of bandits, stealing and murdering for money. The gang—being short on men—took him in. He also stayed with them, in hopes he could one day exact his revenge on his family.   —But.   "Damn the mother who whelped me, why did I agree?" Weasel tried hard to think of a reason behind his presence here. Other than his abilities as an errand boy, he had no other to name. Most certainly, he knew next to nothing about fighting. Why did all the bad luck had to come his way?   "Sshh, be quite!" A smack to his head silence him. Turning to his right, he saw Crook's large body crouching beside him.   This bastard…!   He didn't like the man. Or to be more exact, he hated Croom to the marrow of his bones. The man had knack for bullying those weaker than him. And being far weaker in comparison to Crook, he was forced to bear the brunt of his torturous behavior.   Humph, there will surely come a day when I will force you down on your knees and have you begging for mercy.   Dreaming of such a future pleased him. But, his presence here made him unsure whether he'd live to see it. Passing his hands through the large bush impeding his vision, he peered out through the opening. Except for the swaying grass and a desolate road, he spotted nothing. He was beginning to think that they'd made a mistake regarding the target's route when he saw Croom suddenly lay his head down onto the ground and press his ear against it. Out of curiosity he did the same. Soon, he could hear it. The sounds of hooves clopping against the ground, getting louder and closer by each passing second. Weasel and Crook exchanged a glance, and the former spotted malice in the latter's eyes.    Weasel noticed the burly man signal the archers—who sat upon the trees' branches— with a specific hand movement. Seeing it, the archers readied their bows. Everything was prepared. Although the odds didn't really favor them, his boss was full of confidence. Yet, Weasel didn't understand where that certainty came from. Not to mention, something had been bugging him since the moment they decided to carry out their mission. There was something in the air today, he decided; a tension, a feeling that something was not right. I hope everything goes well…

Horrified, the boy ran. He ran and ran until his stomach started to ache and he struggled to breathe for air.   The scent of blood and urine thickened in the evening chill. The sky above appeared as though it had absorbed all the blood shed in the battle that took place here and painted itself in it.   It was sickening. Yet, it seemed to comfort him in some sort of way.   Various questions plagued the boy's mind — Question to which he did not have answers of.   After looking around, terror welled up inside him. All he saw was red. Rivers of red blood enveloped the battlefield.   Covered in their own entrails, soaked in blood of their comrades, deads bodies were bestrewed on the ground.    These soldiers—who might have lived a good life if they didn't participate in this battle— now had expressions of horror and disbelief on their faces, which served as the testimony to the hellish experience they must had gone through.   Weapons were everywhere — sticking out of bodies as if they were pin cushions, some still within the grasp of dead hands.   The bodies lying here were enough to create mountain out of them. It was as if Death himself had strolled through the battlefield, and no one had even tried to stop him. Everywhere, the boy saw Spellcasters, Paladins, Knights, Warriors, Clerics, dead.   The sight of a dozen or two vultures feasting upon the flesh of these dead soldiers almost caused him to throw up.   The boy found himself running towards a hill with all his might. At a distance of just 110 yards, it did not take him long to reach the top of the hill.   Looking at a man in front of him, the boy stood there, motionless.   The man in question was genuflecting with his arms swaying loosely to sideways, as if they had lost every sense of movement.   One might even mistake him to be offering a prayer if it weren't for the ghastly condition he was in. Four weapons were stabbed into him. Two swords: First one thrusted deeply into his right shoulder, severing his scapula. Second one in his heart, rupturing all the arteries.   One arrow tearing right through his lungs. And a spear jutting out across his back, severely damaging the spinal cord.   Blood trickled down from his neck. His hands were burnt off, which was possible caused by a Fireball spell. But despite that fact, he was still holding tightly onto a golden sword, as if he wanted to convey that it was his last vestige.   Several bodies were littered around his body. Different from the ones he encountered before, they were in a much more unrecognizable state. Some head their heads cut off while a few had their whole body mashed into the very picture of cruelty.   The boy moved close until he was just one foot away from the man's body. Trembling, his hands reached out to the man's shoulders, shaking them a little.   "…Big brother?" The boy's voice was low, to the point where it almost sounded like a whisper. Silence. It was all he got in return.   The boy jerked the man's shoulders once again, but with a lot more force this time. Responding to this forceful movement, the man's body fell to the ground.   "Brother?! Brother!? BROTHER!" Malazan woke up and found himself gasping for air.   Looking around, he saw he was still in his room. He touched his face and found it soggy with sweat. How shameful. To think those dreams still haunt someone like me.   Malazan poured a glass of water for himself, and drank from it.   "What happened?" A coolly voice resounded in the room.   He turned to face Cloven, who stood there in the corner with his usual straight face.   "Mind telling me when you got here?" "Just now. I thought I heard you shouting."   "You thought wrong. Anyway, how goes the mission I gave you?" Malazan asked as he slowly got out of his bed.   "It's done. Their memories of yesterday have been erased."   "That's good to hear. We can't have them spreading rumors about our strength. We must keep our powers hidden. Uncertainty can sometimes be a powerful element of surprise. By the way, which spell did you use?" " 「Memory Tempering 」"   "A fifth tier spell, huh?"   Memory Tempering, as its name applied, was a fifth tier spell which was used to temper with a person's memory. Although it wasn't able to temper an individual's memories to a large extent, it worked quite well if one just wanted to play with memories of four-stars and below ranking adventurers.   One downside to it was that it didn't work on rank-five and above individuals. But there are many other higher-tier spells who can counter it's downside.   "Even if we know there is no one stronger than us out there?" Cloven asked.   "No, my apprentice. There is, or rather are some who are stronger than us. You shouldn't forget to take 'their' existence into account. Besides, one must always assume there is someone stronger than him out there. Can't have your master here lying in a coffin just because he got arrogant." Malazan shrugged and started adjusting his clothes.   Malazan's countless experiences had forged him into an extremely cautious individual, so one couldn't fault him for being so paranoid.   "But those beings you speak of are not even mortals." Cloven said, bemused. "But that doesn't mean they won't interfere with the mortal world. When we make our move, they will definitely join the fray. That said, it's still too early to think about these matters. Come, let us go collect our reward"   Cloven nodded and followed Malazan out of the room. After entering the building, Malazan saw the counter where three ladies received adventurers with smiles.   There were warriors in full body armor, agile looking people with a bow and dressed in light armor, people in priestly attire accessorized with religious symbols... and spellcaters with long robes and staffs.   There was a large door to the left and a bulletin board to the right. He didn’t see them yesterday, but there were several parchments pasted on it and groups of adventurers were talking in front of them.   Many looked at the one-star tattoo on Malazan's neck and he could feel them gawking at his entire body, similar to the atmosphere at the tavern the day before yesterday.   Malazan observed these adventurers from the corner of his eyes. The tattoos on their necks were of two-star and and three-star, there were no one-star tattoos. Yet, without even feeling out of place, Malazan and Cloven calmly walked up to the counter.   A group of adventurer just departed, leaving one of the female receptionists free. After reaching her he asked:   "Sorry to interrupt you while you are busy, milady. We have completed our job and would be grateful if you could hand over our reward."   "O-of course, Sir. Please show the evidence to the other counter over there." The receptionist blushed as she pointed towards a counter to the right.   Malazan glanced to where she was pointing and saw a big line of adventurers standing in front of the counter. It seemed that their number won't be coming any time soon.   Ugh, I don't have time for this.   "Excuse me, but I and my comrade here are running short on time. Could please you do me a favor and check the evidence yourself?" He leaned closer, their faces drawing near, and grabbed her hands gently.   The receptionist shrieked and blushed even further. "S-sir, but I am do not have the authority to-"   "Please." Malazan tightened his grip and his dashing blue eyes directly made contact with hers. "I-i will do it! Please sperate your hand!" The receptionist's face was now as red as tomato. Her face was now held low and she couldn't even find the courage to look into his eyes.   Perfect.   "I thank you, milady. Please let me know if you ever need my help." Malazan winked, delivery the last blow which destroyed all her defenses.   "U-um, okay. Please hand over the evidence to me."   "Of course." Malazan reached out to a sack attached to his waist and placed it on the counter.   "Six goblins, right?" The receptionist said as she inspected the goblin ears.   "Indeed, my good lady." He gave her one of his gentle smiles.   "Here is your reward: Twenty coppers." She put the coins in front of them, which Malazan unceremoniously accepted.   "Once again, I'd like to offer you my gratitude. I will definitely repay you when I come back next time."   "Y-you d-don't have to do that, Sir."   "A gentleman never lets a favor go unreturned. Surely, you wouldn't want me to go against my principles?"   "Cheh… a gentleman my ass!"    "Shut up, Cloven!"    "Of course not! You misunderstood me!" The receptionist panicked. It could be seen that she didn't know how to handle this situation.   "Hahaha…alright then. I shall assume you now have no more protests." Malazan laughed as he made his way out of the Guild, followed by Cloven from behind. “That man is so cool!” “Totally!” "Hey, Lettrie! You are so lucky! He even flirted with you!" "H-he did not!! "Don't lie! We saw him holding your hands with our own eyes!" As Malazan left the Adventurer Guild, the other two receptionists gathered around the receptionist named Lettrie, and bombarded her with various questions.   "Lettrie, what did he say?" "Did he ask you out for lunch?" "What are you going to say the next you meet him?"   They acted more like girls who had met the prince they pined for rather than women of poise and intelligence. A few of the adventurers in the line had jealous frowns on their faces, but they didn’t say anything because they themselves could see how elegant and handsome Malazan was.   "No, no, and no! He didn't say anything of that sort!" "You are lying again! Anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the third son of a noble!"   Nobles who don't inherit the household usually become butlers. Some even receive a part of land if their household is wealthy enough to support it.   But, that option is only available for the second sons of nobility. Third sons are worse off. Most of them are only offered a paltry sum of money, which is barely enough to open up a small shop.   Yet, there are a few of them who choose a different route: They become adventurers. Noble heirs, irrespective of their status, are required to go through knight training.   They are also taught some basic Knight Arts. Like how a spellcaster casts spells, knights make use of Arts to enhance their strength. So usually, the third son of a noble commands strength which makes him eligible to become an adventure, even if he may fit into only one-star category.   The aura of elegance that Malazan emitted, and his formal way of speaking, was what caused these receptionists to think he had the blood of a noble pumping through his veins.   "Lettrie, you must let me handle his requests when he come backs, okay?"   "W-why should I do that?!"   "What are you panicking for? Didn't you say there was nothing going on between the two of you? Don't tell me you lied to us?"   "…I-it's not like that…" Lettrie didn't know what was going on with her. Her mind was in flutters, and she couldn't make sense of this emotion she was experiencing. It made her heart race. It felt as if her whole world has suddenly been filled with various colors.   Don't tell me I have been smitten? Who is that man?    Although she didn't want to admit it, she was really looking to meeting Malazan.  

The red light of the setting sun gleamed through the openings made by large trees that obscured the view from above and below alike. A gentle gust of wind made the trees rustle, blowing leaves in the air like feathers. The humid tang of the wet soil permeated the air, bearing witness to the previous night's rain.   It had been a few hours since they’d left the dead treant behind, and the terrain had gone from a grandland to a land accupied by boscage.   It will still take a while to rendezvous with others, Malazan thought. Behind him followed the members of Silvar Cavalry, a four-stars adventurer party. They trudged wearily on the moist ground while warily eyeing their surroundings.   It seemed like their constant battles had taken quite a toll on them. They had just concluded their fight with the demihumans when one of their party member unknowingly provoked a treant.   Considering their worn-out condition, that could really have been a hard-fought battle for them had he not ordered Cloven to intervene. It was not that he had felt empathetic to their plight, but he would have found it troublesome to explain their deaths to others.   Though it seemed Zaron had realized something was amiss. But my slip of tongue could also not be ignored, of course.   He pointed his finger sneakily at Cloven and cast a third-tier alteration spell, 'Message'. When this spell was cast, the spell-caster could whisper messages and receive replies with little chance of being overheard. "Could you not have held yourself back a wee bit?" He asked.   "Why do you mean? Didn't you tell me to eliminate it?" Cloven replied, his tone sounding perplexed.   "Indeed. But there was no need to be so flashy. You could have dragged it on for a little longer."   "Ooh." Sensing Cloven's wholly unconcerned attitude, Malazan sighed. His plan to maintain a low-key image had been virtually destroyed by the former's lack of common sense.   Killing a rank-four individual (because he used a 'little too much' force in his strike), causing a Umber Hulk to piss itself by unleashing a bit of his bloodlust and eliminating a group of demihuman because they blocked his way were just a few of the shenanigans committed by the man in two months.   It was no wonder Malazan had to use mind control magic on the Guildmaster to stop him from promoting them to five-star adventurers. Yet, it seemed the man in question himself remained ignorant to his deviltry.   Suddenly, Malazan realised something, his walk coming to an abrupt halt. Everyone behind him tensed up, their hands reaching for their weapons.   "Is everything alright, Malazan?" Zaron asked with a frown on his face.   "Oh, it's nothing. What do you guys say about camping here? Night will soon be upon us, so it's better to choose a place for making a camp," he turned back and smiled.   "Alright, I was also thinking the same," Zaron answered in affirmative. Malazan saw that the group had successfully set up a camp that had a diameter of fifteen metres, a rather large area.   Cloven held wooden stakes, which had been handed to him, and struck them into the area around the camp.   He hammered the stakes into the ground at four different spots and tied thin, black ropes onto them, forming a square. He then tied a knot on the center of the ropes, pulled it to the front of the tents and attached a large bell.   An early warning net, is it?   Seeing Cloven work like this, Malazan felt a tad bit proud. It was an emotion similar to when a parent realized that their child had matured, and was learning to cooperate with others.   "Here is the firewood you asked for." Malazan tossed a bundle of wooden sticks on to the ground.   "Thank your for your hard work."   "Don't mention it."   Globrom didn’t look at Malazan when he greeted him. It was a bit rude, but Globrom wasn’t idling, he was digging a hole for the stove.   The third-rank Spell Caster —Shihle was walking around the area, chanting a spell. It was the warning spell, ‘Alarm’, which would alert everyone whenever anything approached. It couldn’t cover a large area, but it was enough as a precaution.   "You sure are impressive, Shihle. I heard from Zaron that you risked your life by buying enough time for him to launch his attack." Malazan pretended to be awed as he arrived beside her.   "He really said that?" She simpered, looking pleased with herself. No woman disliked getting complimented, more so if the compliment was coming from a hunky man like Malazan.   "Indeed. He also said that Globrom wouldn't be alive without your help," he pressed on, seeing that his praises were getting to her.   "Well, I couldn't have done it without boss and everyone's help," Shihle giggled, trying to hide her smugness behind a fake modest smile.   So she is weak to compliments, huh. Let's see how far I can take this.   “Hey, sorry for butting into your conversation, but the food is ready. Can you help me to gather the other two?” Globrom interrupted from afar.   “Miss Shihle, let me do that.”   "Oh…okay," Shihle replied with a disappointed expression. It seemed she really hoped to continue their conversation.   Malazan walked towards the two men working silently near a tent. Zaron and Blen were focused on maintaining the weapons they used, applying oil to prevent rust, checking it’s alignment and other things. Zaron's armor had fresh dents and his sword had cracks after clashing with the treant.   There was a need to repair these as fast as possible. Without feeling hesitant about breaking their concentration, Malazan said: "Dinner is ready, you two."   "Alright, we will be right there." The two  men replied in unison.   "Be sure to not be late."   Fire crackled and spat sparks of orange as all of them gathered around it. The group dined with blood red sunlight as background.   Everyone's bowl was filled seasoned rabbit meat, dried figs and walnuts. This was the dinner tonight. Malazan stared at the bowl in his hand. He couldn't feel the warmth while wearing his gauntlets, but seeing everyone, including Cloven, digging in without waiting for it to cool, the temperature should be just right. Well, now, let's see how long you can continue hiding.  Unknowingly, his had mouth curved into a wolfish smirk. "Oh, is there something you don't dare to eat?" Globrom asked while looking at Malazan, who wasn't eating. "Ah, I was just offering a prayer," he quickly made up an excuse. "Oyah, so you are a religious person, Mister Malazan? Which god do you believe in?" Blen who had been eating quietly a second ago asked with interest. He was a cleric, after all, so his curiosity was not unfound.   "Well, I won't exactly call myself a man of religion. To pray, one does not necessarily has to have faith in any of the thirteen gods. This way, if there ever comes a day when they don't answer your plea, you won't feel lost." He said in a frosty voice.   Just like how they didn't answer mine on that day.   Sensing the gloomy atmosphere around him, everyone momentarily kept silent. They figured there must be story behind Malazan's response, one which they didn't dare ask.   Ugh…I guess I once again let my emotions get the better of me.   Perceiving the awkward silence, he felt furious at himself. He had thought after all these years, he was able to control his emotions to a certain extent, alas it didn't seem that way.   To change the heavy atmosphere, Malazan said: “Anyway, you guys were amazing today.” Waiting for these words, Blen followed up: "Hahaha, but the real hero was Cloven. I feel like we are all amateurs compared to him."   "C'mon now, it's me who should get the most credit. Do you know how much courage it takes to resist the urge to scream when a monster like that tries to sever your arms?" "Yeah, right. It also takes a lot of courage to close your eyes when said monster tries to sever your arms," Shihle criticized.   Heartily laughter soon followed Shihle's vicious remark.   "Not like you would have reacted any different!"   "At least I wouldn't try to boast shamelessly later on!"   The duo bickered back and forth, none of them willing to admit defeat. However, this light-hearted atmosphere was suddenly ended by the ruslting sound made by the quivering of bushes. Everyone's ears perked up in alarm. So you finally can't control yourself? "Who's goes there?" Zaron shouted as he grabbed his sword. The movement of the bushes stopped, as if whatver entity was behind it got frightening. Zaron darted a glance at Malazan before standing up and making his way to the bushes at a gingerly pace. He gripped the hilt of his sword firmly in his hand and then horizontally sliced the tall bushes into half. Soon, a yelp was heard. The light of the crackling fire shimmered on the pale green skin of a bulky body whose jutting jaws and prominent teeth glowed yellow in the weak light of the setting sun. Standing six feet tall, coarse hair covered the whole of his body. Brown disheveled hair hid a deep scar on his pig-like face and also concealed his dark brown eyes. The entity was an half-orc. Seeing the identity of the interloper, a glint of astonishmeant appeared in Zaron's eyes before hostility instantly replaced it. He was about to rush at the half-orc with his sword when the latter shouted: "W-wait! I, Dench, mean no harm!" Wearing an expression of panic, the half-orc Dench raised his hands up in the air, emphasizing that he was harmless.   Yet, this demonstration of surrender wasn't enough to hold back Zaron from leaping forward at the half-orc, his sword aiming for the demihuman's throat. The latter let out a cry of panic, ducking beneath Zaron's arm. Though, Zaron's sword still managed to mark a line of crimson on the bulky demihuman's back. The pain caused him to fall back on his butt, gasping for air. "Hey--listen to me first, will ya? I said I bear no hostility! Are all you humans this barbaric?!" Stunned and disoriented, the demihuman scrambled to regain his feet. "Your kind does not deserve my mercy, regardless of the fact that you have a bit of human blood running through your veins," Zaron coldly said, preparing for another bout of attack. "There's no harm listening to what he has to say, Zaron, no?" Malazan walked over, his voicing containing traces of amusement. "Yeah! This good-looking human brother here is correct! Hear me out first, why don't ya?!" Dench hurriedly nodded.   Deciding to follow Malazan's suggestion, Zaron put his sword back in its sheath.   "Now, then, it's about time you started speaking," Malazan said.   Suddenly, a growl sounded out in the air. Although not easily discernable, it seemed that Dench's green face promptly turned red.   "H-how about letting me eat something first?" An embarrassed voice was heard. "….so you fled all the way from the northern frontier?"   "Yeah, those guys didn't leave me with a choice, I tell ya! Every day I had to become the target of their disdain and repulsion just because I wasn't strong enough," the half-orc said as gulped down his bowl of rabbit meat. The members of Silvar Cavalry looked at each other, pondering over the story told by Dench. According to the demihuman, he hailed from a far off orc tribe in the northern frontier, which separated the Kingdom of Cierth from the Linburn Plains. An half-orc was a being given birth through a rare union between an orc and human. They were typically born in wild frontiers where human and orc tribes came into contact, so there was no suspicion regarding his background. But what raised their eyebrows was his reason for being here. Half-orcs, not being of pure lineage, were not easily welcomed by their orc brethren. Orcs value strength above all, so one has to demonstrate their strength to gain their acceptance. Half-orcs could be separated into two types: some half-orcs rise to become proud chiefs of orc tribes, their human blood giving them an edge over their full-blooded orc rivals while others, unable to fully utilize their potential, are labeled as outcast. And according to Dench, he fell into the second category. Hence, to escape from his tribe's torture, he fled all the way here. "Then, why were you hiding from us?" Globrom asked. "Uh-h, I didn't know how to approach ya guys. However, I couldn't control myself when I smelled the aroma of food. Only Lord Gruumsh knows how long I had been walking aimlessly with only hunger as my companion!" He licked his fingers as if they were the most delicious things in the world.   "So, how should we deal with him?" Zaron ignored the demihuman, and asked everyone via 'Message'.   "Maybe we should just leave him here?"   "How about killing him? I mean, who knows what he would do if we leave him behind, so it's better to prevent a future threat."   "Although I am also of the same opinion, but I don't like killing those who have no intent to fight," Zaron slowly said.   "What do you guys think?" Everyone directed their gaze toward Malazan and Cloven, waiting to hear their opinion. Cloven kept quiet with a disinterested face, leaving Malazan to decide for both of them.   "Well, how about letting him travel with us? We can decide what to do with him when we reach the city," Malazan said with an inscrutable expression on his face.   Zaron steadily eyed Malazan, trying to discern his thoughts, to no avail. Disappointed, he continued: "Alright, we shall go with your suggestion, then." Late at night, unknown to others, a figure silently leapt out from a tent.   "Let's see what you are up to." Another figure followed behind in the darkness, his thoughts only known to himself.

Somewhere in a forest —Kingdom of Ceirth,Late Summer, Heu'gh,1402 Year Cycle   "Everyone, save me!" Zaron saw two giant branches of a tree clutching Globrom in a deadly embrace. His legs were entangled between several small branches. Suddenly, the tree started moving. Wait? Don't tell me? The tree's lower trunk divided into what seemed like two legs. The tree pulled it's 'legs' free from the clutching earth. The ends of the two giant branches, which clenched Globrom, tranformed into two wooden hands. A face-like feature manifested itself in the tree's bark. A treant?! How the hell did this guy managed to provoke this monster?! It's eyes leered at the surrounding adventurers with an otherworldly menace. A grating voice boomed in the air: "Human, who dared to poison my domain with such filth…DIE!" This is bad. Just what did this guy do? "Shihle, keep it distracted so I can close in the distance!" Their spellcaster responded to the order with quick fireball spells, hurling them towards the treant in succession. The treant growled and backed away a few steps in agitation due to the flames, it's grip on Globrom loosened for a moment, which Globrom took full advantage of by thrusting a dagger in one of it's eyes before retreating several steps. "Ughhh!! You humans shall pay for this insolence!" It hurtled at the spellcaster in furious rage, changing it's target. Although she tried to make a run for it, but her feet were suddenly bounded by several vines that emerged from the ground beneath her, and wrapped themselves around her feet. He saw her casting her strongest third-tier spell in panic: 「Snake Lightning」 White lightning appeared writhing like a living thing from her hand to her shoulder. A beat later it leaped off the end of her finger pointed at the treant. True to the spell's name, the lightening slithered towards the treant like a snake. Yet, as it hit the treant, the radiance dimmed and die out after awhile whilst the treant continued dashing towards her—unharmed. "Aah!!" She screamed, imagining her imminent fate. "Get down right now!!" Following his command instinctively, she got down. He immediately lept in the air from behind her, his sword glimmering with a silvery glow as he jammed it into the treant's second eye. "Haaaaaaaahhh!" Having been robbed of it's sight, the treant screamed in great pain. It worked—wait, why can't I take my sword out? His sword was firmly stuck in the treant's eye and won't even budge. The treant, unable to bear the great pain, sent him flying with a punch, and then forcefully took out the sword with it's left hand. He landed hard nearly a dozen yards away in a shower of dirt and grass, but the blow had very likely saved his life. After standing up with great difficultly, he pressed his hands against stomach and coughed. He could feel the taste of blood in his mouth. "Boss, are you alright?" A large burly hurried towards him, his voice filled with a tinge of concern. "Y-yeah...though I think I must have truly enraged that monster," he said with another cough trailing off at the end. The treant was going wild with anger as it frantically punched everything in it's range. "It can't be helped. Just stay still for a moment, boss. 「Heal Wounds」" The cleric casted his spell after placing his hands on Zaron's back Zaron felt a sudden burst of warmth inside his body, alleviating his pain and causing his cuts to close themselves up. The burly cleric finally lifted his hands off Zaron after sensing that the latter was fine. "Thanks, Blen. You once again saved my life." "No problem, boss. That's my job. The Almighty Gurushu will surely condemn me if I don't even save the lives of my comrades," Blen replied with a good-natured smile. "Yeah, I must offer my thanks to your god as-" "Globrom, watch out!!" He heard Shihle scream. Turning around, he watched the treant yanking both of Globrom's arms apart, seemingly wanting to sever them. Oh, no!! I won't be able to make it in time! Realizing the intentions of the monster, an expression of dread crept over Globrom's face. He tried struggling free, but to no avail. Resigning to his fate, he closed his eyes, so did everyone else. They did not want to watch the gruesome death of their comrade. —It was then. "Gwaaaaahhhh!!" —that an inhumane wail thundered across the forest. After opening their eyes, they were greeted by the sight of the treant trembling in horror as it looked at its arms that laid on the ground just a few steps away. Globrom was leaning against a nearby tree in one piece, though his shoulders heaved as he panted profusely. Zaron then caught the sight of a hodded man who held two dark daggers in both his hand. His crimson eyes leaked an uncontrollable bloodlust that sent a shiver down his spine. A scar ran down slightly below his right eye, making him look even more intimidating. Cloven? He must have heard the sound of our fighting. He focused on the treant's body. Vines emerged out of it's stumps, and interwined together to form barks that once again took form of it's arms, putting him under the illusion that they hadn't been severed in the first place. What? It can regenerate itself?! Does this monster have a difficulty of 50?! He now concluded that this was the type of monster even a four-star adventurer team like theirs couldn't take on without suffering any casualties. But even after seeing this, Cloven remained indifferent with his usual stoic expression on his face. Readying his stance, he sprinted forward with an otherworldly speed at the treant. Having it's arms restored, the treant attacked with it's fist at the incoming Cloven. Yet, a heartbeat before the fist could come into contact with Cloven's body, he lept high into the air; he twisted his body sideways midair, his left hand grabbing hold of one of the treant's arm for a second to drive the propulsion behind his right hand as he used it to plunge his dark dagger at just below the treant's bark. It was a spectacular attack. He noticed that no movement was wasted. Unfornately, that won't be enough to kill it. —Yet "Y-YOU…" The treant spoke with a voice laced with murder. Moments later, it dropped to the ground, unmoving. —he was proven wrong. It was a fatal blow. "How? How could it die like this? Why didn't it regenerate like before?!" He heard Shihle scream, her voice conveying bewilderment. He, too, stared at Cloven for answers. "It's heart crystal. I destroyed it's heart crystal," a hoarse voice echoed. Upon a second glance at the corpse of the treant, he certainly noticed see a broken green crystal at the place where Cloven's dagger had struck. His mouth was now wide open, which showed a complete disregard for his own image. But, he didn't care. No, it was because he was too shocked to care. He wasn't shocked at how Cloven knew the monster won't regenerate if he destroyed it's heart crystal, but as to how this man in front of him was able make such a precise strike, placing it exactly where the attack will hurt the target most. "Amazing...it feels like the rumors weren't false, after all," Blen, the cleric, leaked out a voice of admiration. Recalling the rumors, he thought that they didn't sound absurd anymore. Hunting down the famous rank-four killer the Red Eye, subduing a fully-matured Umber hulk, saving the lives of the townfolk from a group of bloodthirsty demihumans were just a few of the achievements performed by them since their arrival. This man and his other teammate had created a sort of legend in Bellmare due to their fast rise in adventurer hierarchy. In just two months, they had risen from one-star adventures to four-star ones. This overturned the knowledge they had accumulated over the years about how an adventurer should go through the ranks. In addition, the most shocking thing was that their team only comprised of two men—a rogue and a warrior. This unbalanced party was even suspected to possess the strength of five-star adventurers. If true, then they would be the first five-star adventurer party in the whole of Kingdom. "Woah, Zaron, that carelessness would be the undoing of you and your team. Had we taken our time coming here, I am afraid I would only get to see dead bodies. I don't even know how I would explain this to our client and your wife," a man made his way through dense thickets with a grin on his face. He was handsome with an oblong face, straight nose, piercing blue eyes and a sharp jawline. "Yeah, I know, Malazan. I don't know how I could make such a newbie mistake," he held his head low in shame. A four-star veteran like him knew better than to get distracted during a fight. "It's alright. Anyway, mind telling how you managed to provoke this guy right here?" Malazan said while pointing his index finger towards the dead treant. "Trust me, I don't know any better. But I am sure there's someone who does." Everyone turned to look at Globrom who was scratching his head in embarrassment. Treant were known for their peaceful nature. They preferred to while away their days, months, and years in quiet contemplation, but they reacted quite fiercely when someone or something threatened their woodland demesnes. Their comrade Globrom must have done something unforgivable to its land, otherwise it would not retaliated the way it did. "Don't look at me like that! I just came here to pee. The next I knew, it was hell-bent on killing me." "Blessed Mother, you have some gall to answer the call of nature in front of a treant! How courageous of you," Malazan laughed. "No wonder it was so angry. Even I would have wanted to kill you if I were in it's place," Shihle kicked Globrom's leg in anger. "Ouch, that hurts! How would have I know this place was it's territory?!" "You almost got all of us killed because of your failure to survey your surroundings, Globrom. Make sure this never happens again," Zaron directed an admonishing glare at the man before bowing towards Cloven: "I must thank you for saving the life of my party's member."  He was indeed very grateful for Cloven's aid. If the latter did not step in the moment he did, Globrom and probably his other party members might not have gotten the chance to see the light of day again. Following his lead, others of his party also bowed. Cloven coughed in response, acknowledging their bow. Seeing this, everyone smiled wryly to themselves. After interacting with him for a few days, they had come to know that Cloven was a man of few words.  "Alright. Mister Sablester would get worried if we don't return, so let us not dawdle any longer." "Yeah. Cut of the ears of those demihumans. Make it quick, so that we can meet up with others sooner," he commanded everyone before setting his sight on Malazan.   "Is there something on my face?" Malazan inquired with a smile after noticing Zaron's stare.   "No, it's nothing," he replied and turned his head around, his mind lost in contemplation. How did he know that I got distracted during the fight? El-Paparazzi It was a short chapter because I figured it was better to end it here.

  They shouldn't have accepted this mission in the first place. Surely, they could have saved themselves from this tragedy, Alina thought.   Alina didn't want to die, and she knew that her other party members wanted the same.   For once, she regretted going on a mission.   The previous day, the Guild had issued a request. To sum it up, it said that a two-star or above adventurer party was required to exterminate three ogres in the plains.   According to their sources, they'd witnessed the migration of a wandering ogre tribe and, for reasons unbeknownst to them, seen three orgres separating from the tribe and choosing to stay behind.   The request stated that the adventurer party who accepted the quest had to eliminate these monsters before they could wreck havok in villages nearby.   The reward was good and for a two-star party like theirs, taking care of three wandering ogres was not an impossible task. Even if they were some minor errors in the report, they could somehow cope with unwanted situations, at least that's what they had thought before.   Yet now, here she was, regretting her stupidity. If only she could turn back time, if only she could tell her comrades how ignorant they were.   Coming here unaware of the danger, they had started searching for the ogres — Not that finding monsters of their size was any difficult. After a quick scout round the plains, their rogue, Giraud, had returned with information of sighting two ogres just a hundred yards away. Apparently, one less than expected.   Knowing this, they had further lowered their guard. A folly they are now dearly paying for.   Arriving at the place, they had been welcomed by misfortune. Seven ogres had encircled them. Three and four from the front and rear respectively.   Seeing that, Giraud had jumped in panic. "I swear there were only two when I came here!" He had gesticulated wildly in order to defend himself.   Having had worked alongside him for the last two years, they knew he hadn't been lying. Besides, there was nothing for him to gain by betraying them.   Not to mention, they had known it would do them no good if they didn't focus on the matter at hand.   The rules of Adventurers Guild stated that if the level of difficulty of the mission was higher than the initial assessment, the adventure party should avoid any sort of confrontation and immediately head back and inform the guild.   Adhering to the rules, they'd tried to run, but to no avail. Although ogres were monster with low intelligence, they still held an overwhelming edge over human in terms of physical abilitie   "Ugh…Alina…hurry up, heal Giraud." She heard one of her teammates shout, causing her senses to return to her.   Taking the stock of her surroundings, she was overwhelmed with desperation and fear.   Having tried lunging past the encirclement, Giraud was now lying on the ground, his arm bleeding profusely.   Her rest of the teammates — Reeve and Sanse were engaged in a fierce battle with the ogres. Though as far as she saw it, they wouldn't be able to hold out for much longer.   I must do something, Alina thought. She was a cleric, so it was up to her to heal her teammates' injuries.   Stiffing her upper lips, she gathered all the courage she could muster and strode towards Giraud. She needed to be in close range to cast a healing spell.    Alina was just a rank-one cleric, so she knew she wasn't capable of casting her spell from a long distance.   O' Almight Gurushu, please listen to the plea of your devoted worshipper and grant her your protection, she prayed to her god.   Unfortunately, it seemed like even her god had abandoned her, as an ogre immediately hurtled towards her.   Seeing it bolting towards her with such velocity caused her to stumble and trip over a rock.   She felt as if someone had striked her head with a hammer as she hit the ground. The concussion was so strong that she nearly passed out.   She tried to move but failed. Her knees were bruised and her whole body felt numb.   Her ears could sense the ground underneath her vibrating.   Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.    The ogres and her death were getting nearer by each passing second.   "AlINA!" Shouts echoed in the distance. Shouts to which she was unable to respond.   Soon, she felt it, for the first time in her life. The fear of death.   "No, no, no, no!" Tears crawled down her cheeks.   She wanted to live. She wanted to go home. Otherwise, what will happen to her little brother waiting for her at home?   What fate will be in store for that poor child?   She dreaded the mere thought of it.   Looking up, she saw an ogre standing before her, brandishing a club. The club swung, sparkling in the sunlight as if to say that taking her life in a single stroke would be an act of mercy.   Alina shut her eyes. She didn’t want to be biting her lower lip. She just had no choice but to accept what was about to happen.   If she had even a little power, she probably would have been able to shove the figure away and escape… But she was powerless. And so there was only one ending. She would die. Her comrades would die. Her little brother would probably starve to death. The club came down— …The pain still hadn’t come. She unscrunched her eyes. The first thing she saw was the club, stopped mid-swing.   The next was the figure holding the club. The ogre was practically frozen. His eyes seemed to have lost focus.   A golden sword was jutting out from the area where his heart must have been located, blood dripping down from it. And then—   Like a puppet with its strings cut.   —He fell down.   "By the bells of Altertis, you guys look like a mess! Cloven, take down the three ogres to the right. I will take care of the rest." A calm voice—that sounded out of place—was heard.   Alina struggled to look sideways and caught the sight of two other adventurers forty yards away. She felt a momentary rush of euphoria, which ended shortly afterwards when she saw the one-star tattoo on the two individuals' necks.   Her heart sank. Maybe she was really destined to die here. Wait, no! One of them killed this ogre from such a long distance away just by throwing his sword. Maybe they can really save us.   Alina pinned all her hopes on the fantasy that they were not ordinary adventurers. Though soon she would realize that she had grossly underestimated these two.   Aline focused her eyes on the raven-haired adventurer. There was something peculiar about him that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Something told her that he was a lot more dangerous in comparison to the ogres.   As soon as she laid her eyes on him, the man looked directly at her. Alina was quite some distance away from them. More importantly, she was lying down the ground, and it wouldn’t be easy to spot her, considering the shape she was in.   It could have been a coincidence that he looked at her, but something told her that wasn't the case.   The raven-haired man came walking at a brisk pace. It was at an incredible speed. Whenever she blinked, he had closed an incredible distance as if he was teleporting.   Even though he was just walking normally, he moved at a speed that the brain refused to register. Soon, he was standing near the dead ogre. He bent down a little and grabbed the golden sword out of the ogre's body.   "Could you hold out for a little longer?" He turned to look at her.   "Uhm, y-yes." She replied in a flustered manner.   "Glad to hear that. Don't worry, you'll be just fine." The man smiled warmly.   Yes, he actually smiled. How could someone be capable of smiling in such a dangerous situation, she wondered.   But what felt even more strange was how her heart had felt relieved after seeing his smile.   She suddenly felt a sense of security she had never experienced before. The man walked towards the ogres at a leisurely pace. No one, looking at his gait, would imagine he was headed into a fight against charging monsters.    It looked more like he was taking a stroll through the meadow than navigating a combat zone.   As the nearest ogre was getting closer, the raven-haired man tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword and readied his stance. Aline gasped. She sensed it and her comrades must have felt it, too. That man, who only had the one-star tattoo imprinted on his neck, was emitting the pressure only those of very high-rank adventurers would be able to create.   The atmosphere gradually changed to one filled with killing intent, the previous tension surrounding the battlefield was further intensified.   Even a goblin, with its low intelligence, would consider twice before charging at him. But the ogres continued to barrel, too dim-witted to second-guess his strength.   It looked like the ogres would get the first attack, but then the raven-haired man rushed at them.   He was like a hurricane. Then, in an even faster flash of silver, the sword in his hand flew through the air as if it were cutting space itself.   The attack was too magnificent. Regardless of the fact that she hadn’t even been cut, Alina felt the sudden presence of death right beside her, so much so that every hair on her body stood on end.   The man shifted his attention from the ogre before him to another ogre.   As if waiting for him to leave, the top half of the slashed ogre stayed on for a while before finally falling to the ground; the bottom half was still standing. The spray of blood, slop of innards, and diffusion of an awful stench throughout the area were the signs that this was neither a dream nor an illusion.   The downward diagonal slash made a clean cut.   It was over in that single swing. She couldn't comprehend what she was seeing. Or rather, she refused to comprehend it.   Not that such a feat was impossible to accomplish. The crux of the trick was to use both the slash’s centrifugal force and sword’s weight to attack; it wasn’t meant to be wielded with only one arm’s strength. Hence either the raven-haired man's sword was enchanted with powerful magic, or his strength in one arm was overwhelmingly stronger than a normal warrior using two hands. Or maybe even both.   Seeing this shocking scene, the ogre unconsciously stopped, made an expression of horror and backed away.   “What’s the matter? Do your huge bodies only amount to this much ?” His quiet, casual voice floated over the battlefield.   Even just that question scared the ogres—because they’d just seen how overwhelming the gap in strength was between him and them.   He advanced like greased lightening to close in. “Waarghh---!   The ogre let out a howl that was a cross between a wail and a shout, raising the club in its hand to face the man who was attacking. But everyone knew that was too slow.   The man once again swung the sword in his hand horizontally after he got close. The top half of the ogre spun in the air and landed at a different spot from its lower half.   That was a horizontal slash, slicing the ogre in half with one strike.   "…Is he even human?" Alina couldn't help but murmur out loud. The man took a step forward, the ugly faces of the ogres froze stiff and they backed further away. Then, as if to crush their morale further, the man's sword swung in a huge arc. No one could hear anything but the sound of it slicing through the air and then something heavy falling to the ground—two things, in fact.   As everyone expected, the number of ogre corpses had decreased. Now the only ogres remaining were the two cowering before the raven-haired man.   Alina was stunned once again. No words came out of words her mouth. In fact, she couldn't even find words to describe what she had just seen.   She wondered how someone so powerful was only a one-star adventure. It didn't make sense. His power must rival the twin knights of the capital, if not surpass them.   "You will do well to tell me as to why you didn't you move, Cloven." An icy voice travelled out through the air.   Alina directed her line of sight to the other man who had been standing there silently since the battle had commenced. Due to the spectacular display, his presence had been unknowingly ignored.   "You were having so much fun killing these monsters that I thought my interference would spoil your mood." He replied in a low raspy voice.   "Is that so?" The raven-haired man mused.   "It is already spoiled, anyway. Finish off these two. I've had enough."   Just after the raven-haired man finished talking, the image of the man wearing baggy pants blurred.   "…huh?" Alina exclaimed. She saw him suddenly appear above the heads of the two ogres with a black dagger in his right hand.   Even before her mind could register what was happening, two giant heads flew in the air, accompanied by two fountains of blood pouring upwards and the sound of bodies falling to the ground.   "What the hell?!" She heard her one of her teammates, Reeve, shout. She couldn't blame him, though. In fact, she wanted to know what had just happened as badly as them, if not more.   What occurred in last five minutes had turned all her beliefs upside down. She knew that she will never forget this moment for the rest of her life. It was firmly imprinted in her memory.     "So you aren't slipping, after all." the raven-haired man clapped.   "Tch-" was the only response he got in return.   Unaffected by the sneer, the man looked around to survey the battlefield before walking towards Giraud. She saw him give Giraud a Healing Potion, which he gratefully accepted with trembling hands.   So it's finally over. And I am still alive, huh?  Alina heaved a sigh of relief. Drowsiness promptly overcame her. She touched the back of her head and found out that she had been bleeding a little too much.   She tried her best to fight off the fatigue, but shortly afterward her mind chose to concede to the call of sleep as she fell unconscious.                

"And there you have it," he murmured, the undertone of his voice layered with wry sarcasm. Everything had been going alright since they departed from the town. Following the en route to Kraasea, they had stopped for awhile to let their horses graze before resuming their journey. He was starting to believe his suspicions regarding the merchant's request were unwarranted, but—    “Stay where you are,” boomed out an unfamiliar voice. “Unless you want to be filled with bow arrows.” Arrows hissed through the air and stuck quivering in the earth in front of the hooves of the horses. He immediately put down the horses' anxiety by pulling onto their reins tightly.    Looking to his side, he laid his eyes upon the man who had commanded them to not move. With a hideous face covered in battle scars, the man reeked of malice and hostility."We want no trouble with you, adventurers, just handover that merchant to us and we'll go our separate ways." The man's ugly face twisted into a crooked expression. Perhaps he was trying to smile?    After studying the man for a moment, Malazan smiled to himself. Underneath that false bravado, anxiety mostly occupied his emotions. The man was clearly apprehensive of breaking out with them. Moving his eyes away from him, Malazan tried to look for the source of the arrows.    To the slope to his right, he sensed slight trembles from trees situated upon it. The archers must be hiding there, their bows fully loaded, waiting for the order to attack them for real this time.    "I hate to break it to you, but we'd have to disappoint you," Malazan succinctly replied, not mincing with words. The others nodded in agreement. All of them had already received half of the commission in advance, not to mention, their duty as the merchant's bodyguards obligated them to see their mission to the end.    As if expecting their response, the man shook his head disappointingly, "I see, what a pity. I guess there's no helping it." Right after finishing his sentence, he raised his left hand up in the air, his fingers forming a 'V' sign.    "Shihle, cast the barrier!" The Spell-Caster immediately infused mana into the scroll she was clutching. The rolled-up piece of parchment instaniously burned into ashes. Like a translucent dome appearing out of thin air, a magic barrier shielded them from the rain of arrows that came bearing down on them from above. The nieghed in fear and trepidation.     'Protect the merchant…but don't overdo it. Go!' He ordered Cloven. Following his command, Cloven darted towards the carriage. With a jump that defied gravity, he vaulted over one of the ten men who had come out of the nearby forest and made a half circle around the carriage. They were all outfitted differently. Not all their equipment was well made, but it wasn’t shoddy, either.    Cloven's body landed on an other man, throwing the latter off balance. The bandit staggered back several steps, before running toward Cloven with his mace swinging wildly. A sidestep was all it took for Cloven to evade the attack. Taking the advantage of the man's accelerating momentum, Cloven slammed him forward. The bandit's momentum carried him on and he crashed into another man. They tumbled to the ground.   From within his robe Cloven quickly produced a grooved dagger, and swiftly dispatched an approaching man by flinging it, aimed at the man's neck. The dagger whizzed as it cut through the air. The force behind the hurl was overwhelming, that the dagger pierced right through the man's throat, leaving behind a gaping hole. The man stood still in disbelief as showers of blood gushed out of the hole, before dropping to the ground.   The other men’s will to fight shrank visibly.   By Hictoria, when will this man obey the order. You don't present your display of strength so early on, else how are they going to muster up the courage to foolishly charge against you?   He turned to look at three men who had appeared and surrounded him. "My apologies for making you wait, gentlemen. Let us get on with this," he bowed graceful toward them with proper noble etiquette. He thought it was pretty smooth bow, but the men looked confused.   The men exchanged looks with each other, evidently unable to figure out his actions.   "Hmm? Do you want to come or not? I'd personally like if you hurry up, as I have more pressing matters to attend to."   After hesitating for a fraction of a second, they cast aside their reluctance and recklessly charged forward.    "『 Dragon Persistence 』" he gently whispered the name of a martial art skill. His muscles bulged as an unknown power surged through them. His right foot took a step back, and he brandished his sword in a forward stance and charged forth like a ferocious wind. Reflexively Malazan ducked beneath a man's arm, as his halbard swayed past Malazan's head, its hook forcing the wind to blow his hair. Turning back, he kicked the wielder of the halberd on his knees. The beautiful sound of snapping bones reached his ears. The man dropped to the ground with a groan. He kept screaming and rolling around in pain while holding onto his fractured knee firmly. With a backhand slash, Malazan drilled his sword through the man's heart, putting an end to his misery.    He parried the blows of other two men by launching a flurry of sword strikes of his own. "Too slow!" He laughed boisterously. With trained movements, he fended off an axe strike and turned to launch an upward thunder kick into the greasy-haired man's diaphragm, wind seemingly trailing alongside his foot. The attack seemed to have knocked all the breath out of his lungs. The man spat a huge gob of phlegm onto the ground and promptly fell to his knees.   Malazan leapt to one side as a spear lashed out at him. He parried another spear strike by twisting his sword midway and making a straight jab that jerked the spear from the spear bearer's hand, disarming him. Giving him no time to retrieve it, Malazan closed in. Once within striking distance he lashed out with his sword, splitting the astonished bandit's skull like a melon. He cast a glimpse back over his shoulder and saw the remaining man reaching out for his axe.   "Why must you continue to struggle after realizing the gulf that separates the two of us?" He whispered slowly in a voice that only he could hear. He turned around, momentarily lifted his foot above the ground, before bringing it down with a crunch. He broke the struggling man's right hand's wrist. His struggling ceased, but Malazan didn't think it was the pain, though he made sure there was plenty of that. It was the sound. The crack of bonesx as they shattered. A sound that let one knew they were never going to rise again. He tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword—And brought it down in a blurring arc that decapitated his last opponent. Smell of blood thickened in the air.   Phew, nearly crossed the line there. Malazan chuckled to himself. In less than two minutes, he had finished off all three of his opponents with only minimum amount of strength.『 Dragon Persistence 』was mostly an offensive martial art skill that focused on overpowering your opponent through very precise and well-timed strikes. The primary focus lied on both sword and knee strikes and it often relied on the endurance and flexibility of the defender.    The biggest strength of『 Dragon Persistence 』 was its brutality. It was fierce and contained illegal moves that most Knights and Paladins would find beneath themselves to resort to. It was one of many offensive martial art skills he had learned after going through brutal training and experiencing several trails and errors.   However, he still wasn't able to unleash the skill's full potential, because—    He glanced down on his hands and found them to be trembling and juddering with great intensity. He fought hard to stop the trembling. Seconds passed and the shaking finally ceased.   I am still unable to overcome them, huh? He smiled bitterly at the upsetting realisation. Memories and events he wanted to forget resurfaced. Those screams, shouts and howls of agony and hate. They called out his name, but all he could do was stare at them.   No more, he shook his head and cleared his thoughts.   Averting his eyes from Cloven who showed no visible difficulty defeating opponents, he turned to see how the others were faring.    "Back me up here, Alcot!" Zaron barked an order, while exchanging blows with two men. One man carried a sharp, curved scimitar whilst the other flourished a club. With his silver sword gleaming in the sunlight, Zaron leapt first with a roar, his sword towering in the air. Closing in, he swinged it in a diagonal slash. Sparks were produced as sword and scimitar clashed, steel against steel. Both men then jumped away to create some distance. As Zaron did so, the other man wielding the club leapt at him from behind. However—before his attack could make contact—a crossbow bolt whistled through air and pierced deep into the man's heart, robbing him of his life. His companion eyes went wide with fear and hesitation after witnessing the death of his partner. Zaron, seizing that moment of distraction, pounced at the man with a loud bawl. Although the man tried to defend, it was already too late. Before he knew it, Zaron's sword was already upon him. The sword penetrated into his body, ribs cracking, and jutted out from the other end. The man fell with a thud after Zaron yanked his sword back.    Zaron turned to nod his head at Alcot, gratitude visible in his eyes.    "I'd also appreciate a bit of help! These fucking bolts are driving me insane," cried Globrom, exasperation plainly evident in his voice. His and Darkeye's backs were facing each other as they tussled with the leader and his two lackeys. They were constantly being perturbed by arrows that would fitfully disturb their fight. Needless to say, defending against them at the same took a fair share of their attention.   "Can you do something about those archers?" Darkeye shouted.    The adventurers shifted their gazes toward the only two spellcasters, Shihle and Hiver, who was dressed in extravagant blue robes. They were not sure whether they could approach the slope without getting pinned to the ground with arrows, to say nothing of actually getting rid of the archers. Argency obligated them to turn towards the spellcasters for help.   The two hesitated for awhile before nodding their heads.   "『 Fly 』" The two casted a tier-three transmutation spell in unison, a spell that violated the laws of gravity. Both of them ascended in the air until they were 60 feet aloft. Even the arrows found it difficult to reach them at such a height.   Everyone, including the bandits, had stopped fighting and were looking at the two individuals in dumbfounding astonishmeant. Although reason told them to stop the two spellcasters from completing their spell, somewhere—in a detached corner of their brain—curiousity told them to see what the spellcasters were about to do.      After making sure of the archers hiding spot, Hiver and Shihle exchanged a glance, solemnity covering their faces. Hiver took a deep breath before casting an evocation spell, "『 Combination Spell: First Stage: Toxic Wind』"    Everyone hiding in the woods soon felt it. A gentle gust of wind swirling through the trees, making the leaves rustle. However, that was it. Surprise turned to ridicule. Sound of mocking laughter echoed.   —Yet, their jeering was short-lived. Shihle raised her hands in the air. She gave the impression of surrendering herself to a goddess above, but the pespiration dampening her features expressed something else entirely: "『 Combination Spell: Second Stage: Fireball』"   From her right hand a bright streak flashed and blossomed into a ball of small fire, looking like at any moment it would be blown out, it floated towards the woods. The dim ball of fire looked almost laughable I comparison to the giant trees, but—   Like a thunderbolt that came straight from heaven, the air exploded in a resounding roar. Gruesome screams soon followed. The trees caught fire one after another. In addition, the whole scene appeared to have come out from hell, as bodies of men were charred like autumn leaves, their ashes proving to be nutrious fertilizer for the soil.    Minutes passed, but aside from the clinking noise of weapons dropping to the ground, nothing else could be heard. The opponents will to fight had been completely extinguished after witnessing their comrades dying such dreadful deaths. The adventurers soon snapped out of their reverie and rushed to apprehend their foes who no longer offered any sort of resistance.   "That was nicely done!" Malazan went forward to congratulate the spellcasters with a smile. Both of them were covered in sweat and their shoulders heaved fiercely. Others also came forward to compliment them.   "Hey, what did you guys do back there? It was amazing!" Globrom slapped Hiver on his shoulders. The later winced in pain.    "It…was a combination spell that fused…our two spells into one...we honestly weren't expecting it to…work out,", Shihle answered while being short on breath.   "How many times can you two use it?" Darkeye asked in anticipation.   Shihle looked at Hiver, taking the cue, the latter replied: "Only once. Using it a second time would be honestly...impossible. Casting it even once consumes most of our mana, hence leaving us in such a ragged state. There's also the fact we'd become vulnerable after casting it," he stated. "Needless to say, the two spells in question need to compliment each other. For example, my spell, Toxic Wind, had a property of ignition when it made contact with fire. I can only say we happened to be quite lucky in this case." Dejection could be felt in his voice. How great would it be if they could use the spell twice in row? Maybe even thrice in succession?    Hearing this, the enthusiasm in everyone's eyes dimmed by a great deal. As expected, such a destructive spell had its limitations.   "Well, you can't have everything you want," Zaron remarked. "Still, you guys did a great job there!" Blen said in a cheerful voice.   "Yeah, you two saved my ass back there!"   "Indeed. Thanks for saving us."   Ohers showered them with praises. It went without saying that the two spellcasters played a major role in this battle.   In the meanwhile, Malazan's attention was concentrated on someone else. His eyes had never strayed from the leader of the bandits, who had been standing still since the two spellcasters casted their spell. Others thought that he had given up, but Malazan didn't think so. A cunning gleam still flickered across the man's narrow eyes, showing no signs of surrender.   Malazan furrowed his brows.   To be a able to organise such a large gang of men to attack them indicated the man's confidence in carrying out the ambush. But, an ambush was effective because it was hidden. If it was revealed, all it did was diffuse their muscle. Their leader should surely know that, yet he showed no signs of surrendering. Such behavior only made sense if the man had something to rely upon.   Come on. Pull out whatever move you have hidden up your sleeve.   As if answering his wish, Malazan saw the man pulling out a crystal out of his breast pocket. Malazan's eyes suddenly went wide with astoundment.   …I'd be damned. Dorn's hands were wet with sweat.He had grossly underestimated these adventurers. At first, he had thought he could easily stall long them enough for one of his men to feel with the merchant. However, reality had smacked him with a harsh truth—They were no match for the adventurers, especially the spellcasters. Although only two in number, this contemptibly little pair had turned his men to dust. He didn't want to admit, but high-ranking spellcasters were indeed deserving of their fame. He hated their ability to cast spells. They didn't have to go through any sort of intense muscle training, unlike fighters. Just by studying, they were able to learn new spells that gave them an edge over those of different classes of the same realm.    Inspite of their defeat, he didn't lose hope. Those people had given him an artifact, telling him to use it in case something like this occurred. Remembering his encounter with those bloodthirsty monsters and what they'd do to him if he didn't bring back the merchant with him, a chill ran down his spine. Defeat was not an option.   Inserting his hand in his breast pocket, he took out a scarlet-colored crystal. Coldness emitted from it that seemed to drouse all his worries. They had called it a magic-sealing crystal, which contained a very high-tier magic. To unseal the magic contained within it, according to them, it was neccessary for blood to make contact with it.   He bit his thumb and red blood trickled down. Gritting his teeth, he ignored the prickling sensation, and he let a drop of his blood fall on it.   The crystal glowed with a scarlet flash—and everything went blank. It's over. He thought to himself as he carefully put down the magical binoculars he had been using to monitor the battle. It had been a hard-fought battle. That clown had been unable to recover the artifact from the merchant. The magic crystal finally ended up getting wasted on those adventurers as a result. That said, the mission could be considered an overall success. Dead men tell no tales, he repeated the motto of his organization.   Thinking that it was about time he reported to Sir Viper, he casted the communication spell,『 Message』. "…who is this?" A calm voice echoed in his head.   "It is me, Wolf," he uttered his station. Members of their organization had no real names, only ranks or aliases by which they called each other.   "Which one?"   "Agent 73," this time his ranking was what he spoke.   "I see, you were the one who was assigned to monitor the activity of that merchant, right?"   "That is correct, Sir Viper." "And?"   "The party we dispatched ended up using the magic-sealing crystal to annihilate them."   There was a slight pause, before the man continued: "I see, that can't be helped. We could not afford to expose our involvement in this," he acknowledged. "Anything else you'd like to report, Wolf?"   He pondered over the question. Aside from a certain pair of men whose skill had managed to surprise him a little, he didn't find any detail worth reporting. "No, Sir Viper."   "The Fenérious is your family," the voice declared.    "You watch out for it, and it watches out for you," he replied, and the connection was cut.    "Done talkin'?" A stranger's voice reached his ears. Turning around, he saw a man composedly sitting on a nearby boulder. He was nonchalantly chewing up a blade of grass.   "What is an half-orc like you doing here? When did you get here?" He narrowed his eyes, bewildered.   The half-orc stood up with a grimace. "I really fucking hate people like ya, always asking dumb questions. Do ya have any idea how much my butt hurts sitting on this piece of rock as I waited for ya to end your fucking conversation?" .Out of nowhere, the half-orc summoned a crimson sickle. A wicked grin hung on his face as he leisurely made his way toward him.    Wolf's heart went cold and his body stiffened. Dread crawled up from his stomach all the way to his face. His intuition told him to escape, to go somewhere far away before this beast unleashed his fangs.   He sensed it. The air of death and malice that surrounded the half-orc in front of him.   Like projectiles launched from cannons, the two of them leapt at each other, whipping up dirt in their wake.   "Time to die!" Maniacal laughter reverberated.             

  City of Commerce — Bellmare, Kingdom of Ceirth,Blackstone Inn, Late Summer, Dio'rj, 1402 Year Cycle Groups of adventurers thronged the dimly lit tavern. There were a handful of customers sitting at the few round tables, mostly men. The atmosphere suited the kind of people who constantly put themselves in dangerous situations. And as one might expect from the rowdy people of their profession, the place was filled with sounds of gossiping. The disgusting stench of stale sweat and cheap booze did nothing to stop one group of adventurers from gluttonously drinking down their beer and reciting their various heroic and blood-pumping adventures to their acquaintances. Though, surprisingly, there were exceptions as well. A four-man party sitting two round tables away from the bunch—who were having a boisterous conversation—silently sipped their ale. From their sour expression, it could be reasoned they did not do well on their recent mission and thus were not in the mood for boasting. The interior of the tavern was spacious. The first floor was a pub with a bar in the back. Behind the bar were three built-in shelves lined with bottles. The door to the side of the bar led to the kitchen. In the corner of the pub was a stairway that wrapped around on itself partway up. The second and third floors were an inn. Almost all the windows were closed, giving the indoors dim lighting. Those who were used to the bright light outside wouldn't be able to adjust immediately, but for these adventurers, who were already adapted to fighting monsters at night, it posed no problem.   The tavern was lulled into silence when the door to the tavern was slammed open. —A man entered the tavern. All the eyes were on the man, many aggressively appraising him. He was a handsome man with olive skin, black eyes, and hair still black as a night untouched by the gray shadows of dawn. He wore indigo silk tunic, his pants tight fawnskin adorned with a belt of silver. A golden sword could be seen dangling on his hip. Unperturbed by the dangerous glares directed his way, the man walked towards the innkeeeper with a calm glide.   The innkeeper standing there at the back was wearing a grimy apron. He had a big chest and his sleeves were rolled up; revealing thick vascular forearms.     This man with a mop in one hand, who seemed more like a hired thug than the innkeeper, had been openly observing the raven-haired newcomer.   "You need a room, eh? How many nights?" his gruff voice boomed. "Three nights would do."   The bouncer-looking owner answered crudely: "...one-star ranking, huh? It'll be three coppers for a single room. Food is oatmeal—well, some days it's leftover loaf instead of oatmeal—and vegetables. If you want more than that, meaning meat, you gonna have to pay two coppers extra." "Good enough. I only require a single room. And add the extra two coppers to the total amount as well," the man said. "Three nights is fifteen coppers—up front, naturally." The innkeeper stuck out his hand. "Here you go," the man said as he casually pulled a leather pouch from his pocket, took out a silver coin, and dropped it into the innkeeper's rough hand. The innkeeper stuffed it into his pocket without a word, and when he brought his hand out again, it was clutching a few copper pieces. "Okay, then, five coppers is your change."   He dropped the coins into man's hand and set a key on the counter with a ka-ching. "Up the stairs and first on your right. Put your luggage in the chests built into the beds. I don't think I have to tell you, but don't go near other people's rooms for no reason. If somebody thinks you're up to something, there'll be trouble."   "Worry not." Once the man was gone, a loud conversation began. "So who's that guy?" "How would I know?""Maybe he's a spellcaster?""But he carried a sword with him?" "There's no need to rush to conclusions. We need to confirm it first before we decide on how to treat that guy." The conversations being had conveyed confusion, and curiosity. Actually, everyone had already concluded that the newcomer was not a typical adventurer. The first tip-off was his impressive clothing. Silk tunics and pants, with jewels embedded in them, did not come cheap. And more importantly, it was his calm demeanor that caught their interest. Being stared at by a dozen seasoned veterans was enough for a normal grown man's leg to go weak. But certainly — that man was not normal — despite their glares, he had remained unfazed. "So who's going to test him?" Everyone at this inn was friendly with one another but, of course, they were also rivals. If a new guy showed up, they would all want to know how strong he was, so someone had to take the risk and spar with the man. "I will do it," a man sitting in the corner said. He was burly with brown hair peeking from under his helmet and had a wiry mustache. "You sure, Kruz?" "Yeah, due to the recent lack of missions, I am getting quite out of shape. Need to crack a bone or two to get this rust off me." "Fine, then. We'll leave him to you." The wooden door gently clapped shut. The only furnishings in the room were one small desk and two simple wooden beds with chests built in. Since the shutters were open, sunlight and air from outside came indirectly. Malazan looked around the room and sighed. 'Ah, it's not like I have the luxury to be disappointed.' He knew he was at an inn on the outskirts of the city and couldn't expect much, but this setup still managed to put him off guard. "Your arrival was not well met." A disembodied voice echoed in the room. "A new tiger has encroached upon their den, so, of course, they would feel endangered. Though little do they know it's a dragon instead." Malazan laughed as he looked up at the ceiling to find a cloud of darkness looming over him.   As if alive, the cloud descended on the floor with a slight fa-thud and the darkness went away. In its place, a figure could be seen standing. Unlike Malazan, the man was hardly handsome with his oddly colored hair and freckled face. He wore a tunic of mottled dark gray cotton, thin but cut for easy movement, pants of the same material, a harness with a score of throwing weapons, most of which the men of today's era won't even recognize. His very presence seemed to reek of bloodlust. "Do you want me to kill them?" Cloven asked as he threateningly waved a blade around. It was fairly short, thin, slightly curved blade made of mithril and held by a grip wrapped in high-cost, onyx goat leather. The razor-sharp point made this dark weapon a perfect choice if one wished to puncture his enemies to death with ruthless speed and precision, which perfectly suited an assassin like him. Malazan googled. He stared intently at Cloven. "What is it?" Cloven asked while avoiding eye contact. "Sometimes I wonder," Malazan said, "whether there's anything inside that skull of yours or not. I already told you we must not attract too much attention onto us, lest we are rendered unable to fulfill our plan. And so, killing all of our potential acquaintances is the very opposite of not inviting unwanted attention." "So what do we do now?" "Rise up in ranks. Enough so that we are looked upon with admiration, and a bit of fear would also do us no harm. Our first step is to gain a reputation in this city as adventurers." "We?" Cloven asked."Yes, we. Sooner or later, I will be asked to join a party, and refusal won't be in my favor. A two-men is conspicuous, but a lone man more so." Malazan stood up and closed the stutters. The light that came in through the gaps in the shutters was not enough to banish the room's darkness completely, but for anyone spying on them, this room would probably be too dark to see much of anything. "I see. How do we do it? Creating a party with you, I mean.""Just make your entrance tomorrow morning. I will cover it up by saying you are my comrade at the guild.""Then, what about my class?""Register as a rogue," Malazan said as he put his hand against his chin, adopting a ruminating stance. A party made up of a rogue and warrior would earn people's scorn unless they moved up to at least three-star ranking. Until then, trouble would come after them on regular basis. We need to hurry up, huh? Malazan smiled wolfishly to himself.   Hmm, so I need to make an example out of this guy, huh?   A burly and cheaply armored adventurer was standing in front of him, blocking his way to the exit door. The man smelled like onions and looked like the kind of guy one wouldn't want to mess with.   "So what do you want?" Malazan asked. "Eh? Whatcha think? I want you to pay for the beer glass that you threw onto the floor." The man named Kruz said as he looked at Malazan with a threatening gaze. Looking down on the wooden floor, Malazan could see the residue of the intentionally splattered beer and shattered pieces of its container. This man was honestly looking for a fight with him, that much he could conclude. He looked around to see the members of Kruz's party either smiling nastily or staring at him. Neither the innkeeper nor any of the customers went to intervene. At a glance, it seemed like they either didn't care or were looking on in amusement as if something interesting had started, but there were a few people with sharp gazes mixed in, watching his every move. —And then. "Hah! Ha-ha-ha!" —Malazan burst out laughing. "...What?" "You're a fool," Malazan said. "A buffoon performing for men who are too afraid to put themselves at risk." "You...shut the fuck up." A dangerous glint appeared in the man's eyes in response to Malazan's taunting. "Shutting the fuck up is not in my nature, alas. Of course, you don't have to listen. Now, you might think otherwise, but that wouldn't matter because I couldn't give a damn." Before the man could react, Malazan rammed his fingers through his visor and grabbed the nosepiece. He yanked the man forward and twisted. The man slammed into the ground with a grunt. Malazan drew a knife from Kruz's belt and held it to the man's eye, his knee resting on the side of Kurz's helmet, holding it in place. "Do you yield?" Malazan asked.   The man's breaths were labored. "I give up! Forgive me!" "Sure, you're forgiven." Malazan released him and stood, brushing the dust from the leg of his breeches. He didn't offer to help the man stand. All men were silent, frozen in surprise and fear. "Just make sure you pay the innkeeper for that beer," Malazan said. "O-of course. We will take care of that. U-uhh, we’re sorry on our friend's behalf." They all apologized as they backed away several steps.  It looks like I am going to have a lot of fun during my stay here.  

“Aisha, where’s Aisha?!” Ada exclaims as she runs into the Casino. The remaining members of her team are with her, but not any of Hina’s team members.   I’m not sure how to deliver the bad news to her. We had some time to think, but don’t know if we should respect Aisha’s wishes and make something up or tell the truth. Marin and Ruby aren’t going to respond. And I’m sure Hina is going to leave it to me to make the decision. I have to say something before Ada tries to barge through the security.   “She’s not here,” I say.   Ada grabs my shoulders and yells, “Where is she?!”   Her desperation makes me inclined to tell the truth. If it were me, I’d want to know the truth no matter how harsh it is. I’m certain the truth rather than a lie would upset her and the others. It’s less of a hassle for me if I get it over with, and it’s not like I have a good relationship with any of them. There’s no reason for me to be considerate of their feelings. But, we are working together to find leads on the masked men. I can’t have them dwell on this for too long. The fact that Aisha isn’t here can only mean one thing. They aren’t stupid.   “She decided to go with Floyd.”   “Why…why would she do that?” Ada asks, and then her eyes widen. “Did she lose another wager?”   “Not exactly…” I hesitate.   “Then what? She wouldn’t leave us behind after we had an agreement.”   “She said she’s sorry. She was wrong to make wagers involving you and the others without discussing it first, so she’s taking responsibility herself.”   “No, that can’t be true,” Melody says.   “I agree; she knows us well. She wouldn’t have made the decision in the first place if we would be against it,” Doris says. “She would never feel guilty like that.”   “She couldn’t have forgotten that I agreed to help too,” Ada says. “What really happened?”   “Look. Aisha really didn’t want me to tell you because she knew you would disagree. Floyd retook a personal interest in her after she refused his offer of the new wager. He wanted to get to know her one on one.”   “That can’t be right. That bastard said he was in a hurry,” Ada says.   “That was just a trick to force a decision out of us faster. Aisha re-evaluated the situation and felt it was easier to settle the 20 gold bet herself before the offer expired. She’s gonna try to seduce him and get the information we want while they’re intimate. That’s the truth.”   Ada lets me go and looks down. She squeezes her fists, cracking them a few times.   Just like that, I shut everyone up, even though it’s a lie. It’s so easy to get away with it too, when I’m not dealing with the Xog. The trick is to stretch what they’re expecting by only a little.   Deniz walks forward and puts a hand on Ada’s shoulder. “Aisha’s a strong girl. She’ll be fine. It doesn’t look like we can do anything now.”   Hina walks by my side and then says, “He’s right, Ada. We need to move forward with our plan without her. Nothin’s changed.”   “I know…but Aisha. When will she be back?” Ada asks.   I shrug my shoulders and answer, “Not sure. Floyd didn’t say. We can always come back tomorrow and check on her if we have time.”   “Yeah…”   “So, did you guys find anything useful?” I ask while keeping my voice down. I glance behind me, and the Dwarf at the reception is staring right at me. Don’t want him to overhear what comes next.   Everyone understands and silently huddles around each other.   Deniz informs, “We found an unusual spot with higher security.”   “Unusual, how?” I ask.   “It's off to the side, and it’s just a plain wall. There doesn’t seem to be anything else of importance there. We think it’s a secret entrance they use for hauling in large goods.”   “Like a shipment of Aerkins?” Hina asks.   “Could be.”   “That’s good to know but doesn’t really help us,” I say. It’s obvious there would be a way to smuggle Aerkins into the underground city without the risk of someone catching sight. It could be a good route for the masked men to get in, but we aren’t going to be able to get into that passage from here, and there’s no way we would find the entrance from the other side. “Anything else?”   “Some huge bazaar enclosed in its own space. Everyone wore masks. It was so weird, and we felt out of place there. We didn’t stay for too long,” Deniz says.   “Oh, you found the marketplace. The auction is in there. We learned a few things about the auction and a couple of other things. We’ll explain later. We should get moving,” I suggest. We’re already sticking out like a sore thumb. Best not raise everyone’s suspicion of us too much. I don’t want another run-in with the Vanguards. “Where’re the others?”   “They’re keeping watch of that unusual spot I mentioned to see if there’s any movement. We were about to meet you guys back here, but then Ada showed up.”   “Right. Lead the way,” I say.   We follow them to the spot in question. We arrive at the end of a path, a fork going left and right. Going left, we find Luke, Simon, and Dennis huddled around each other. Beyond them is a group of Dwarves stationed along the outermost wall farther ahead.   It does seem strange. I thought this could be a possible exit back to the city, but when the Vanguards led me out the first time, there was no one standing watch in the open. This time there are four of them. And there’s no door like there was at the other location either.   The outer edge of the underground city has a broader path than the roads leading inward. Likely because transportation is only meant for traveling along that edge.   If my memory serves me right, the Aerkin arena is straight ahead in this direction. That’s good design so that when Aerkins are transported, wagons don’t clutter the traffic of the innermost city.   We don’t regroup entirely as to not attract unwanted attention to ourselves. There’s hardly anyone else in this part of the city. They come over to us instead. We lead them back inside the fork to remove ourselves from the sight of those four Dwarves.   “Any changes?” Deniz asks.   “None,” Luke answers while looking around. “Where’s Aisha?”   “It’s complicated. This isn’t a good place to talk,” I say. “Let’s go back to the surface.”   “Right. So where to?” Luke asks.   “It’s right over…” I say while pointing in one direction and then the opposite way. I vaguely remember where we went, but only from the Aerkin arena. I’m not too sure from here.   “Darling, you silly. It’s over here,” Hina says and locks her arms with mine. She leads the way.   We eventually arrive at the large gate. No sign of any Dwarves, but I know one will come out from that door on the left.   “What’re we waiting for?” Luke asks.   “There’s a Dwarf that should be coming out of the door next to the gate,” I inform. “That’s what happened last time. Pearl, you too, right?”   “Yeah,” Hina responds.   Nearly a minute passes, and still nothing.   “We don’t have all day. Dennis, help me with the gate,” Luke says as he approaches the huge door. He grabs onto one side while Dennis grips onto the other one. “On three. One…two…pull!”   The door doesn’t budge, despite both of their full efforts. It didn’t seem like that Dwarf did anything special last time. Maybe there’s some sort of unlocking mechanism inside the room next to this gate. Luke’s side of the door opens very slowly.   “Use Enhancement magic,” Luke informs. “It makes it possible.”   Did those Vanguards use Enhancement magic too? It looked so effortless when they opened it. Dennis’s side starts to open also.   We see into the passage as the massive doors open slowly. The passage isn’t illuminated this time.   “Y’all get goin’. We’ll be right behind you,” Dennis says with a raspy voice.   “Wait,” I say. “Something’s not right. The path should be lit.”   “Ada light the way. Hurry,” Luke says.   “I’m with Darling on this one,” Hina says. “Simon, can you scout?”   “I’m on it. A couple rats should do, right?”   More rats… Is he messing with me?   Moments later, four gray rats appear that run forward into the passage. Ada illuminates the way with her Light magic. Doesn’t look like there’s anything different. But why’d the Vanguards wait instead of passing through? Was it just to turn on the lights?   Suddenly, the floor of the passage rockets upward. In no time, the ground squashes the rodents like pancakes against the ceiling. It makes a loud bang and creates a vibration. Whoa. That could’ve been us. I’m more concerned about what’s going to happen next. This seems like a scenario where the Vanguards could show up.   “What happened?!” Luke exclaims. He and Dennis were out of view to see the death trap.   The door next to the gate bursts open, and the guard yells, “Oh, shoite!”   The Dwarf makes immediate eye contact with me and says, “Ye agin. De high-risk rats.”   “Where’ve you—“   “Hoo many o’ ye buffoons got killed?” he asks and looks into the passage.   “None,” Simon answers. “Just a few of my Conjuration creations.”   “We dun have much time befer de Vanguards show up. Ay dint dink dare wou’ be anyone stupid enoof ter brute force dare way past de security.”   I knew it. “What—“   “If none o’ ya weor killed, dat be good.”   I sigh. He keeps interrupting me.   “Anyone wiff Water magic?”   “I have it,” Hina says.   “Good. Haur be wha' be guin ter happen. Oi'm guin ter reset de trap, an' ye will pass drough. Make sure ter clean up de mess befer ye leave.”   “Wait, why?” I ask. It’s strange why he’s the one frantic in this situation. “Why’re you helping us?”   “Lewk. 'Tis better fer all o' us dat Ay tell de Vanguards Ay accidentally pressed de panic button instead o' fallin’ asleep. Juss go,” he says and starts to run, but then stops and turns around. “One more din’ juss in case ye dun knoo. Each exit has a maximum occupancy o’ four people. Dis rule ye dun break.”   He continues his way into the room. Not long after, the passage floor plummets back to ground level. Some of the splattered remains fall from the ceiling.   “That’s gross,” Hina mutters.   I lean over to her ear and whisper, “I don’t know if you understood him, but he wants you to clean up the entire mess before we leave.”   She nods and then walks into the passage, but not too far. A stream of water appears the air that shoots toward the mess on the ceiling.   I don’t want to meet the Vanguards again, but doesn’t this Dwarf has more to lose than us? We all have the pass, so we’re not breaking the rules. This guy, on the other hand, fell asleep. That’s why he’s trying to make us disappear, so they don’t know that.   The Dwarf comes back out and then says, “De trap be disabled fer nigh. Hurry. Make sure de Light magic goes befer ye leave tew.”   “What’s in it for us?” I ask.   “Wha’ dae ye mean? Vanguards. Ye dun want ter be caught wiff dem.”   “We’re not breaking any rules here. We all have the pass. It’s not our fault that you were asleep on the job.”   “Alroight, ye got me. Ay will owe ya a favor later. Hoo abart dat?”   “What kind of favor?” I ask.   “Anydin’ Ay ken do, Ay will do, if ye dun get me intae trouble. Go befer ‘tis tew late.”   “Right. Let’s go,” I say. “Ada, remove your Light magic and place another one in the passage.”   “I know.”   We run into the passage. The stain on the ceiling is gone. The only thing that’s left is the clump of water Hina’s moving forward. She’s going to have to dump the mess somewhere.   Ada removes the previous Light magic and stations a new one within the passage. The doors close behind us. We need to hurry because who knows when he’ll need to enable the trap again. Hina’s already at the end of the passage. It doesn’t take long for us to catch up.   I recall last time I went up the ladder straight ahead. I’m assuming there are other exits to this left and right passageway. That’s convenient, with an even split between the twelve of us. I don’t want to find out what happens if we break the rule by having more than four people leave an exit.   Hina dumps her Water magic into the left passage. While we could discuss recent events here, it wouldn’t be good if anyone else passes through while we’re still here.   We go our separate ways with Hina, Ruby, Marin, and I going up the ladder since two of us are already familiar with this route. We’re going to meet up back at the Windmill Inn.   I warn Marin and Ruby not to call any Dwarves small, in the event that they’re forced into a conversation with one of them.   Sometime later, we’re the first group to arrive. Jetia is standing by the entrance with his back against the wall and his arms crossed. None of the goons or novices from Hina’s team are around. Don’t tell me, General Nero came looking for us?   “So, yer back,” Jetia says. “I did as you asked.”   “And?” I ask.   “Captain Albius stopped by. Had some news to give you.”   Captain Albius? That’s good for us. He already knows what we’re up to. “What’d he say?”   “The inspection is tomorrow before the representatives gather in the Grand Hall. He wants to meet you here personally tomorrow at dawn before it goes down.”   I frown, almost forgetting about that. How am I going to get out of this one? Captain Albius and General Nero both know that I’m the one the Xog are looking for. If they wanted to rat me out, they could’ve already. Captain Albius must have a plan if he wants to meet me.   “What’s wrong?” Jetia asks. “Conflicts with yer plans tomorrow?”   “No, not really.”   “So, yer scared of running into those monsters again?”   “Yeah,” I respond, finding that this is easier than telling the full truth. “But who wouldn’t be? Aren’t you?”   “Yer right. It’s reassuring to hear that even our great leader is scared of them.”   “You have anything else for us?” I ask.   “No, that’s it.”   “Alright then,” I say, walking past Jetia.   “Not going to ask me what I told Captain Albius where you were?” Jetia asks.   “Don’t need to. He already knows that we’re doing an investigation of our own. I told you, he’s on my side now,” I say and continue inside. I’m getting a bit hungry. This might be a good time to eat another meal before we retire for the night. We’ll all have to get up early. My issues with the Feloidians aside, everyone else needs to get rid of their passes to avoid general trouble with the Achilles Sundance Circuit and the Dwarves.   The four of us grab some chow while waiting for the others, who soon arrive. We discretely inform them of the stuff we learned at the Casino. Surprisingly, Ada’s quiet the entire time. I guess she’s really bummed out about Aisha. So, it makes it easy for us to gloss over the finer details. They don’t need to know the specifics like all the answers to Floyd’s questions. Especially not the fictional drama between Hina and I. That will only complicate things.   The others only found the possible secret within the wall, the location of the marketplace, and the mask shop. They explored the bulk of the underground city, so there’s probably not much else to find. Although, I wish they’d focused more on the outer edges. There must be other exits to the surface other than the one we went through.   I inform everyone of the inspection tomorrow too. The guys will have to find a way to remove the pass before it happens and then get it again after we escort the ministers to the Grand Hall. Someone with Healing magic can probably do it. A bit inconvenient, but it can’t be helped. It’s dark out now, so finding our way around the city might be more difficult. It’ll be easier to navigate the city in the morning.   The ministers come down for dinner. We only tell them that we didn’t find any leads on their ask. With them eavesdropping, we can’t discuss much of our actual investigation anymore. We’ve already hit all the big points and have a game plan for tomorrow, so we disperse for the night.   There’s just one more complication today. Ruby has given Hina the stare since we’ve gotten back. It hasn’t been discrete either, so other people must’ve noticed.  I can only hope Luke passes it off as some jealousy. In reality, it’s almost the opposite. Ruby’s serious about making sure that there’s no more acting between us. And so, she follows us all the way to our room.   “Good night, Ruby,” I say as Hina and I stand from the inside of a room while Ruby’s in the hallway.   I begin to close the door when Ruby blocks me and interjects, “Wait.”   I knew it. She’s not going to just assume we’re going to do the deed. I don’t want to make a scene here. I think the rest of Hina’s team aren’t going to bed just yet, so it’s just us here. I step out and look into the hallway to verify there’s no one watching. I signal Ruby to step into the room and then close the door.   “What do you want?” I ask.   “I wanna make sure that Hina understands. No more actin’.”   “I got it. Now, can you leave?” Hina asks.   “No. Yer not gonna do it. Yer not serious ‘bout it.”   I bite my lip. I really want to say something here, but my assurance won’t make her back down. She knows I’m doing this to help Hina, and I wouldn’t force it on her. Not to mention…the mere mention of that. I don’t know how she’ll react. I could say that I’m not attracted to her, but she’s not going to buy that. I can’t fake it either.   “I don’t know what more you want me to say. I’ll let him have sex with me this time, okay?”   “I wanna watch.”   “No,” Hina and I say simultaneously.   “Why not?”   “Look. It’s a very…private activity,” Hina says.   “If ya wanted it ta be private, ya wouldn’t need ta make so much noise when yer doin’ it. If ya want everyone ta know, it’s not private anymore. Yer not embarrassed ‘bout it either.”   “That’s different. No one else sees what we’re doin’. I don’t want anyone to watch us do it. That’s weird. Kills the mood too,” Hina says.   “It’ll be like I’m not even there. I won’t make any noise. I just wanna make sure ya take care of Kai. I’ve already seen his body, ‘n’ we’re both girls. It’s not weird.”   She hasn’t exactly seen my body per se, but that’s not the point here. She’s not going to let up on this. She’s too stubborn. I need to say something despite that I know she’s probably not going to listen to me on this one. This isn’t the best time, but I’ll confront her about that matter now.   “Ruby, I know you’re looking out for me, but why does it have to be Hina? Why haven’t you offered…yourself? I know you want it.”   She frowns. The light almost seemingly disappears from her eyes as they drop to the floor. My heart sinks with it. I hate hurting her like this.   “’Cause I know ya don’t really want me right now… ‘N’ I don’t want somethin’ fake like that. It’ll make me sad…’n’ empty. I’d wish I could have more with ya, but I can’t…so… ‘N’ ya wanna help Hina with ‘er problem. Puttin’ yerself in these pretend acts will erupt certain feelin’s from ya, ‘cause yer a guy. I don’t wantcha ta feel the same as me. Havin’ this burnin’ feelin’ inside that I’ll never be able ta satiate.”   Is that why Ruby did it with that man at the inn? She was trying to get rid of that feeling, but it didn’t work out? Has she been doing those things since? I want to ask her about all these things, but the words won’t come out. Do I really want to know?   “Have you thought about hookin’ up with other guys?” Hina asks. “It might help, and it’s only fair, right? If Kai’s goin’ to do it with me.”   It feels like time is passing so slow. How’s she going to answer? I can’t help but think back to her responses to Floyd’s questions about having a million different partners. She wouldn’t really, right?   “Yeah, I thought ‘bout it,” Ruby replies. “But, that’s only gonna leave me sad ‘n’ empty too. It’s no different than if Kai were ta do it ta me now. I know Kai would be mad at me too if I did that. I don’t wanna make ‘im mad or upset ‘cause of me.”   Ruby turns to me with her eyes sparkling again. She leans toward me and continues, “I would never do that ta ya, Kai. Never. Ya know that, right?”   I pause because I don’t really know. After all, I found her that one time at the inn with another man. I know what I saw. We’re already deep in this. Why am I still hesitating? I’m going to get to the bottom of this once and for all. I answer, “No, because I know you’re lying to me. You don’t know this, but I found you at the inn with another man that day I woke up after the attack.”   “That’s…” Ruby mutters, her eyes and lips quivering.   I knew it. She’s been playing me this entire time. Her answer to Floyd. Doesn’t that mean it’s been open season for her all this time? This. What she’s doing now to make sure that Hina and I have sex. That’s only supposed to make herself feel less guilty about what she’s doing. None of this is about me.   “I didn’t wanna talk ‘bout that…but I’m not lyin’! I…” Ruby says and then looks down. She pauses for several seconds before continuing, “Do ya know how I know I would feel sad ‘n’ empty if I did it with other guys or offered myself ta ya? It’s ‘cause I did it once…with that man. I don’t wanna feel that way again. I haven’t done it since.”   That makes sense. Maybe I jumped to conclusions too soon. There’s still a chance that she’s lying to me, though. I need to make sure. I have to do that again. This will be the last time. I say, “Look at me, Ruby.”   She lifts her head up, and we make eye contact. I ask, “Do you swear, Ruby?  If I find out that you’re lying to me, I’m leaving you.”   “I swear, Kai! I won’t lie ta ya,” Ruby responds without hesitation, her face completely steady.   I sigh and then say, “Okay, I believe you.”   Ruby smiles. That’s that. I never should’ve doubted her from the start. She did do it that one time, but I can’t blame her too much for that. It was hard for both of us after what happened. We both lost important people in our lives after that attack.   “So, can I watch? I promise ya won’t notice I’m there,” Ruby says.   And we’re back to this. Ugh. I don’t mind doing it with Hina since I have permission from Marin already, but Hina doesn’t want me to, and I respect that, but Ruby won’t let this go.   “I don’t want you to watch us because it doesn’t make me comfortable. Kai, you feel that way, too, right?” Hina asks.   “Yeah, Ruby. I’m with her on this one. Can’t you trust her? Trust me?”   “I trust ya, but not ‘er. She’s playin’ ‘round, ‘n’ I know ya. Ya won’t do it if she doesn’t wantcha ta.”   “Fine, I give up,” Hina says. I knit my eyebrows. “You’re right. I wasn’t serious about lettin’ Kai have his way with me.”   What the hell’s she thinking? Does she mean to throw everything away and reveal to everyone that it’s a sham? She’d rather do that than commit the deed.   “I knew it,” Ruby says.   “But, all you want is to make sure that Kai isn’t sexually frustrated, right?” Hina asks.   “Yeah, so?”   “So…I’m sayin’ it doesn’t have to be durin’ the actin’. It could be before or afterward. No one has to know when.”   “What’s that matter?”   “I’m sayin’ I’ll…suck him off when we’re not actin’. I’ll show you the proof afterward, just this once. Is that good enough for you?”   I gulp. Suck me off? Is she serious? Even Marin hasn’t done that to me yet. I’m not sure this sits well with me. I’m supposed to be helping her. I don’t want her to feel trapped and forced into this situation. There’s nothing in it for her.   “Fine. If ya show me the proof, I won’t need ta watch. Hurry up then,” Ruby says turns around. “I won’t look.”   I guess she’s not leaving… It would be suspicious if someone discovers Ruby moving in and out of our room. It might be for the best. Hina takes off her equipment, so I do the same.   She grabs my hand and drags me into the bathroom, shutting the door behind us.   “Are you serious about this?” I ask. “You don’t have to do this, you know. We can still call off the whole thing. You could just jerk me off or something instead.”   “No, you know that Ruby won’t accept that answer. And I don’t want her to reveal the truth to everyone, and neither do I. My team thinks it’s real because they know my feelin’s for you are real. I fear that you’ll be blamed at the end of it all. I don’t want to do that to you after all you’ve sacrificed for me. It’s my fault for playin’ around too much and put us in this situation.”   “I get that, but why not just have ordinary sex? That way, we both can enjoy it. You know we have Marin’s permission,” I say in a whisper.   “I know, but I told you. I don’t want to ruin you and Marin. That time, you told me that you refused Marin. That’s why I didn’t want to continue when you said that. I knew that if we continued, I wouldn’t be able to say no to you anymore. We hadn’t done anythin’, but it still affected you and Marin. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I permanently damaged your relationship with her,” Hina whispers.   I wouldn’t let that happen. I wish Hina would have a little more trust in me. In my heart is always Marin, no matter how much I like Hina as a friend. I would never betray her like that. I’m only doing this because Marin says it’s okay. I get Hina’s dilemma, though. At this point, I can only respect her decision.   “Besides, doin’ this for you isn’t all that bad. I don’t mind rewardin’ you a little,” she says.   Hina wraps her arms around my neck, pulling herself toward me, our lips eventually touching. A bit of an awkward position due to our height difference. I grab her bottom and shove her toward me. She climbs on me and wraps her legs around me, our heads aligning. We pucker our lips together, lightly at first, but steadily growing in intensity. It’s not long until we take turns wrestling our tongues in her mouth and mine with my boner pressed against her body. I can’t but thrust bottom half toward her while pushing her toward me in rhythm back and forth.   She moves her head away from me, panting. “I think that’s enough. Put me down.”   Done already? Just when it was getting good. I do as she says and put her down. She gets on her knees and then unfastens my belt. She takes it off, unzips my pants, and then gently pulls everything down, underwear included. My hard member springs out in front when my pants are lowered enough, practically pointing straight at Hina.   I gulp as she grabs my rod and wraps her mouth around it. I groan loudly, though I didn’t mean to. Pleasure shoots through my bottom half. It comes in short, intense bursts as her tongue wrestles with the tip of my member.   I wasn’t sure what to expect before she started, but this is quite nice. It’s different than what I usually feel with intercourse. My mind drifts off as I concentrate on every sensation. And all good things come to an end. Although, in this instance, an explosive one.   Hina stays quiet as I pull up my pants and fasten my belt. I guess she can’t talk right now with her mouth full. She opens the door and then walks to Ruby, who is standing at the same spot, still staring at the opposite wall. Hina taps on Ruby’s shoulder.   Ruby turns around and says nothing for several seconds. Then, she interjects, “Hmm… Swallow it.”   “Happy? Can you leave now?”   “Hmph!” Ruby interjects. She opens the door and leaves. Thankfully, she accepted this result. Part of me was skeptical whether or not she would believe that Hina gave me head. But then again, faking the slurping noises would have been hard.   Hina takes a glance in the hall before closing the door.   “Coast is clear?” I ask.   “Yeah…” she responds quietly. Her face is blushed.   “Sooo…how’d it taste?” I ask. I don’t know why, but it’s kind of hot that she did that.   “Like a salty, gooey mushroom. A bit of a stronger taste than what I’m used to,” Hina says and then sucks the inside of her mouth.   “Sounds nasty. Sorry you had to go through that.”   “It’s fine. I liked it.”   “You liked it?”   “Yeah. I like makin’ people feel good.”   I frown with a skew while knitting my eyebrows.   “Don’t get any strange ideas. That was a general statement. I liked doin’ it for you because I like you. Seein’ you happy makes me happy. You’re only the second guy I’ve done that to.”   “Second person? I feel honored. Thank you for that experience,” I say while bowing.   “Don’t be so weird about it. It’s not like Marin hasn’t done that with you, right?”   “Oh…um…”   She pauses for several seconds before asking, “Seriously? I’m the first?”   “Yeah.”   She plays with her hair, looks away, and says, “That makes me a little happy.”   She snaps back at me in a moment’s notice and continues, “But you can’t tell Marin that, ever.”   “Okay,” I reply and then gulp.   “You can’t tell her what I did for you, either.”   “How do you want me to manage that?” I ask. Marin was there too when Ruby said those things to Hina at the Casino. “She knows that we must’ve done something for Ruby to back off.”   “Make up somethin’. Take the opportunity to convince her to explore this new…experience with her. I think I’ve done too much. I don’t want you to associate me with receivin’ that sort of pleasure when Marin has never done it for you.”   “You’re thinking too hard. Don’t underestimate me. My feelings for Marin won’t change regardless of what we do.”   “I’m not sure about that.”   “Just because you sucked me off and made me feel good, doesn’t mean I’ll develop feelings for you and leave Marin. You’re just a friend.”   She smiles and says, “Hearin’ you say that makes it hurt more than I thought it would.”   It makes me think back to what Ruby said. How doing it with me or anyone else would make her feel sad and empty because it’s only physical. “I’m sorry, I—“   “It’s okay. I told you. I’m fine if it’s only physical between us. I agreed to this, so it’s not your fault.”   “For what it’s worth, you’re more than a friend, but I don’t have the same feelings for you as I do Marin. I know you like me, so I want to do something for you too. Ruby said she had that feeling she can’t satiate because she can’t have me. But isn’t it the same for you? If you’re fine with being only physical, wouldn’t it be better for us to bang to relieve you of that feeling?”   “I appreciate the thought, Kai. But it’s not just you I’m worried about. It’s about me too. I don’t have a lot of self-control. Even if you tell me that I can trust you, I can’t trust myself. I don’t want to lose control and crave your affection. I’ll delude myself into thinkin’ that there’s somethin’ more between us. I don’t mean to insult you or Marin, but… I don’t think the love you feel for her is genuine. I fear I’ll end up tryin’ to snatch you from her. Then I’ll lose her or you as a friend. Maybe both.”   “I’m not gonna comment on your accusation for my feelings for Marin. You won’t lose me as a friend no matter what happens, but I get it. I won’t push this matter anymore. But that thing you did in the bathroom. You’ll still do that, right? I mean, if Ruby finds out that it was only one time, who knows what she’ll do, right?”   Hina gulps and answers, “Yeah, of course. If it’s only that, I can do that for you, at least, to reward you for your efforts. And I don’t want to give Ruby any reason to attack me or put you under the bus.”   “Well… We’d better get started with our best act. The audience’s waiting,” I say.   She nods her head and undresses. I do the same, and the rest of the night is just as usual. Kissing and touching are still off-limits during our performance despite what we did in the bathroom, but I get a bit of a bonus at the end.   I wake up a little before dawn. I take a shower, brush my teeth, and then start putting on my clothes and equipment.   “Where are you goin’ this early in the mornin’?” Hina asks.   “I don’t wanna keep Captain Albius waiting if he shows up sooner than dawn,” I respond while continuing to dress.   “Oh, I remember. Jetia said that he wanted to see you, right?”   “Yeah.”   “What news do you think he’s bringin’ you? An early promotion?”   “I highly doubt it.” I have a pretty good idea of why he wants to see me, but I can’t tell Hina about that. She doesn’t know that Captain Albius and General Nero know about the scar on my chest, and I can’t explain it to her without mentioning what can’t be spoken.   “What makes you so sure?”   “We’ve only been caught breaking orders. Why would General Nero approve of something like that? It might have to do something with new orders. Originally he said we could investigate freely after escorting the ministers to the meeting, but that could be off the table now. I’ll have to see.”   “Hmm…okay. I’m goin’ back to sleep.”   “Before you do that, you wanna lock the door after I leave?”   “Oh, yeah. I should,” Hina says, sluggishly standing up from the bed. I try not to let my eyes linger on her bare body.   I unlock the door and then open it slowly, making sure that no one is walking by. Unlikely at this hour, but you never know. I head out and close the door behind me.   I sigh. I haven’t been able to do much Void magic practice these days. Because I’m spending all my time with Hina. Sometimes I wish I could tell her about my secret, so I have more time to practice it. She’d stop teasing about my Fire magic too. If Ada knows, why not Hina?   With Emdos missing, I don’t want to go against his wishes if I can help it. He told me that I should keep this a secret, so I’ve been trying to do that. I couldn’t help it with Ada. It was life or death. We don't get along too well, but I saved her life. She’s not an ingrate. She wouldn’t dare to give away my secret.   He isn’t here yet, so I guess it’s still too early. I don’t mind the downtime with so much going on lately. Not that I’m complaining because it’s better than being stuck in a guard assignment. It’s always exceedingly chaotic or so stagnant and uneventful that the highlight of my day consists of breaking up a street brawl if I’m lucky. If only there was something in between. It would be nice.   I miss our adventuring days. There was monster fighting, and that was it. There weren’t other things to worry about. Now, the Xog want to capture me because of what the Dwarves made me do, and the Dwarves will kill me if I say anything about their underground operations. What’s next? I’ll have a misunderstanding with the Elves somehow and draw a target on my back for them too. Not to mention, General Nero’s fury that could rain down on me at any moment because I’m breaking orders and the inevitability of the masked men’s appearance. I sigh.   Why’d Emdos quit adventuring? He’s well-known in Drymo to the point that random guards know him, but what’s his history? I wish I learned more about him when he was still here. I don’t know anything meaningful. If he’s so well-known, wouldn’t the masked men have known about him? They took into account that our forces were up north in Neomeris and that a large group of S and A-ranked adventurers went to the Cursed Territory. He has a nickname, Glacius. He’s got to be pretty powerful, considering my experiences with Grim Reaper.   I don’t want to consider that he went to the Cursed Territory because then he’d be…gone forever. That masked man I met spoke Emdos’ name as if he knew about him. He laughed, but what does that mean? He killed him? No, I won’t believe that. What else? Emdos is one of them? That’s an even dumber thought. Emdos wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t do that to me.   “Sergeant Kai, you’re early,” Captain Albius says as he walks toward me. “How has your investigation been goin’?”   “Morning, Captain Albius. It’s ongoing, but I think we have a lead,” I respond. Maybe he knows something about Emdos.   “I hear General Nero caught you breakin’ orders. He’s not too happy about it, but you should be safe. He’s put me in charge of makin’ sure you’re compliant now. He’s a busy man.”   I smile and say, “That’s a relief. By the way, do you know about Emdos or Glacius?”   “Hmm…that’s a familiar name. The last time I heard anything about him was when I attended the Academy.”   “The Academy? You, Captain Albius? How long ago was that?”   “Surprised? It was the Soldier track. It’s been…about two decades since I graduated.”   “How’d you know Emdos?”   “I didn’t really know him. I’ve never seen him myself, only rumors toward the end of my years there. I know he was an icon for the school, being one of the youngest teachers there. Last I heard, he was still teachin’ there, but it’s been a while.”   He was a teacher…? Somehow, that doesn’t make that much sense. Emdos said he was an adventurer with my parents. Was that before or after he became a teacher? But teaching doesn’t surprise me at all. He taught me how to manipulate my Mana, after all. Was he a student there too? Moria said I was one of the most talented students to have graduated, so that implies that there were others.   “What’s your connection to him?” Captain Albius asks.   “Oh, umm…” I mumble, unsure if I should tell him the truth. Captain Albius has been helping me with army affairs, but I’m not sure if it’s wise to spill my connection with Emdos. I don’t know if he had any enemies. The fewer people to know, the better, especially since he’s gone. “He was a friend of my parents. They disappeared on me without saying a word, so I wanted to see if Emdos knew anything about that.”   “I see. Your best shot’s to check out the Academy. I’m sure some of the tenured professors would know more about him than me.”   “Okay, I’ll do that, thanks.”   “Anytime. Now, we need to handle your present situation. As you know, the inspection will take place this morning.”   “Yeah…”   “Bazaleon, that ferocious beast you met, is lookin’ for a man with a diagonal scar across his chest. I take it that’s you?”   “Unfortunately.”   He laughs and then continues, “I don’t know what trouble you managed to get yourself in, but I’ve got you covered. I know a healer around these parts. He’ll be able to erase the scar, and you’ll be able to pass the inspection.”   It’s a relief that this isn’t about General Nero finding out we broke orders again, but this is still a problem. I knew it might come to this since we need Healing magic to remove the pass too. I can’t part with this scar. It serves as a reminder for my mistakes. It’s the last thing to remind me of Sitos and my reason to persevere. I ask, “Is there another way?”   “What do you mean?”   “I mean…do I have to heal this scar? Is there another way I can pass the inspection?”   “It’s just a scar. It’s only there because you had a shitty healer when you were treated. If you want another one, I’ll give you a fresh one when we’re back at the Castle.”   “That’s not the same,” I say and press my hand into the center of my armor. I’m glad it turned out this way, even if it was just an incompetent healer. “This particular scar’s special to me. I don’t want to get rid of it.”   “You’re a strange one. Hope you’re lucky.”   “So, there’s another way?”   “Not really. If you want to gamble your life, that’s on you. The plan can still work without you healin’ the scar.”   “What do you plan to do?” I ask.   “I’ll find a scapegoat. We’ll skip the inspection entirely by offering him. If Bazaleon buys it, he’ll get off your back.”   “A scapegoat…someone completely innocent that’s going to get killed because of me?”   “Yeah, but don’t let it bother you too much. He’ll have a choice. His sacrifice in exchange for generous compensation for his family.”   “What if you don’t find someone?”   “These are hard times. There will be someone who’ll take the deal. I know a few in particular who’ve been strugglin’. I’ll meet them now.”   “Wait,” I interject before he turns away. “So, if you find someone, no one else has to be inspected either?”   “Well, I can’t guarantee that. You have another problem?”   “Kinda. So, some of us have something called a pass, including me. For the underground city with the Dwarves.”   “Hmm. I see. Don’t worry about it. I’ll have your gang be part of the last group for inspection. It’ll give me more time to find someone willin’ to be the sacrifice. Good luck,” he says, waves, and walks away.   Now, I’ll have to wait for everyone else to wake up. I have to standby here so that none of the guys leave to remove the pass. It’ll be more convenient if they don’t have to go through the trouble of getting one again. I’m not sure if this is the right thing to do, though. If Captain Albius doesn’t find someone, the other guys will be in hot waters with the pass revealed. Not to mention, I’m risking my own life for this scar. I’m really stupid, but I have complete trust in Captain Albius. He hasn’t let me down yet.   I wait inside for the others to get up. Eventually, they do, and one by one, I inform them of the latest update. After a few times, I ask one of them to take over since I want to get some grub. It’s unfortunate for Deniz and Irwin, though. I’m not going to bother heading over to the Icy Tavern to inform them. They might’ve already left too.   The hours pass, and it’s time to escort the ministers to the Grand Hall. Someone else arrives to guide us there through the crowded streets.   We arrive in a long plaza with a massive castle at the end of it. There are hundreds, no, thousands of people present in organized lines here. Representatives from every country are here, as evident by the flags in each group. None of the Xog are visible, so they must be further ahead. I recognize Xantho and Drosera’s emblems nearby.   The man guides us to join the rest of our kingdom at the end of the line. Men are asked to stand at the front except for the ministers. We’re instructed to be ready to take off our armor and clothes when it’s our turn to reveal our chests. With a line this long, there should be plenty of time for Captain Albius to find a scapegoat.   Wait a minute…how’s Captain Albius supposed to find someone if we’re all gathered here? There could be people assigned a different task than ours.   Suddenly, Pem’s right in front of me. My heart nearly stops as I notice her there. I was lost in thought, so I didn’t see her come into view. Luckily, she hasn’t noticed me as she skips further into the plaza. But if she’s here…   Bazaleon. My entire body freezes as I hold my breath. Calm down. Calm down. He hasn’t noticed me because there are so many of us here. I tell myself to calm down, but my heart won’t slow down. It’s only beating faster. I gulp as Bazaleon stops moving. He turns his head and looks directly at me.   “Ahh… The yellow-belly,” he says.   “Master, what’re you doing? The line starts over there,” Pem says as she skips back toward Bazaleon.   No, no, no… Don’t turn this way. She’s going to recognize me! If she sees me, it doesn’t matter if Captain Albius finds a scapegoat. Because that solves the problem of the man with the diagonal scar. There’s still the other man they’re hunting. They don’t know it’s the same person.   “This Human…” Bazaleon says and points at me.   “Hmm?” Pem interjects and turns her head.   We make direct eye contact. I’m dead.

“We need to move!” I exclaim. If they’re declaring something like that, it’ll obviously be something flashy, like an all-out assault. I didn’t think it would be this soon when they mentioned at the auction that their names would be known by the end of the Inteiru Expota. On the other hand, an attack doesn’t make complete sense because the strongest military forces on Sholoth are gathered in Syrina. The circumstances are not in their favor now compared to back then.   “No. We’re not leaving without Aisha!” Ada exclaims while pulling on the unbreakable chains.   Aisha frowns and lowers her eyes. “I won’t blame you if you leave me. The city is more important right now.”   “You’re more important to us,” Irwin says.   “We’re not abandoning you, Aisha,” Melody says.   “As your leader, I want—“   “Shut up. We came to rescue you, and we’re not leaving without you. I don’t care what you want,” Deniz says.   I don’t blame them. I’d probably do the same thing in their shoes. It’s not like we have to choose one or the other anyway.   “Guys, we can do both,” I say. “You guys stay here and help Aisha escape while the rest of us return to Syrina. We’ll meet you there.”   “Roger that,” Deniz says.   I nod and then run back the way we came from, with Hina and her team following behind. “Ruby, Marin, we’re headed back to the city!”   “’Kay!”   “Wait!” Hina exclaims as we turn into the corridor that we arrived from.   I stop and turn around. “What’s wrong, Pearl?”   She turns her head toward the caged monsters, supposedly Aerkins. It can’t be that she wants to save them in some way in this exact moment, right?   “We can’t just leave those Aerkins trapped in those cages,” Hina says.   I knew it. I want to tell her that she’s stupid and unreasonable at this very moment, only I can’t. I walk up to her and put an arm around her. “I know how you feel, but we don’t have time for this. They could be arriving in Syrina at any moment.”   “You said you didn’t know how you could help me. This could be how.”   We’re going to do this now?   “Hina, what’re you talking about?” Luke asks. “Help you with what?”   “Her goal to give monsters rights,” I clarify.   Luke knits his eyebrows, scrunches his nose, and twists his lips upward.   Hina never told him? So, none of her team members know about her aspirations… Taking advantage of Hina’s hesitation to answer, I smile, careful not to appear disingenuous or sarcastic. I continue, “You know. Mass feed them and cease hunting them."   “Not all monsters, you know that, Darling. Only the good monsters, as you call them. The ones that can make decisions, like Splinter.”   “Thanks for the correction, Pearl,” I say. “That’s basically it, Luke. She has a very ambitious, benevolent mission.”   Luke repeatedly nods his head slowly, still looking at us like we’re crazy. Simon and Dennis give a similar reaction. Luke says, “Hina, I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but warning the city about the group who attacked our city and killed two of our friends is more important than freeing the monsters from their cages.”   “We’re not goin’ to free them yet. Give us a few minutes to try talkin’ to them to see if they can be reasoned with. It’s all I ask,” Hina says.   “Pearl, I doubt these monsters are the good monsters that you want to save. We heard it from Cascabel themselves,” I say while imprinting that name into my head. I’ll never forget it. “They used a new method to tame the Aerkins—the Slave Collar and Slave Remote, no doubt. That’s probably why they appear docile.”   “We don’t know for sure,” Hina says.   “What we do know is that the masked men will appear in Syrina, so let’s go!” Luke exclaims.   “Pearl, we can come back for them later as soon as we deal with the impending threat at the city,” I say.   “Fine.”   “We’ve already wasted a lot of time. I say we go full-speed with Enhancement magic,” Luke suggests.   “Agreed,” I say.   “Can everyone keep up?” Luke asks, glancing over to Marin and Ruby.   “You don’t need to worry about them,” I say. “Lead the way.”   “Try not to lose your footing. It’s slippery,” he says and runs toward the exit.   The rest of us follow him. We progress through the forest and back into Syrina through the Human entrance. Our pace slows because the streets are too crowded to continue at full speed. There’s no panic, so Cascabel probably hasn’t made their first move yet. They’re definitely here somewhere. Just a little further to the plaza.   When I think about revealing to General Nero that I’ve disobeyed his orders, I feel uneasy. In general, I’ve grown more lenient toward not following orders to a T recently, especially when Captain Albius told me a while back that I only received that punishment following the Ragnar incident because the General didn’t like me. There was nothing wrong I did. It wasn’t my fault.   What should matter are results. Although I broke orders, I discovered something crucial about the masked men's identity and their next move. General Nero should understand and value that, so there won’t be a punishment. Worst case, he could take away my promotion.   We reach the plaza, leaving only a straight path to the castle at the end. No doubt we have the attention of everyone present in the area, which includes soldiers from every kingdom. Jetia and the others not taking part in our side objective still diligently standing where we left him.   No one from the sidelines moves as we run across the gap between the armies. Two figures from the castle’s entrance run toward us. Judging by one of their running styles, they’re Xog.   We stop as they eventually intercept us. One guy has a wolf head for a face which makes me a little uneasy even though I shouldn’t be surprised anymore. He’s definitely a Feradian. The other person has a human-looking face except with light gray fur in places where there shouldn’t be any facial hair, leaving only the area around his eyes, nose, and mouth with bare skin. Is he supposed to be a Feradian or a Dociform? I’m not sure, but I’ll assume a Dociform. Both have Titanium equipment.   Hina holds onto my arm.   “Where do you think you’re going, Humans?” the wolf Feradian asks. “Go back to your line.”   “We have important information to deliver. Let us pass,” Luke says, trembling a little.   “What information?” the wolf Dociform asks. “Why don’t you tell us, and we’ll deliver it for you.”   “There’s no time for this,” Luke says and then starts to walk past them.   The wolf Dociform steps in front of him and shoves him to the ground. “Oh? We’re not worth your time?”   Simon and Dennis help Luke back on his feet.   It doesn’t look like these Xog are going to less us pass without a good reason. Luke’s right. We don’t have that much time to waste here. We can’t afford to reveal the information here because of a possible panic. Or they won’t believe us because the world doesn’t know about the attack on our city. And Cascabel is probably already here, planning their attack. We only have one option, but it’s risky. We’re also surrounded by Xog to our left and right in this last stretch to the castle.   “What’s going on, Leon, Jasper?” Pem asks, suddenly appearing behind the two wolf Xog.   Her again.   “Pem…you didn’t have to come. It’s just a few measly Humans,” the wolf Feradian says.   “The others wanted me to check on you two and make sure you don’t get us into trouble,” Pem says.   “We’re doing our jobs properly. These Humans claim they have important information but won’t tell us. Suspicious.”   “What if they do? Do you want to be the one responsible for suppressing it?” Pem asks.   “No, but I don’t trust them. They’ll try something when we least expect it. They’re nervous.”   “Ehehe! Don’t you know that yellow-belly is among them?” Pem asks and points to me.   “Oh, he’s that one Bazaleon mentioned? Birds of a feather do flock together!”   The three of them burst out laughing.   This two-faced rat girl... I really don’t know what’s going on in her mind. First, she acted all innocent when we met, but then she spewed lies about me to the Feloidians, which nearly got me killed, though she saved me from that. It’s her fault that I met Bazaleon and got called a yellow-belly. Now she’s reveling in it. At least I’m not the only one they’re laughing at this time.   The wolf Dociform stops laughing and asks, “Who are you Humans trying to deliver the information to?”   “We need to see the king,” Luke says.   “So, you plan to intrude the Grand Hall…”   “We’ll allow the yellow-belly to enter the castle,” the wolf Feradian says. “But, you’ll have to deal with the Elves and Dwarves first. The other Humans wait outside with us.”   “I’ll tag along with him as insurance,” Pem says.   I guess that’s my queue. Hina lets go of me, and then I run past the two wolf men with Pem alongside me.   “What’re you up to?” I ask. Is it a coincidence that things at progressing in my favor? Without Pem’s interruption, we would have had trouble getting past those two Xog.   “Shut up, Human,” she answers.   I frown and cock an eyebrow. She said I was her first Human friend, but she doesn’t act like it. I can’t let my guard down around her.   Soon, we reach the entrance, where members from every race and kingdom stand guard. I’m tempted to take a deeper look at all the different types of Xog on the left side, but I only get a glimpse. I don’t dare look again. I saw a bird’s beak, a lizard’s tail, and horns. I know they’re not monsters, but my instincts want to tell me that they are.   “Halt,” an Elf says. “Declare yourself and your purpose.”   “I’m Sergeant Kai from Drosera. I have critical information to pass along to the kings,” I inform and then widen my eyes. The group of Dwarves next to the Elves are Vanguards. They don the same style of Titanium armor. I can’t tell if any of these Dwarves know me from yesterday because I don’t want any misunderstandings. There will be more of them inside, right? Proof that I’m not going to rat.   “What kind of information?” he asks.   “It concerns public safety,” I say and then feel the atmosphere around me changing the moment I do.   The Dwarves glare at me.   “This Human isn’t lying,” Pem adds. “I’ll keep an eye on him.”   “Very well. You have our permission to proceed,” the Elf says as their group steps out of the way.   “So, I’m good to go, right?” I ask, slowly walking forward. Are the Dwarves and Humans supposed to say something too? Captain Albius isn’t here, so he must be inside. Well, if they’re staying silent, it must be okay.   “Be warned, we will knoo if ye be tellin’ de troof, boy,” a Dwarf says as I pass by their group.   It’s really just an unfortunate misunderstanding. I speed up to a sprint as I go through the open gates. The number of troops inside are fewer in number spread farther apart along the walls on both sides. The Grand Hall must be behind the tall double doors at the end of this short path. Captain Albius stands guard by the double doors with another Human, two Elves, and two Vanguards.   “Sergeant Kai, what brings you here?” Captain Albius asks.   “I’ve got an important message. Is this the Grand Hall?” I ask.   “You’ve come to the right place,” Captain Albius says and then approaches the double doors.   I follow closely behind. The doors creak loudly as he pushes them open. The chatter inside comes to an abrupt stop.   Over a hundred figures appear in clusters around the room. The doors close automatically behind us.   Bazaleon sticks out like a sore thumb from the Xog crowd. A cold chill goes down my spine, thinking about my close encounters with him.   “What is the meaning of this interruption?” King Diell asks.   Get a hold of yourself. I focus on the task at hand and answer, “Sergeant Kai speaking, I bring urgent news. I discovered the snake earring bandit group is the same as the white-masked group who attacked Drymo. They call themselves Cascabel and should’ve already arrived.”   “What?!” the room roars.   Judging by their reaction, they’ve already been informed about the attack on the city. People murmur and shuffle around the room.     “Mobilize our units outside now!” King Diell exclaims.   Captain Albius turns around and rushes over to the door. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blows him, Pem, and me further into the room.   “You’re going nowhere!” someone exclaims, consequently silencing the room.   I stand up and scan where I stood. Two white-masked men appear floating in the air above the exit. I widen my eyes. It’s too late; they’re here!   “No one move. Our allies outside will wreak havoc around the city should you choose to make a scene here,” one of the masked men warns.   I grit my teeth and fists, recognizing this voice. It’s him—the one who turned my life upside down.   “What do you want?” King Diell asks.   “Simple. We only have a few demands. First, you’ll cancel your reforms for coexistence.”   “Why? What do you hope to gain?” King Diell asks.   “It’s the sole purpose for our formation. We directly oppose the idea. There’s no other reason. Should you ignore our wishes, you’ll face the consequences. You wouldn’t want to have another tragedy, would you?”   “Is that a threat?”   “It’s a warning. Let Drymo serve as an example of what could happen if your race supports coexistence, Elves, Dwarves, and Xog. We’ll know of your decision tomorrow. Those who openly support and push for coexistence will be punished. We have a long list of individual supporters on our radar already.”   “Your second demand?” King Diell asks.   “We want some of your B-Glims.”   B-Glims…? What’s that? I thought there were only Glims and P-Glims.   No one responds. The masked man continues, “You know staying silent won’t do you any favors with your furry friends present.”   “That’s underhanded.”   “Coexistence is a pain, isn’t it? So, how about it?”   “We can’t give you those. They are our national treasures,” King Diell replies.   “You’ll be left with no choice but to hand them over if you don’t want some of your other secrets spilling into the public.”   “I do not know who told you about our treasures, but we will not hand them to you.”   “We’ll see about that. I’m looking for a book trilogy that starts with the letter ‘M.’ Do you know anything about that?”   “What game are you playing? If you want a book, go to the library.”   “Hmm… I believe the second letter is ‘W.’”   “Im-impossible…” King Diell mutters. “How do you…?”   “Third letter ‘M.’”   “Shut your mouth!” King Diell exclaims.   “Stop!” multiple individuals yell.   “Fourth—“   “I will hand you Drosera’s B-Glims!” King Ford says quickly. “Do not speak another word of this matter.”   What’s this reaction? This book trilogy has worked up three of our kings and several others. A book that starts with the letters ‘MWM?’ What sort of word is that? I still can’t wrap my head around that a type of Glim is a national treasure.   The masked man responds, “No, we want the B-Glims in this castle. You’ll give them to us tomorrow morning in front of the castle.”   “Who in the world are you?” King Diell asks.   “Your nightmare. Do we have a deal?”   “What deal? You fiend,” King Diell says.   The man chuckles and then says, “My silence in exchange for your B-Glims. It’s a fair trade. Or would you prefer that I utter the book’s full name right here?”   King Diell says, “You would not dare. If you know of the book, then you must also know—“   “Shut up, you fool. You have said enough,” King Ford says.   After pondering for several seconds, King Diell replies, “Fine. You have a deal.”   “Don’t worry, we aren’t going to rob you. We only require one of each type.”   “We will have it ready for you tomorrow. How do we find you?”   “We’ll make you aware of our presence when the time comes.”   “Fine,” King Diell responds. “Is that all?”   “Not quite. This evening, we want you to make a public announcement to spread awareness of our name, Cascabel.”   “Fine.”   “That’s all. Clear the hall leading up to this room without alerting to our presence, and we’ll be on our way,” the masked man says.   King Diell signals his hand.   “Captain Albius, take care of it,” General Nero says.   “Lotrem, ye go,” the Dwarven king says.   Hearing a familiar name, I look over and see two familiar faces. Lotrem and Nazug with the Dwarven crowd that only number ten heads including the king. Hold on a second. They’ve all got Mithril armor. Are they above the Vanguards?   “Shadow,” the Elven king says.   Captain Albius, Lotrem, and an Elf walk toward the only exit to the room.   So, Lotrem and Nazug have control over the Vanguards, who can only be elite national guards at this point. When the Vanguards told me not to rat, did the order come from them or someone higher up? I thought it was Floyd, but what if it was Nazug? I know they’ve got a long-range communication tool. They went through a lot of trouble silencing me. What did they want to keep secret? Is it still the Aerkin arena, or is it because someone high up the Dwarven ladder is participating in illegal activities?   The doors creak open as Captain Albius pulls them open. Lotrem and an Elf following closely behind.   That reminds me. Why weren’t there any Xog in that hall? I didn’t get a good look before, but several other menacing Xog stand beside Bazaleon. The three to the right of Bazaleon look equally as dangerous, not losing at all in physical size. They’re all decked out in Mithril armor too.   The first one with a bull’s head is the tallest of them all. He’s got two curved horns on top of his head, hooves for feet, brown hair covering his body, and a tail. Of course, he probably has an appropriately sized weapon on his back.   The next Xog has the thickest frame, and he’s a tad taller than Bazaleon. A bear’s head rests on his shoulders. White fur covers his body.   The third one gives me a chill not because of his size but his appearance. He looks like some sort of lizard beast, but he also has a pair of wings. Scales cover his entire body outside his armor, including his head, arms, legs, wings, and tail. He has spines around his body with clusters of them on top of the head and along the tail.   The Xog after that has much bigger wings, but that’s expected of someone with an eagle’s head. Compared to the four to his left, he doesn’t look as intimidating. That giant bow he’s got resting on his back seems interesting, though.   Hmm? A rabbit girl? Other than a small pink triangular-shaped nose and two long, thin ears on top of her head, she looks like a Human girl. Strangely enough, I find her a little cute. It’s too bad her assets are covered by her armor. Actually, nevermind. Her disproportionate thick legs ruin her otherwise great feminine appearance. Or maybe it’s really fluffy white fur. She would’ve been like a cuter version of Pem.   I thought Bazaleon said only the strong should rule. That explains why they opt to have no extra guards because their decision-makers are the most powerful. But is this girl supposed to be one of those people?   It’s hard to see how many they have because of the bigger types blocking my view. I know of the Felodians and Muriforms, but I don’t know how many more types there are. I presume they have one representative of each kind. Could this girl be the representative for the Muriforms? I think Pem mentioned that included rabbits. Or is she considered a Feradian because of her legs, making her something else?   Speaking of which, where’s Pem? She’s not where I thought she landed after the knockback. I glance around the room without any luck. And then a thought comes to mind. She can’t possibly be thinking about attacking the masked men before they leave… She should be smart enough to know that provoking them here might result in their comrades attacking the city.   The doors open again.   Captain Albius enters the room and informs, “It’s clear.”   He keeps one of the doors open while Lotrem holds the other one.   “Don’t forget about your end of the bargain,” the masked man says, slowly descending to the ground. A wall of Scrap Mana appears behind them as they walk out. One more footstep resounds and then silence. The layer of Scrap Mana disappears within a second, but both are already gone by that time.   How?   Captain Albius and Lotrem return to their original positions. The room remains silent for a few more seconds.   The moment both doors close, King Diell exclaims, “Xog! Are you toying with us? Why did you not inform us of their presence?”   Bazaleon laughs before replying, “You’re so quick to pin the blame on us, aren’t you, Human?”   “You put great pride in your superior sensory system, but you are telling me that you did not hear or smell them before they appeared?” King Diell asks.   “It’s good enough that I could smell you and the other Human kings’ fear the moment the man spoke of that book. It’s laughable coming from the race telling other races to be transparent. Do you have something you’d like to share with the rest of us?”   “Do not change the topic,” King Diell says.   “We would relish knowing as well,” the Elven king says. “What is so paramount about a book that simply learning the name is perilous enough for you to warrant giving away your national grade treasures to gangsters?”   “Those men didn’t have an odor before they appeared, and I assure you that they didn’t make a sound either,” Bazaleon informs.   “Before? So you could track them now?” King Diell asks.   “No, they’ve covered themselves in an offensive foul-smelling odor. Pem, perhaps you can explain better now that they’re gone,” Bazaleon says.   Pem walks out from behind Bazaleon with her nose pinched closed. So that’s where she was. She lets go of her nose, takes a sniff, and then gags.   “I’m sorry,” Pem says, keeping her nose pinched. “The smell is still in the room.”   “Pem’s one of our best scent trackers in the kingdom. We have no one more qualified than her,” Bazaleon informs.   “It’s impossible. I could only smell the awful stench around their bodies,” Pem says.   “There you have it,” Bazaleon says.   “Could you not track the origin of this foul odor?” King Diell asks.   “Your enemies aren’t stupid. If they’ve prepared this trick for us, they’re aware of our weaknesses. They’ll have a way to remove it and misdirect us,” Bazaleon says.   “Weaknesses? I never thought I would hear that word from your mouth,” King Diell says.   Bazaleon growls and then says, “Don’t get the wrong idea. You’ve allowed them to bend you over while having to fancy their every demand. If this was in our territory, we would rip them to shreds. They would not dare pull this stunt with us. I’ve answered your question. Now it’s your turn.”   King Diell exchanges a few glances with the other Human kings before responding,  “We cannot tell you anything about the book. This is secret knowledge passed down from one generation to the next that only a few select people from each kingdom are allowed to know at any one point. I have not read the book, so I do not know why it is forbidden. It is a tradition held strict by our ancestors.”   “That is quite a predicament if Cascabel holds this awareness now. So, you will grant them whatever they optate every single time they come before you in order to preserve your secret?” the Elven king asks.   “No, we will think of something in the future. We only comply now to keep our residents safe. We need to figure out how the information leaked first.”   “Our kind would be glad to help you figure out the traitor if you give us enough incentive,” Bazaleon says.   “No, we will do our own investigation,” King Diell answers.   “Suit yourself.”   The doors burst open. Several of the Xog I saw at the entrance run into the room. They exclaim, “Sir!”   Is there something going on outside? A stream of Humans, Elves, and Dwarves are approaching from behind them.   “Is everything fine in here?” the wolf Feradian asks.   “We had two unexpected guests, but they’re gone now,” Bazaleon informs. “Is there any abnormality outside?”   “We’re sorry, sir. Everything was normal until this odor appeared,” the wolf Feradian informs. “Give us the order, and we’ll look for the intruders.”   “That won’t be necessary,” Bazaleon says. “Go back to your station.”   “Understood,” he says and then leaves.   Silence fills the room again as the doors slowly come to a close.   “Earlier, we denoted that we are partial in pursuing coexistence. However, in light of the incipient situation, I believe it is in our best interest to no longer be involved with your business,” the Elven king declares.   “What? We have not even begun negotiating,” King Diell says.   “Give us an equal amount of B-Glims that you plan to give to Cascabel, and we will remain interested,” the Elven king says.   “Do not be unreasonable…we do not have that many to spare. They are not useful to you if you do not know what they are.”   “Then tell us what they are utilized for.”   “Unfortunately, that is classified information. Even among us, there are not many who know of their purpose or existence.”   “Everything is a secret with you, Humans. Regardless, I insist that you provide us with B-Glims and their intended purport.”   “If they are what you want, then it is only fair that we demand something of equal value from you,” King Diell says.   “Then we are finished here,” the Elven king says. “We will be departing first.”   “Wait a moment,” King Ford says. “I am willing to put some of Drosera’s B-Glims on the table for negotiations. Please, consider it. How about we adjourn the meeting for today and continue our discussions tomorrow?”   “That is fine. We will consider it. Shadow, prepare our units outside,” the Elven king says. The Elf from earlier walks to the exit.   King Diell turns to me and asks, “Sergeant Kai, is it? Which kingdom are you affiliated with?”   “Drosera, sir,” I respond.   “I appreciate you making an attempt to come here and warn us about Cascabel, but how did you come to learn of this information?” King Diell asks.   General Nero’s gaze falls onto me. I have everyone’s attention. I hoped this situation would never arrive. What do I say? Even though it was too late to be of any use, it seems like he views it as a good thing. Do I claim the credit or give it to General Nero?   I know the Dwarves told me not to rat, and I don’t know precisely what they’re referring to anymore. If I give my story, I would have to at least include the part where we went to the auction and followed a lead from there. Based on the discussion, we’re in a poor negotiating position, so if I tell the higher-ups that the Dwarves sold Cascabel weapons, that could be a good thing.   The Vanguards called me an army dog, so I can’t give General Nero credit. If they think I was taking orders from someone higher up, who knows how they’ll react. I have to take full responsibility. I can’t lie anyway with the Xog present in the room. Though I can’t tell the whole truth either, so lying is inevitable. It shouldn’t concern them enough for any of them to get involved in our Human business, I’d have to hope.   I need to go with something because they can smell my fear and hear my pounding heart. I can’t wait too long.   “I’m sorry to interject, King Diell, but he was acting under my orders,” General Nero says before I have a chance to respond.   What’s he doing? Bazaleon and the other Xog seem to have no reaction. Neither do the Dwarves.   “Oh, is that so?” King Diell asks. “The orders where you told him to go back to the inn and stay there until this morning?”   “Yes, sir. I could not be specific because it was not a private conversation. My original orders for Sergeant Kai and Sergeant Hina’s team were to investigate, so that’s what I meant when I said my orders would not change. Our king's friend was part of the conspiracy to attack our city, so forgive me for not sharing this information before. We didn’t know who we could trust. We had reason to believe they would be at the Inteiru Expota because Sergeant Kai encountered them during the Rising Champions. Specifically, I wanted Sergeant Kai and Sergeant Hina to investigate the Dwarven hub underneath Syrina.”   Damn, did Captain Albius tell General Nero that I got the pass and intentionally broke orders? I’m screwed in so many ways. Though, I’m concerned more about the Dwarves right now. General Nero has painted a target on my back whether or not he realizes it. I don’t want them throwing me at Xog, especially after…wait a minute.   Bazaleon already found the supposed perpetrator of that whole mess about the man with the diagonal scar across his chest. Even if they told the Xog that it was me all along, who are they going to believe? Pem, his trusted pupil or bunch of Dwarves? Especially if it’s after I speak poorly about them. Anything they might say about me after the fact would be passed off as a grudge.   “I see. Perhaps Sergeant Kai can fill us in on the details of his investigation. What did you discover down there?” King Diell asks.   The atmosphere thickens. I know the Dwarves are sending me death stares right now, and I don’t want to make any eye contact with them. Especially not after my response.   “We attended some black market auction sponsored by the Dwarves in the underground city earlier this morning thinking that Cascabel could make an appearance there. The Dwarves sold a large Mithril sword to someone with snake earrings, and since we didn’t have a lot of leads, we ended up tailing them to their hideout.”   King Diell knits his eyebrows. “You found the elusive snake earring bandits’ hideout? How did you manage to accomplish that?”   “We had a few of our allies camped outside the city. We were told there was a secret entrance to the underground city, so some of us waited in case suspicious people came through. They tailed them to note the location before coming back and leading us there.”   “You remained undetected?”   “Yes, until we decided to raid the place. Unfortunately, only the lower-ranked members were there by the time we arrived. That’s where we recognized the familiar white masks stashed in one of the rooms. We ran back as soon as we could.”   “I will commend you for your bravery, showing no hesitation to rush into a dangerous situation. We need more soldiers like you, however, I advise you to avoid being reckless in the future. We cannot afford to lose any more exceptional soldiers.”   “Thank you, sir. I’ll keep that in mind,” I respond.   King Diell turns his head toward the Dwarves. “King Grossel, so you have sold Mithril weapons sooner to Cascabel than to us?”   “Ay be nae in charge o’ dat, but we did nae knoo dat been Cascabel. We be nae breakin’ any rules we have set.”   “Sergeant Kai, was there anything else you wanted to mention in your sightings underneath the city?”   “Well, there is one more thing…” I say. The Elves will be outraged.   “Choose yer words carefully, boy,” King Grossel warns.   I don’t plan to say anything about the Aerkin arena. That’s a one-way ticket of getting permanently blacklisted by the Dwarves.   “Let the boy speak.”   “Cascabel were selling Slave Collars, Slave Remotes, and…well…two female Elves at the auction.”   Gasps resound from the Humans and Elves.   “Is your intention to instigate a war with us, King Grossel?!” the Elven king exclaims. “You neglected to mention these details in your report.”   “Dis be new ter me tew,” King Grossel says. “Ay dun oversee de auction directly.”   “Ludicrous. Your underlings run the auction.”   “Ma officers be nae required ter report every wee din’ ter me. three o’ dem runs the de auction, and it juss happened dis morn.”   “So, after learning of this, you still believe it is something to make light of?”   “Basically. Wha’ be de big deal? We weor nae de ones sellin’ de slaves.”   “That is impertinent. Officers under your supervision sanctioned the sale to occur. King Diell, you side with the Dwarves on this? I thought we reached a mutual understanding eight months ago.”   “Dun be cryin’ ter de Humans nigh. Dae have known abart Human slave trade an’ have nae made a fuss abart it. I guess ye Elves be special.”   “Do not think you are special. It is pellucid as day that you have blackmailed the Humans. Why else do you not trade Mithril with them, albeit they had favored you greatly when the races converged here a decennium ago? You are the only race to receive particularly favored treatment and receive an exclusive underground territory.”   “Dare be nae blackmail. We juss have a mutual understandin’, dats all. We traded wiff de Xog ‘cuz we share de same philosophy: only the strong shou’ rule,” King Grossel says and then laughs. “If ya want ter talk abart blackmail, be dat nae wha’ ye be doin’ roight nigh by referrin’ ter eight monfs ago?”   “Yes, about that,” King Diell says. “We compensated you and fulfilled your requests, but as you can see now, it was never our doing. It has been Cascabel all along. Do you not think an apology is in order?”   “We have done nothing erroneous to verbalize any apologies. Cascabel has always been your muddle to handle that has gotten out of control. They only exist because you commenced the coexistence movement.”   “Do not forget that we started it, together with the Dwarves and Xog. I only took the first step. You share some of the responsibilities as soon as you agreed. Regardless of our deal with the Dwarves, you are still benefitting from the movement, are you not?”   “It is as you verbalize, but we cannot ignore the fact that the Dwarves are utilizing the space you granted them to green-light the sale of Elven slaves.”   “Let go o’ dis already, wou’ ye?”   “You would not be so nonchalant about this if someone was selling your kind.”   “Who says dat nae one sells Dwarven slaves? It happens all de time. We dun have a problem wiff dat.”   “Oh, really? Your women are… Who would?”   “Our women be what? Ye skin color changin’ freak.”   “Let us not resort to insults, shall we? Let us have a civil discussion,” King Diell says.   “It be hard ter stay civil when King Cornaiff be baitin’ me wiff false assumptions.”   “What is erroneous? Enlighten us. How much would someone pay for a night with one of your women?”   “Ye assume dat all slaves be female. Male Dwarven slaves be high in demand ‘cuz we have superior innate strengff an’ stamina compared ter Humans an’ Elves. Ye wou’ nae buy an Elf fer labor work.”   The door opens. Shadow says, “We are ready.”   “Hmm. Give us a moment. Something has come up.”   “As you wish, we will be waiting,” Shadow says and then closes the door.   “King Grossel, I admit I made a misguided postulation, so I will be straight with you. Outlaw Elven slave trade entirely. Do not sanction the transactions to occur in your underground market. In exchange, I will no longer pry into your deal with the Humans.”   “Dats a problem fer us. If we start crackin’ down on wha’ be allowed, we will lose attraction. People come ter us ‘cuz dae have de comfort knowin’ dat dae have complete freedom on wha’ dae ken buy an’ sell.”   “So making a profit is of more preponderant concern?” King Cornaith asks.   “By creatin’ a market free o’ discrimination, people bring all sorts o’ items ter sell. Sometimes we take interest an’ participate in de trade directly. We put alerts on materials dae we need an’ short circuit de process entirely. We buy it befer it hits de market. Ye canna dae dat in a public market governed by independent traders.”   “Be that as it may, prohibiting Elven slave trade cannot possibly harm you to the point that it ruins your orchestration to engender a rigged market.”   “It makes nae sense ter outlaw only Elven slave trade, considerin’ dat we be movin’ toward coexistence. Dats racist.”   “Hmph. Verbalizing that it is racist only when it suits you. Coexistence does not mean we have to achieve consummate parity. I surmise we can both concur on that. We have an extravagant quantity of underlying differences.”   “Yis.”   “How about ostracizing slave trade entirely?” King Cornaith suggests.   “Nae, slavery be necessary. Oderwise, dare be nae way ter collect payment frum doze tew broke ter pay. Some be willin’ ter become a slave ter meet dat end. Oders risk slavery ter make a profit.”   “Who is disposed to become a slave? To be mistreated and desecrated until death?”   “Dare be a proper procedure fer all dis. We allow slavery in our country, an’ we provide certain basic roights. First, dare be a contract an’ understandin’ betweun de master an’ de slave. Dis includes de nature o’ work an’ duration o’ time served fer de slave. It be a crime ter go beyon’ de rules set forff by de contract er ter intentionally hurt de slave.”   “I guarantee malefactors do not care about this felicitous practice you speak of. I am certain Elves do not appreciate abduction and rape.”   “Ay be juss sayin’ it be nae sensible ter ban slavery ‘cuz people abuse it. Dare will always be doze who dae nae follow de law. Why dun ye ban all weapons ‘cuz dare be doze who dare use it fer murder.”   “The Elves are simply looking for a resolution,” King Diell says. “Do you have another suggestion since prohibiting slavery is not an option?”   “King Cornaiff, outlawin’ slavery be nae wha’ ye want. If we dae dat de slave traders will simply go ter a different location fer dare transaction. Dis way, ye knoo whaur dae be likely ter make an appearance.”   “So, you will notify us whenever Elven slaves come into sight?”   “Yis, we cou’ dae dat, but dae wou’ catch on sooner er later an’ it wou’ be nae different dan bannin’ it.”   “Get to the point. What is your proposition?”   “Ye cou’ be present fer de auction an’ play by de bewk.”   “You are suggesting that we purchase our own brethren back? That is glorified extortion in disguise.”   “Nae one wou’ disapprove if dat be yer approach. Dare have been disputes in de past ‘cuz o’ upset folk dat loses a bid. As long as dae be settlin’ dare feud outside de city, dare be nae issue wiff us. Each person be responsible fer dare own safety an’ if dae meet dare demise by anoder party later down de road, it be nae our problem.”   “Hmm…” King Cornaith interjects.   “Ay am sorry if dat does nae satisfy ya. Hoo abart we put Miffril on de table as well? O’ course, we will allow Elves ter enter de underground area tew, but ye will have ter follow de rules an’ get yerself a pass.”   “What is the subsisting method to obtain one of those?”   “Go ter any Dwarven blacksmiff an’ ask fer it. Dae will brand yer skin wiff a hot metal.”   “How troglodytic. We are not going to engage in that practice. What is the purport of this inane action?”   “Ter grant ya limited access.”   “Limited, for what purport? You verbalize as if it is illegal.”   “Officially, it is illegal as Humans,” King Diell adds. “This was a result of our agreement with the Dwarves a decade ago.”   “So, you invented a way for Humans to access the area, but additionally gave rise to a law that enjoins it? That is imbecilely incoherent.”   King Grossel laughs and then says, “Indeed! King Diell, dun ye agree?”   “I know where you are going with this, and you know my answer.”   “Bah. Ye have got ter be more open-minded. Lewk, we will put Miffril on de table fer ya tew. If ye agree on dis, de Elves will be satisfied regardin’ slavery, an’ we ken move on.”   “If we are going down this road, the Elves and Xog will have to agree too.”   “What is it that I am acceding to?” King Cornaith asks.   “Have ye heard o’ de Achilles Sundance Circuit?”   “Is that the savage sport where monsters fight one another?”   “Dats de one.”   “I do not mind as long as you have safety measures in place. It will only be a reason for apprehension if it becomes hazardous for my brethren. If you agree to be held culpable for the consequences that may result, I agree.”   “Wha’ abart ya, Bazaleon?”   “I don’t care as long as those Slave Collars are not involved,” Bazaleon says.   “Hoo abart it, King Diell?”   “Fine. I agree to legalize it in Syrina. However, you must construct a checkpoint outside the city for the passage of monsters. I will not allow monsters to be roaming free throughout the city. You handle what needs to be done, and as King Cornaith has said, you will be held accountable for any damages that occur.”   “Oi’m glad we came ter an agreement. In dat case, de pass will nae longer be required ter enter de underground hub. King Cornaiff, ye will also stop pryin’ intae our deal wiff de Humans, yis?”   “Yes, but we withal wish to capitalize on your black market to flag certain products.”   “Okay, we ken dae dat.”   “There is one more matter where we require some discussion. Do you condone the implementation of Slave Collars and Slave Remotes? Especially now that we are certain that Cascabel is responsible for bringing it to inception.”   “Slave Collars be a tool useful fer keepin’ slaves in line if dae be actin’ art o’ line er breakin’ de terms o’ dare contract. Loike all tools, it ken be misused.”   “I propose that we enforce this contract you speak of in all areas in Syrina outside the underground district. No man or woman shall keep a slave without the compulsory paperwork or enforce a Slave Collar unless absolutely obligatory. The Xog can assist us with their deception detecting abilities in lieu of an indited contract or circumstances with disputes,” King Cornaith suggests.   “What would we receive in return?” Bazaleon asks.   “Your race expressed revulsion when we discussed the appearance of Slave Collars and Slave Remotes in the past year. I do not believe anyone who wishes to live would enslave your kind. Still, if the Elves, Humans, or Dwarves optically discern any Xog entangled with a Slave Collar, we will notify your kind without any delay.”   “You have my approval.”   “If Bazaleon says so, Ay will agree ter yer suggestion.”   “Agreed.”   “Magnificent. Let us exhaustively talk over the specifics on how we are going to implement and enforce the terms we established at a later time. We will make our departure for the day,” King Cornaith says as he makes his way out. The dozens of Elven guards and officials follow him. “Do not misconstrue this gesture to indicate that we altered our stance on coexistence. This is a separate matter.”   “Sergeant Kai, you may leave right after the Elves. Thank you for your service. I believe you deserve some recognition for your work today despite some omitted information,” King Diell says.   Is he talking about the Aerkin arena? It did sound like he already knew but could do nothing about it without evidence. I reply, “Thank you, sir. I could not have done it without the help of Sergeant Hina’s and Sergeant Aisha’s platoon. They deserve some praise too.”   “Very well. King Ford, I am sure that you can delegate the rewards accordingly.”   Rewards? Awesome. I thought everything was all for naught when our warning was too late. If King Diell is complementing me, General Nero will be viewed in a positive light too. That means he won’t punish me for disobeying his orders.   “Yes, I will handle it,” King Ford responds.   “Good. I think we can conclude this meeting now that the Elves have left. King Ford, King Velyn, and King Carian, we should stay and confer our next steps. The ministers of each kingdom are dismissed. The Dwarves will depart after Sergeant Kai, then the Xog, and then the remaining Humans.”   “Sergeant Kai, take Dyfed, Nudd, and Guto with you,” General Nero says.   Who? The three ministers we’re in charge of separate from the Human crowd. Oh, them. I do just that and escort them outside.

“Welcome, Sigma 4,” Captain Albius says. He points to the table across from Ada and her group. “Have a seat over there.”   I walk over, avoiding eye contact with Sigma 3 and sit down at the indicated table. Captain Albius’ platoon are all standing at the end of the room in a straight line. Ruby, Marin, Jetia, and the other four take a seat around the table.   “Now that both platoons are here, we’ll move on to the reason why you’re here. Omega 7 has been assigned as an overseer to Sigma 3 and Sigma 4. As you already know, you’ll be participatin’ together in the Rising Champions. I’ve already received word about your opponents. They’re from Xantho. You’re our away team, so they’ll have your files and precisely know what they’re up against. I’ve also been informed that they’re under new leadership. For some reason, the king decided to replace all but one general. In fact, the group you’re up against are composed of entirely new soldiers trained by the new brass. So preparation might not be needed to succeed, but my policy’s not to underestimate opponents.   “And so, we’ll be spendin’ the next two weeks preparin’ for the battle. I have several years of experience under my belt as both a participant and an overseer. Those with less experience trick themselves into thinkin’ that clumpin’ everyone in one training works best. They’re wrong. There’s a lot of problems with operatin’ as large groups in training and on the battlefield, especially. It limits movements and strategy. The trick’s to break into smaller groups so that each group has a specialized task workin’ toward one goal.   “So, after lunch, I’ll split you into smaller groups and pit you against each other. Fightin’ each other is a good way of learnin’ the weaknesses and strengths of your allies. You’ll learn to work together and build teamwork for the Rising Champions. I’ll also need to see what you’re capable of before developin’ our strategy. Enjoy the feast we’ve prepared for you.”   Captain Albius and his men move out of the way, revealing many identical prepared dishes behind them. They each grab a plate and set it in front of us.   “Here you go, Sergeant Kai,” Captain Albius says as he sets the plate of food in front of me.   “Thanks for the food, Captain Albius,” I say, and then dig in.   He does the same for Ruby. “And for Corporal Ruby as well. You look like you’re starvin’. It’ll be harsh training for the next two weeks. Make sure you eat your meats if you want to replenish your energy.”   Ruby looks at the food and then glares at Captain Albius. I’ll be pissed if she still doesn’t change her behavior toward him when I told her upfront to do something about it the same day. She looks down at the plate and frowns. Her lips twitch as if she’s overcome with anger. But it could also mean that she’s trying not to react negatively.   The twitching stops several seconds later. She looks up and says, “Thanks….Captain Albius.”   Captain Albius smiles and answers, “Anytime.”   That’s a relief. Ruby is on good behavior. I continue with my meal.   We take some time eating until everyone is ready. Captain Albius has each of us formally introduce ourselves and write down our name and rank on a piece of paper for his records.   “I’ll announce the first two groups for the mock battle. The first group, Sergeant Kai from Sigma 4, Corporal Marin from Sigma 4, Soldier Laud from Sigma 4, and Corporal Ada from Sigma 3.”   Figured he would put me with Ada. But that’s good. She doesn’t know how we’re really scored. I glance over at Ada and smile. She returns a frown and glare.   Captain Albius continues, “Their opponents will be Sergeant Aisha from Sigma 3, Corporal Deniz from Sigma 3, Soldier Powell from Sigma 3, and Soldier Garen from Sigma 4. I’ve reserved one of the large rooms on the third floor of the training grounds. We’ll do the mock battle there. My men will bring the necessary items.”   “Before that, I’d like to sweep any hostility between the platoons under the rug. I’m aware that Sergeant Kai and Corporal Ada have a history. Why don’t you shake hands since you’ll be workin’ together for the next two weeks?” Captain Albius asks and then glances over at me with a slight smile.   “Of course,” I answer, stand up, and then walk over to Ada. With a smile, I say, “I don’t know if I’ve ever rubbed you the wrong way, but I hope we can overcome our differences and win.”   I extend an open palm out in front of me. She stands up and grabs my hand. She smiles and says, “I’m sure you know what you did, exactly. It would be shitty if you didn’t.”   She’s referring to that day. I remember it clearly, but don’t let it show on my face. If I’m not allowed to talk about it, she shouldn’t be able to either. I tighten my grip on her hand. She does the same to me. My smile stretches wider.  “Last time I checked, you were attacking me with slander.”   “I remember something different.”   “Well, whatever happened…” I say. I really want to sock her in the face, though. Or even better. Subject her to the same thing I went through. If she’s continuously hostile throughout the Rising Champions, and I suck up to General Nero to get on his good side... Maybe my wish will come true. “I’m ready to move on from it. I’ll forgive all the times you stepped on me, even though I haven’t done anything to you, so we can restart from a blank slate.”   “I stepped on you because you asked for it. If I remember correctly, you liked it. With the overwhelming evidence that the Castalia kid was a conspirator, you still defended him. Maybe you just wanted to be abused. I’ll let Hina know that’s how you get off.”   “Hina has nothing to do with this. Can we restart from zero or not?”   “Fine. Only until the battle’s over,” she says and then releases her hand from mine. She wipes her hand on her pants. I try not to laugh as I return to my previous seat. She doesn’t realize that she’s digging her grave.   “Very good. We’ll be headin’ to the training grounds now, so follow me,” Captain Albius says.   We follow him to the other side of the first level. The training grounds is farthest away from the cafeteria. We go to the third floor and into a large empty room. “My men should be bringin’ the supplies we’ll be needin’ for the mock battle. For the Rising Champions, you won’t be allowed to bring more than basic equipment. Artificial Magic Weapons won’t be allowed, Sergeant Kai.”   “No problem. I’ll use a different one during the battle. I won’t use the magic function on the weapon for this fight,” I answer.   “Good. The rules for the mock battle are simple. Each of you will wear a dummy on your head. Your job’s to protect it like it’s your life. If the dummy’s destroyed, you’re out. Take out the opposin’ team’s dummies, and you win. Since this is only practice, we don’t want to overload the clinic over the next two weeks. You’ll have to make do with this ruleset for the mock battles. Magic’s allowed, but don’t use more than necessary. We’re not tryin’ to send each other to the clinic. Sergeant Kai’s team, stand over there.”   Captain Albius points to one end of the room. He points to the opposite side and says, “Sergeant Aisha’s team, stand over there. If you want to strategize before we begin, do it now before my men arrive. Everyone else, stand by the side around the middle. It’s your chance to learn about your allies.”   I head over to the indicated spot with my assigned group. It’s a bummer we ended up Laud on our side, but they have Garen on the other side. I didn’t know their names until moments ago. They’re both equally as useless. But they also have some guy named Powell. He’s probably a random from The Reserve just like the four useless guys in our platoon. An easy win for us. We don’t need to strategize, but I’ll do it for the gesture. Captain Albius is watching.   “So, what’s the plan?” I ask. “Three members of the opposing team are in Sigma 3, so you’d know best, Ada.”   “Deniz’s going to be protecting Aisha. I’m going to take Aisha out. I know her weakness. Marin, you’ll charge in with me from the right side. I just need you to deflect Aisha’s arrows with your own while I close the gap and deal with Deniz,” Ada says.   She has several daggers clipped onto her belt. She also has metal shoes which are a bit unusual, but they have a sharp blade attached to them. I don’t know how she plans to fight with that setup. If I remember correctly, she also utilizes some strings, but I effortlessly cut those down in the past rendering her weapons useless.   “Okay, I’ll try,” Marin says.   Will she be fine? Marin doesn’t have that type of fighting style. “Well, that leaves me with the two others, then.”   “Uh, what should I do, Kai?” Laud asks.   Oh, right. We have one more member on our team. “I’ll leave that Powell person to you. I’ll take out Garen first, and then help you with Powell.”   “Got it. I’ll try my best.”   Well, he only has to hold him back for literally a second. It won’t take me long to take out Garen. Honestly, doesn’t even matter if he’s not there. It looks like both Garen and Powell are sporting a sword and shield. Seems like the majority of men here like to employ that setup. Deniz has an axe and a shield. Aisha has a bow. If my memory serves me right, Deniz used Wind magic during the tournament, but he could have more capabilities now. Aisha is a mystery. I don’t remember anything about her.  Why isn’t Ada telling us about all their magic capabilities?   Either she’s too cocky, or for some reason, she doesn’t want to inform us. Could be because she thinks I’m one of the white masked criminals. Doesn’t want to disclose anything about her platoon’s magic or fighting styles. But that’s only going to hurt her during these two weeks. I consider losing on purpose to spin Ada’s wheels a bit.   But, Captain Albius is also watching. He has a lot of faith in me because of my potential. I can’t go throwing the match just to spite Ada. He’d be impressed if I manage to win this despite not knowing anything about our opponents. So, I shouldn’t hold back. I’ll need to rebind my fireball keyword to my palm. Don’t want to ignite my shirt on fire.   I remember the time I set myself on fire. Luckily, I didn’t use my Mana, but Scrap Mana at the time. It was a hard lesson learned. I can’t force Mana through my shirt, even though there are small spaces for the Mana to pass through. Not all of the Mana makes it through because I set it to move away from my elbow in a big clump. Once it reaches an obstacle, it stops given no other instructions. I would have to figure out how to deal with the Mana left behind in the shirt to use this method. I wish there were a material where Mana could pass through freely. Like a Glim. But I can’t wear that like clothing.   I could move the Mana bound to my Fire Affinity in the space outside my shirt in a roundabout way. The Mana would have to go out my sleeve and then back in the area in front of my elbow. There would be a delay between my keyword and the magic appearing. Not very practical or accurate. It would be like those Artificial Magic Weapons I encountered back with Ragnar. I’d be giving my opponents a heads up, and they could move out of the way by the time my magic appears.   Captain Albius’ men arrive. A few of them carry the magic item responsible for creating the Mana barrier. The other men have something else with them. Probably the dummies Captain Albius mentioned. They give each of us one fighting in the mock battle. It’s a black, close-fitting hat with a wooden stick on top. It has a small wooden figure attached to it. I put it on. The bottom of the stick poking the top of my head is annoying, but not a big deal.   The hat makes us look ridiculous. At least the other three do. I assume I look pretty silly too. The Mana barrier items are set on one side of the room. Two of them placed near the wall with the third one placed in the middle. Behind the barrier are Captain Albius’ platoon and everyone else not fighting in the battle. Except for Captain Albius, he’s closer to the center of the room between our two groups.   “We’re goin’ to start soon. Get ready,” Captain Albius announces. Our group lines up with me on the left side with Laud. If we’re charging in, he might not be able to make it with our dash. I doubt Ada would slow down a little for the sake of him. I’ll just go in by myself at that point. It shouldn’t take that long for him to catch up. No, wait. If I slow my pace down to match his, I’d be able to blame Ada for not having team awareness if she doesn’t slow down.   I think about not using magic, but it’ll be too obvious that I’m trying to lose. So, I still have to create the instructions for the new fireball. Using anything stronger than Scrap Mana will be excessive against Garen and Powell. I move some Scrap Mana into my left palm, bond Fire Affinity to it, and then prepare the instructions.   “On your marks…start!” Captain Albius exclaims.   I wait a moment before running forward. I don’t utilize my full speed. As expected, Ada’s going full speed in with Marin lagging behind her. Laud isn’t a quick runner either, but I match his pace. Our opponents haven’t moved much. They’re taking a defensive position with Aisha in the back and the three others in front of her with about 15-20 feet in front of her. I’ll use my magic from long range to separate them. I point my left palm toward between my two targets and Deniz and then release a ball of fire while shouting, “Fireball!”   “Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!” I continue to exclaim. The balls of fire appear about a foot in front of my palm that flies forward. I break down some Unrefined Mana into Scrap Mana.   “Blinding rays!” Ada exclaims.   Shit. I squint my eyes, expecting to be blind. Does she plan on blinding us too? Several beams of white light appear in the air are diagonally in front of her. They shoot out toward Deniz. For the first time, I’m able to see Light magic without a blinding effect. Is it like the one-sided portal? The beams of light end on a layer of Scrap Mana. When did they set that up? The Scrap Mana blocks our view from their upper bodies, but the three in front haven’t moved. Deniz must’ve set that up knowing what Ada was up to. That’s one way to deal with Light magic.   My magic is still flying toward them, but they haven’t moved. Ada throws two daggers in the air above her. One lagging behind the other parallel to each other with several feet between them. Powell and Garen dodge left, and Deniz goes right as planned. I can’t use any more Fire magic until those my current magic hits the wall and disappears. The troubles of low Fire Affinity and using magic from far away. Ada’s daggers are now past Deniz. Where’s she aiming? That’s not going to hit anything.   Aisha shoots two arrows will deflect them off its path. Before that happens, Ada exclaims, “Wind current! Light python!”   The daggers speed forward and propel light from them toward Aisha. Her arrows miss the target. The light rays move erratically. Ada takes two pairs of knives from her belt. The hilt of one blade is attached to another for each pair by a string. She uses a reverse grip and twirls them around. With every revolution, the strings seem to be increasing in length. She spins the one on her right hand with a more diagonal angle while the other one is more horizontal. It takes some skill to twirl both of those are the same time at high speeds without ever intersecting the strings.   My magic hits the wall and disappears. It still bothers me why they still haven’t bothered to attack. Is it because they know Ada will be aggressive? If they’re going to stand there, I could easily activate Fire magic right in the area the dummy is located. I bond my Scrap Mana with some Fire Affinity and prepare the necessary instructions. I release my Mana and program it to activate upon reaching their destination.   Ada throws the spinning daggers one after another toward Deniz and shouts, “Whirling light! Whirling light!”   The keyword bothers me because if light is released from it, it’ll blind of all us. But there’s no light. A second later, she yells, “Activate!”   A wide cone of light is shot directly above from the center of each whirling set of blades toward Deniz. The magic stays where it appeared, and the daggers continue forward. Again, a wall of Scrap Mana materializes in front of Deniz. But now, he won’t be able to see the incoming weapons.   My magic should’ve activated by now, but it hasn’t. My Fire Affinity is still missing from my body, so I know that it’s still there. Too much to think about now. Maybe it’s too close to them. I send out a little bit of additional Scrap Mana to their location and update my instructions.   Ada grabs hold of two more knives from her hip with no strings on them. A gust of wind seems to slow Ada’s rush forward but doesn’t slow down the weapons in the air. The cones of light disappear, and Deniz runs toward the incoming whirling daggers. He swings his axe at the first one and exclaims, “Propelling cut!”   He easily cuts the string in the middle. One of the daggers fly past him. He blocks the other one with his shield. The other pair of blades are incoming. With the recoil of his cut, there’s no way for him to cut the second pair. He could have dodged the first one or both of them, but he decided not to. Ada mentioned he would be focusing on protecting Aisha in the back. Which means he plans to take the hit?   He doesn’t move as the twirling daggers wrap around his body. There must be more to this attack since that’s not going to injure him in any way or restrict his movements.   Two balls of fire emerge at the ceiling directly above Garen and Powell. It drops toward them. A wall of Unrefined Mana appears over them. Crackling noises resound as my magic collides into it. They flinch and take several steps forward. I don’t know whether it’s Deniz or Aisha covering these two. They continue their slow march forward. That’s not smart of them because I’d be able to deal with them quicker and have no excuse not to assist Ada.   “Burst!” Ada exclaims. Scrap Mana appears around Deniz’s neck spreading outward horizontally several feet before a sphere of light erupts from around him. The light covers his bottom half entirely. Light erupts from two daggers with the string cut between them as well. “Marin, cover me now! Wind rush!”   The Scrap Mana around Deniz disappears, and the light completely swallows him. My previous magic disappeared but the wall of Unrefined Mana is still standing at the same location as expected. I’ve got to focus solely with the two in front of me for a few seconds. I’ll split these two up as well. I point my left palm between them. “Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!”   Garen dodges left, and Powell avoids right. Powell yells, “Now!”   Powell tosses his sword toward Garen while Garen throws his shield toward him. I knit my eyebrows. Garen knows how to use two swords at once? And what’s the point of having two shields at once? Well, now Laud won’t have any problem holding off two bucklers. I break down Unrefined Mana into Scrap Mana and unsheathe my weapons.   I move Scrap Mana into my legs and exclaim, “Haste!”   I dash in with an extra burst of speeds with my swords raised above me. I don’t even need to use finesse. I’ll overpower him straight on. He crosses his blades above him. Our blades clash. There’s little resistance.   “Help!” he shouts while the force knocks him on his back. A mistake on my part, since now it’ll take longer to reach him. His weapons are knocked out of his hands too. Now it’ll be a cinch to cut that dummy on his head. I continue running forward and stand over his body. He covers the figure with his bare hands. Why does he have to try so hard for a mock battle? This is an annoyance.   I use the flat side of my blade to smack both of his hands. He screams and recoils his hands away. I use that time window to cut the dummy.   “Garen from Team Aisha’s out!” Captain Albius exclaims.   Wasted a lot of time dealing with this chump. Suddenly, a gust of wind hits me. What?!   I can’t resist. It blows me away to the left. A wall of Unrefined Mana appears next to Garen, so he hasn’t swept away. As I’m flying through the air, sheathe my left sword. I point my left palm toward Powell and exclaim, “Fireball!”   I have Scrap Mana ready in my palm, but nothing comes out. It can’t come out because this Wind magic is practically surrounding my entire body. That’s probably why my earlier magic didn’t activate. There was an invisible barrier of Wind magic.   Times like these, it would be better if I used a Basic Evocation magic approach compared to an Intermediate Evocation style. Sure Intermediate Evocation magic is more powerful as I don’t have to remove the heat from the sides and back to avoid burning myself, but I can’t activate it if there’s active Mana or magic in the space my ball of fire would form in front of my palm. If I used Basic Evocation instead, the spell would activate upon leaving the body which would collide with the Wind magic, destroying it with enough power.   My recent idea of having this new fireball backfired on me. Sometimes, simpler things are better. I just need to have a counter-measure for situations like this for the future. I don’t want to downgrade my magic just to deal with this specific scenario.   “Ada from Team Kai’s out!” Captain Albius announces.   What?! How’d she get out already? I glance over in the direction of the wind with squinted eyes. The sphere of light is still around Deniz, but there’s a large opening from this side from the orb.   “Flame armor!” Powell exclaims. Fire erupts from his entire body. It covers him from head to toe, but he doesn’t seem to be hurting. The dummy on top isn’t burning away either.   He can use magic?! On top of that, it’s Intermediate Enhancement magic. Why does Ada’s team have some random soldier who can use magic? There’s no way Laud will be able to handle that even if he doesn’t have a weapon. All he needs to do is overpower him and burn the dummy with the fire.   I land on the ground, but the wind is still pushing me. So their strategy is to remove me from the battle? They used Garen as bait… I fell for something so obvious, but I didn’t have much choice since Ada wanted me to deal with the other two. Well, she didn’t say that exactly, but I’m sure she implied it.   We can still win this. It’ll just be Marin and me. Laud screams as Powell tackles him into the ground. My back is against the wall. I use it to help me stand up.   “Laud from Team Kai’s out!” Captain Albius informs.   Is this Wind magic ever gonna end? I should put a coat of Unrefined Mana in front of my body to avoid the effects of the Wind like how they did for Garen. And Deniz used Scrap Mana to block Light magic from his line of sight. Nah, forget it.   I’ll take the loss. This is just a mock battle. Nothing really on the line here. Ada takes most of the blame here for the lack of a better strategy and information on her. Suddenly, a vast horizontal purple wall appears on the ceiling. I widen my eyes. Void magic?!   No, wait. It can’t be Void magic, so it has to be Dark Evocation magic. This is my first time seeing it in person since it was banned in the Academy for its dangers. From what I read, it’s like poison. The aftereffects are trickier to heal than a regular injury because of possible internal damage or the magic goes into the blood. Putting the pieces together, it has to be Aisha that has this rare capability. That’s why Ada wanted to take her out first. Now, I have a longer laundry list of things to blame Ada for. Not informing us of this critical point. This amount of Dark Affinity looks abnormal too.   The Dark magic descends. The Wind magic is gone. I run toward the others and exclaim, “Haste!”   Strength surges through my legs. I don’t want it to make it painfully apparent that I’ve given up. It’ll be difficult to outrun this descending mist, though. Actually, it’s impossible. It’s coming down fast. It’s already reached the top of my head.  I unsheathe my other blade and put my arms behind me while leaning forward. I try not to fall over. The mist descends to the point where this won’t work anymore. I roll forward in hopes that the wall stops dropping, but it doesn’t matter to me either way.   “Marin from Team Kai’s out!” Captain Albius exclaims.   Well, it’s just me left, and it’s not looking good. The wall stopped, though. I’ll have to crawl out of this space only to be greeted by three of them. Captain Albius is lying down too far away, probably to check on my status. A pair of feet is waiting for me at the end of this mist. Looks like Deniz. He lies on the floor too. This is the end for me. He’s going to use Wind magic to cut the dummy on my head. I could struggle a bit more by protecting the figure on my head with Mana, but I’ll refrain. Just want to get this over with. Seconds later, the wooden figure on my head falls to the ground.   “Kai is out!” Captain Albius announces. “Team Aisha won the mock battle!”   The Dark magic above me disappears about five seconds later. I stand up and then sheathe my weapons. Marin is with Ada and Laud. I jog over to them.   “How’re you so useless?!” Ada yells. “I gave you one simple task, and you couldn’t do it. It was an easy shot.”   Marin lowers her head and says, “I’m sorry…”   “If only you’d had done your job, we would’ve won.”   Looks like she’s blaming Marin for the loss, but I have some things to say too. Captain Albius is close enough to hear. I catch up to them and say, “No, we lost because you didn’t tell us about your teammate’s abilities. Dark magic? Such a large amount too. Didn’t you think that was important to know? And at the start, you didn’t take into account Marin’s or Laud’s pace, and you went too far ahead by yourself.”   “If Marin hadn’t missed her shot, I would’ve been able to take her out. Then the Dark magic wouldn’t have been a problem. Aisha, Doris, or Melody wouldn’t have missed in the same situation.”   “She missed a shot?” I ask, skeptical. If there’s one thing that Marin excels at, it’s accuracy.   “Yeah… I did. It’s…my fault,” Marin says quietly, her head still lowered.   “See? Told you,” Ada says and then walks away. She walks toward her team members.   Garen returns to us and says, “Wow, I managed to win against you.”   Win? You weren’t anything but a distraction… I don’t let my thoughts show on my face and respond, “Yeah, good job.”   I put a hand on Marin’s shoulder. “Don’t be so down. Be more confident. You’re not lesser in skill by any means compared to the three in Sigma 3. Missing a shot isn’t like you though. Did you get nervous?”   “A little bit. By the time she wanted me to support her, I on my way there. I had to make the shot while running. I don’t have much experience with that,” she explains. In the end, I still think it’s Ada’s fault. She didn’t tell Marin what she was planning and expected her to just run with it.   “Sigma 3 and Sigma 4, you’re welcome to stay and observe the remainin’ battles, train, or go to the clinic if you need to. Just let me know if you’re leavin’.” Captain Albius says.   “I’m gonna go train,” I say. I take off this ridiculous hat and toss it. I need to be able to create an armor of Mana fast when the need arises. Something to defend myself against a magic attack that comes at me from every angle.   “Okay, that’s fine. Corporal Ada, you’ll go with him.”   “What?!” Ada exclaims.   “There’s something I forgot to mention. For the next two weeks, no one will be trainin’ on their own. I’ll have my men supervisin’ to make sure you’re trainin’ together with who I decide to pair you with. Doesn’t matter how you do it.”   “I wanted to watch the remaining battles. You said observing’s learning.”   “Yeah, but Sergeant Kai wants to leave, so you’ll have to accompany him. It’s fine. I have an idea of where to place you and Kai during the Rising Champions battle. You’ll be workin’ as a pair with no direct interactions between anyone else.”   “Fine…” Ada says and frowns. “Let me pick up my weapons first.”   “Someone go with them.”   “I will, Captain,” a man says.   “Thanks. I’ll announce the next two groups for the mock battle after a short break.”   I wait for Ada to pick up her daggers. If I have to train with Ada, I’ll just fight her. I’ll put her in her place. We can use one of the training rooms on the floor below us. We leave as soon as she reaches me.   “Are you really going to go train? Or was that an excuse for you to see Hina?” Ada asks.   “Of course, I’m gonna go train,” I answer, not sure why she would think that. “Why you ask?”   “Just surprised. You haven’t gotten much stronger since the tournament. You’re still using the same magic. Nothing new. And you let yourself get knocked so far by Deniz’ Wind magic. You didn’t protect yourself with Mana or erupt fire from your body. And here I thought you selfishly spent all your money funding seminars to benefit only yourself and your remaining team from the Academy.”   Well, she’s not wrong about anything she said. I’ve been only using our funds to take seminars between me, Marin, and Ruby. I reply, “You’re right because I never had the need to learn new magic. My overwhelming power was enough every time to deal with most situations. In the mock battle, I’m not really trying to hurt anybody. As you said, I’ve been attending seminars. I don’t know which ones you’re referring to. Are you implying that you spent your money training your two new recruits?”   It would explain why Powell could use magic. But that’s pretty impressive. For someone to never manipulate Mana to using Intermediate Evocation magic within seven months. She responds, “Yup. A team’s as strong as its weakest link. We’ve provided all the basic seminars to both of our new members to the team. We had enough to go to several informational seminars as well.”   Informational seminars? I knew about them, but figured it wasn’t worth going to because it’s only information. There’s no magic instruction. I remember a few of the cheaper ones. Something about basic magic strategies. That might be where Sigma 3 learned about using Mana as a defense tool against magic. Who else what other knowledge she has now. I figured we should have learned everything we need to know about the basics of magic in the Academy, but maybe not. Is it because we were in the Adventurer track? Perhaps we would have learned these concepts if we were in the Soldier track instead. If they can fill in some gaps in our knowledge, it might be worth going to.   “You’re lucky. You only have two members to fund. If we did the same thing, it would be nearly three times as expensive. Not to mention, it would’ve been a waste if they quit later.”   “Well, that wouldn’t be a problem if you didn’t treat them like shit.”   “Excuse me?”   “You heard me. I’ve heard all the rumors spreading about us in Sigma platoons. I knew it was you because of the way you acted during the Academy. Care-free and cocky. You’re trying to give us a bad reputation so that they’d lose our trust. A perfect ploy for someone who’s actually on the other side.”   “I don’t know why you’re so fixated on that. Where’s your proof? Oh, right. You have none. So, it’s only slander.”   “You defended a criminal. That Sitos bastard. Come to think of it, he was a cocky, rude guy too. His actions don’t surprise me. You’re part of the same garbage bin.”   “Shut up. You don’t know his circumstances or what actually happened. Someone did something to him. He might’ve been cold and harsh, but most of the time, he was misunderstood. You don’t know anything about him.”   “You’d still defend him despite that he killed his friends, your friends. Forced himself on your previous lover and turned her into a psycho.”   I still don’t know how she knows all of that, but I ignore it. It’s best not to get too worked up. I merely answer her question. “He was under the influence of that masked man. It must’ve been magic. He did something to her too.”   “If magic allowed you to control the actions of someone else completely, we’d all be doomed. There’s no way that magic exists. You’re just in denial. I know the real story.”   I bet that she’s come up with some deranged story about how I’m evil. I’ll bite. “What’s that?”   “So, obviously since you wanted to keep your hands clean, you let Sitos do all the dirty work. You had the idiot on your team killed because you got tired of him. And had Sitos do that to your previous lover because you grew tired of her. You already had feelings for Hina at that time and wanted to get with her at any cost. You hired someone else to assassinate her current lover and played your cards right until now.”   I clap. I say with little energy, “Yup, that’s exactly it.”   “Don’t make fun of me. That’s probably not too far off the mark.”   We finally arrive at an empty training room on the second floor. “If you’re sure that I haven’t gotten stronger, why don’t you duel me?”   “Fine by me. I’m not scared of you anymore. I’ve been training out of my mind every single day since the attack. There’s no way I’d lose to someone so lax.”   “Let’s restrict the use of magic to only Scrap Mana. I wouldn’t want to accidentally injure you so that you’d accuse me of trying to kill you.”   “No, don’t hold back. Go all-out. I’ll beat you fair and square. I don’t want any excuses when I win.”   “Don’t blame me If you get hurt,” I say. I can’t exactly go all-out though. She doesn’t know what that means for me. I’ll only use my real power when my life or someone close to me depends on it. Or I meet one of the snake earring members. The masked man. “We’ll fight until the other gives up or there’s a clear winner. Our observer can determine that, right?”   “Sure,” the man says. “I’ll do you the honors of starting the duel.”   Ada and I separate ourselves as far as possible to start off with. I break down my Mana categories so that I have the full amount of Scrap, Unrefined, and Rich Mana. I move Scrap Mana to my legs and arms ready to be activated at any time. I prepare my instructions for my usual fireball with Rich Mana. I’ll employ a Basic Evocation magic style just in case.   I’ve seen a lot of her tricks in the mock battle. I’d be able to deal with some of her Light magic just by using my weapon, but I’d be leaving myself open to her fighting style. The one magic attack she used that covered a large area is troublesome. I can’t use a wall of Mana to defend against that. I can’t let her attach a dagger to me.   Wait a minute… Why am I focused on defense? Instead of a wall of Mana, I could use a wall of fire. There’s one thing I noticed about Light magic is that it doesn’t do any real damage. My Fire magic managed to destroy those Mana barriers during the tournament. Light magic couldn’t do the same thing. So that means that a wall of Fire should be able to destroy any form of Light. It also protects my eyes.   I start writing the commands for this new idea using Rich Mana. I’ll have it create a relatively thin layer of Fire with the shape of a rectangle that covers the entire height and length of the room. I’ll make it approach Ada roughly the same speed as my run. The downside is that it would be possible for Ada to break through more easily and if her Light magic covers the space before my magic activates, she’d have a free breakthrough point. I’ll use all my Fire affinity to create the wall, so I can’t use my fireballs until the wall of fire reaches the end of the room. Luckily, this place isn’t that spacious, so I have the advantage.   I’ll have it released and immediately activated upon reaching the destination. It’ll be sketchy using the Intermediate Evocation method as a keyword. There would be a few seconds delay until the magic appears. She’d be able to occupy the space it takes in that amount of time. Like a doorway for her to walk through. I could set up the firewall as the keyword and the activation for it as a trigger word.   No, I’ll just use a trigger word. It’ll be a one-time magic. I make the appropriate changes and then release my Rich Mana with the commands embedded. I’ll have it activated with the trigger word as soon as the battle starts. If Ada releases her Light magic as soon as the fight starts, my plan will fail otherwise. The man says, “Ready…”   Timing is important here. I’ll have to shout the trigger word as soon as the battle starts. Light magic travels quickly, and she could easily occupy the space my Mana is currently located in. Or maybe she’s thinking of the same strategy and already has Mana covering the room. I’ll close my eyes as the battle starts for precaution. The man continues, “Go!”   “Fire wall!” I exclaim and close my eyes.   “Flash!” Ada exclaims a split second later.   A bright light emanates from somewhere in the room. Our observer screams. Luckily, I don’t have to worry about my magic hurting him since he’s on my side of the room. I run forward. My magic should be formed perfectly with no holes considering I was faster. The light disappears in a few seconds. I open my eyes and confirm that my wall of fire appeared. It’s speeding to the other side of the wall. I’ll need to close the gap a bit if I want to utilize the space it buys me fully. “Haste!”   I rush forward using my enhanced legs. Two daggers fly in the air past my barrier of fire straight down the middle in front of me. A possibility I didn’t think about, but it’s pretty pointless. She can’t move inactive Mana past my magic. It’s a bluff.  I don’t want to lose my momentum, though. I unsheathe both of my weapons. I hold the blades in front of me in the projectile’s path. Two clangs resound as they’re deflected from my blades.   The wall of fire suddenly stop and something crackles. She must’ve placed a barrier of Mana.   I continue running toward the wall. With my settings, the fire should be moving to the end of the wall. Ada is trying to stop the wall. I have three options. I could prepare another wall when this one disappears. No, scratch that. I can’t have it instantly replace the one that’s destroyed because I lack the Fire Affinity. That means I can either wait it out or cover myself in Mana and run through. She’d definitely expect me to wait it out. What kind of moron would run through their own magic?   Well, a barrier of Mana around me wouldn’t really work now that I think about it. The wall of fire is a magical object, so the activated Mana would collide with the Fire and not come with me as I run through. I’d suffer some damage. I could use some additional Mana to deactivate the magic in a small spot in the wall. Or I could run through like an idiot. I’m not going to put myself through that trauma just to beat her in this duel. I’m not that desperate.   Best not give her that much time. She’s clearly stalling for it. I release some Unrefined Mana to a spot somewhere on the left side from the center of the wall. Not next to the center but reasonably close. I’ll have it create a doorway in the wall of fire and then have the Mana be stationary so that it still acts as a wall for any Light magic in case I need to back out. It’ll activate in five seconds.   I head over to the destination in the wall. It’s only a few seconds detour from the center. My additional commands activate soon after arriving at the location. A vertical rectangular space in the wall of fire is replaced by Unrefined Mana. I break down all my Mana categories to reset my current Mana again. I’m ready to release my Mana at a moment’s notice to defend against her Light.   I run through the opening immediately. Ada hasn’t moved from her starting position. There’s a barrier of Mana at the center. She’s definitely planning something. I dash toward her.   “Blinding rays!”   I stop and release a wall of Scrap Mana in front of my head, instructing it to stay stationary. The ground below my barrier of Mana is brighter. Her footsteps clearly resound since she’s wearing metal shoes. She’s running toward the corner farthest from me. I continue releasing Scrap Mana to extend the wall I made until the ground returns to a normal level of brightness. I make a turn and rush toward the far corner. I try not to focus on the white beams of light to my right. It’s still a bit bright from this angle. I close my eyes for a few seconds, feeling some pain from behind my eyes.   I open them again. Ada has placed a wall of Rich Mana next to her between her and my wall of fire. Wait a minute…   My wall of fire is quickly approaching me. The Mana barrier that she made earlier was destroyed, or she deactivated it. I think about quickly sending out some Scrap Mana to remove the entire wall, but don’t go through with it. It’s better if I let it keep running its course. Ada has the wall of Rich Mana at the very end that will stop it. She’d risk suffering damage from it if she removes that wall too. Which means, she’s baiting me into the narrow opening that would be left. Close quarter combat is where I excel. I’ll take the challenge. I sheathe my left blade.   Not all the fire in this wall is necessary, though. I send out some Scrap Mana instructing a bit over half my magic to deactivate upon reaching the destination. I’d have enough Fire Affinity left to create my usual ball of fire or two. The ground lighting up from under the Mana barrier I created earlier gives me an idea. I can cover myself with a helmet of Mana covering mostly my eye level and leaving a space under me to see if there’s any Light magic active. It just limits my vision, but her footsteps are plenty loud. She’d either be in front of me or in the air, but the ceiling isn’t that tall, so that isn’t a big obstacle.   The only problem is I don’t know exactly how her that sphere of Light magic works. If she were to use that, I’m not sure if I could run through it with this helmet of Mana. I would be able to protect myself everywhere except where the opening is located. Does the Light have to reach my eye to blind me or does it blind everything with no restrictions inside the sphere? If I don’t let her attach anything to me, I won’t have to deal with it.   Actually, I could extend the helmet forward so that the only angle that she could blind me is through the front. Even if she attached something to me somehow and used that magic, the Mana would stop it from moving any farther. I just need to extend the Mana wall forward enough.   I reach the wall Ada initially started by. Half my Fire Affinity returns to me. I continue running toward Ada along the wall. I’ve made my usual ball of fire so many times, it doesn’t take me long to create the instructions for my magic. If I send a ball of fire toward her and in the air above her, she’d for sure try breaking through the wall. I’m tired of this chasing game. I don’t want her to go anywhere else other than the air above her.  I’ll shove all the Fire Affinity I have left into one attack.   I point my left palm forward and exclaim. “Fireball!”   A ball of fire appears that speeds in a straight path to Ada. It blocks my view of her.  Immediately, I begin crafting the helmet of Mana I envisioned. The wall of fire catches up to us and crackles upon reaching Ada’s wall of Mana. I unsheathe my left blade.   The only way she’d be able to avoid this is by jumping through the air. Or, she could run through the wall of fire or destroy it. It shouldn’t be that hard to destroy considering how thin it is. I hope she doesn’t with the air open to her.   I almost forgot. She has Wind magic too. I quickly command a thin layer of Mana my entire body excluding my head. It wouldn’t be good if she knocks me into my own magic with a gust of wind.   Ada jumps in the air over the ball of fire before it reaches the wall. She throws a dagger toward me. I activate my armor of Rich Mana and create the helmet with Unrefined Mana. She exclaims, “Burst!”   That sphere of light appears around the dagger. The knife and Ada now gone from my sight, but I memorized the general location of it already. If the magic depends on the location of the blade, I’ll knock it away. I can afford to close my eyes for a second to do that. Ada would need another second to land after I deflect this away.   I close my eyes before the sphere of Light reaches my face. A clang sounds as I swing my right sword in the space in front of me. Perfect.   I open my eyes. There should be about a second before Ada’s in my attack range. I won’t lose a head-on fight.   Ada’s literally right in front of me. Shit!   I’m not in a proper stance at all, and I can’t see anything. I send out Scrap Mana immediately to deactivate my helmet of Unrefined Mana.   My vision returns. Ada’s holding onto something unexpected. Two daggers connected by a metal chain. She wraps it around my right sword. So that was her ploy!   “Strength!” I exclaim, feeling strength surging through both of my arms. She tries to pull my weapon from me. I block the blades on her feet with my left sword. I don’t want to put any force into the attack because it’ll give her extra momentum to snatch my weapon away from me. I grip my sword as tight as possible.   I smile. I’ve won this duel. I rotate my body around and move her into the wall of fire. Suddenly, the force that she’s exerting changes. I almost lose my balance as she starts pulling toward the ground instead before she reaches the fire.   “Burst!” she exclaims.   She’s going to get both of us with the light. I close my eyes before the light completely surrounds me. She’s pulling in all kinds of directions now, but I won’t let go of my weapon. She’s completely open now that she’s ignoring my left blade. I don’t want to kill her accidentally if I hit her in the wrong place. I’m sure she’s good enough to avoid a mortal blow at least. I swing my left blade at her.   But something is wrong. I don’t hit anything. It’s empty air. But how’s that possible?   Wind magic! She used it to escape in the air above me and to exert pressure on the daggers wrapped around my weapon. Is it because of the Rich Mana surrounding my body that I didn’t feel it? She has to be behind me. There’s nothing I can do at this point but one thing. I jump backward with all my force. I bring both of us into the air behind us.   I toss my right sword away and reverse the grip on my left blade. Pain radiates from the middle of my upper left arm. Two of her daggers pierce my skin. She digs them deep and slicing outward. My grip in my left hand weakens significantly despite that I have my Enhancement magic applied. I can’t get a hold on it anymore. I drop it.   She must’ve cut a nerve. I can’t let this battle drag on anymore. It feels the distance between us is slowly increasing. She’s still using Wind magic to move around. I have to catch her before it’s too late. I won’t let her escape. I turn my body around and grab hold of her leg above her right ankle, gripping tightly. I don’t have long before she slices me from under my arm with her other foot.   I haven’t done this before, but I have no choice. I move Rich Mana into my right arm, enhancing the skin, muscle, bone, and everything else inside. I activate my magic and grip tightly, slowly crushing her bones. It cracks loudly like crumpling a piece of paper.   She screams in pain. Her other leg is in the air coming for my arm. I let go of her leg at the last second and grab hold of her other leg in the same spot. I crush her bones on that one too. Some of the bones pierce her skin and blood oozes out. I rotate her foot 90 degrees toward her other leg breaking it in the process.   She throws the daggers in her hands at me. I still have mobility in my left arm just not my grip. I move my useless left arm in front of me to block them. The projectiles impale the bottom of my forearm.   We crash into the ground. Tears stream out of her eyes and she glares at me with a grimace. She grabs the remaining daggers in her belt and throws them at me. I roll out of the way and then stand up. She has nothing left. I break down all my Mana categories replenishing my Scrap, Unrefined, and Rich Mana supply. I move Unrefined Mana into my right palm and write the usual instructions for a ball of fire with a Basic Evocation style.   “You wanna give up now?” I ask. She doesn’t answer, so I’m not sure if that’s a yes or no. Something pierces my back, twice. “Shit! Fireball!”   The ball of fire comes out of my palm.   “I haven’t lost yet!” she screams. Ada moves Unrefined Mana out of her body in front of the path.   She’s too stubborn. Doesn’t know that she’s lost already. She’s forcing my hand. My previous ball of fire disappears. Immediately, I exclaim, “Fireball!”   I start creating new instructions for the same ball of fire utilizing Rich Mana instead. The rest of my Fire Affinity returns. The wall of fire must’ve disappeared. Another blade lodges into the back of my right leg. Where the hell?   I turn around for a moment. The initial two daggers she threw are now gone. The same with the first knife she threw while in the air. She has nothing left. I turn back around and don’t wait for the other ball of fire to disappear. “Fireball!”   A ball of fire of greater intensity appears in front of my hand, and a crackle resounds as it destroys her wall of Unrefined Mana. The fiery gases spread all over the center of her body. “Ahh!”   “St-stop right there!” the observer exclaims, running toward us.   My magic clears up. It looks like she put more Mana out to defend against it after her Unrefined Mana disappeared. But it didn’t stop all the damage. Her armor looks partially melted and rehardened again. The shirt under her breastplate is burnt on both sleeves. I can’t see exactly how much damage she took under the armor. First degree burns cover the front of her neck and bottom chin.   “I ca-can’t lose to you,” she says. “I’ve trained so hard.”   “You think you’re the only one training hard because you lost someone?” I ask. “I’ve been training hard too. More than you can imagine. I’ll do anything it takes to get revenge and kill that masked man. It sickens me that you think that I’m one of them. The ones I hate so much that took everything from me.”   “Oh, man. You guys are really something! You took this too far!” the man exclaims. “Both of you need immediate treatment! I’ll notify Captain Albius!”   Ada stays silent. Not much to say after that. Still, she’s impressive. She doesn’t know Enhancement magic yet, but she almost beat me in a duel. She’s improved enormously since our fourth year in the Academy.   My duels with Sitos were never this close. Not that we took it this far either. We’d stop before dealing the first real blow. And we didn’t use magic except once.   I drop to the ground. I’m losing a lot of blood from my arm. Feeling a bit dizzy.   I learned a lot today. I nearly forgot that I improved the most while dueling Sitos. I’ll grow a lot over these next two weeks. I’m going to take a nap until our help arrives. I can’t take out the two daggers in my back. It’s out of my reach. I fall to my side instead and rest my eyes.

A useful reference chapter so you don't have to re-read random chapters to remember some high level basic information about the magic system, Mana, etc. Will not contain all the specific information about the magic system in particular but just general and high level details. Specific information about Kai's magic will be mentioned once it's explained in the story. There will be spoiler tags with the chapter number with the information for some information. Always check back here in case you need a quick refresher on the basic workings of magic or you forgot what something meant.  I'll edit this chapter as needed Mana General (Mostly Chapter 3. Some Chapter 10) 1. All living organisms have Mana. 2. Slowly recover Mana through breathing. 3. The Mana in the air is inactive so it can't be seen. It is bound to oxygen which is absorbed in the lungs. 4. Every person has a maximum capacity, or storage limit for each Mana type - Scrap, Unrefined, and Rich. 5. Scrap Mana regenerates the fastest, Unrefined Mana regenerates slower than Scrap Mana, and Rich Mana regenerates slower than Unrefined Mana. Scrap Mana is the lowest quality. Rich Mana is the highest quality. Higher quality Mana are harder to control compared to lower grades of Mana. 6. If the maximum capacity for a Mana type is reached, excess Mana regenerated exit through the skin. 7. Mana must be activated to utilize. Mana inside the body remains inactive until activated. Activated Mana can be seen as various shades of blue depending on the quality. Lower quality of Mana have a lighter color while higher grades of Mana have a deeper color. 8. Mana can be broken down into one tier lower at a time no lower than Scrap Mana, ending up with more units of the lower quality Mana as a result. Mana toxicity symptoms kick in if the current amount of Mana of a type is greater than the maximum capacity for that same Mana type and the rate that excess amounts of this Mana type exiting through the skin isn't enough to make it at the threshold. 9. Activated Mana without instructions diffuse rapidly into the air back into the form of inactive Mana. Chapter 31 Spoiler A tier of Mana called Raw Mana exists that is a higher quality than Rich Mana. Regenerates slower than Rich Mana. Can break down Raw Mana into Rich Mana. [collapse] Example scenario for Mana breakdown: Person A maximum capacity for Scrap, Unrefined, and Rich Mana: 2000, 1500, 1000. Current amount of Mana: Scrap: 1000 ; Unrefined: 1300 ; Rich: 900 At this point, no excess Mana would leave the body because there is no amount of excess Mana anywhere. Person A decides to break down some Unrefined Mana (number changes used as illustration but not neccesarily how it would play out in story) Current amount of Mana: Scrap: 2050 ; Unrefined: 1100 ; Rich: 900 At this point, newly regenerated Scrap Mana would be excess and excess amounts of Scrap Mana would leave the body through the skin.The exit rate is faster than the regeneration rate. There is some Mana toxicity here, but not that big of a deal. It would not be recommended for an example...to convert all 1100 of Unrefined Mana into Scrap Mana.  Diagram for Mana General: (Shitty drawing placeholder til someone draws me better one) Magic General 1. Categories of Magic: Evocation, Enhancement, Conjuration, Healing, Alteration, Abjuration, and Runic Chapter 12 Spoiler Void magic is another category [collapse] 2. Evocation Types: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Lightning, Light, Dark 3. Magic Affinity determines how much of an element (i.e. Fire Affinity, Water Affinity, etc) you can utilize at once. Higher Affinities means that you can utilize larger-scale spells. For an example, low Water Affinity in general would mean that you can't do things like summon huge waves of water because that would be a large amount of Water magic active at the same time. 4. Affinity when talking about bonding to Mana refers to the actual Affinity in the body. Example: Kai bonds his Mana to Fire Affinity forming Fire magic. 5. Must assign instructions to Mana/Magic to use. Example for Fire Magic(A): Bond Scrap Mana to Fire Affinity. Instruct them to form a 1 feet diameter ball directly in front of the palm with the heat focused forward and then when it's activated, speed forward in a straight line with every Fire particle going the same speed. Final step is to activate the Mana. The classic Fireball. After Mana leaves the body, additional instructions can't be assigned, so all of that was done in two steps. 6. Keywords instantly recall a list of programmed instructions that you have defined for it. You still need to prepare the required Mana for the magic as previously defined in the proper location prior to successfully using the keyword. Chapter 18 Spoiler Keywords suffer up to a 50% effectiveness penalty if the assigned keyword has nothing to do with the magic. When shouting it/assigning it for the first time, the magic is at 100% effectiveness regardless since the instructions were manually assigned. Example: Hiro assigning the word "Fireball" to a ball of water. Resulted in the ball of water to be slower, smaller, and rugged. [collapse] Keywords suffer up to a 50% effectiveness penalty if the assigned keyword has nothing to do with the magic. When shouting it/assigning it for the first time, the magic is at 100% effectiveness regardless since the instructions were manually assigned. Example: Hiro assigning the word "Fireball" to a ball of water. Resulted in the ball of water to be slower, smaller, and rugged. Example for Fire Magic(B): The same steps from above are repeated except with the addition of the keyword 'Fireball!' assigned and shouted at the same time as activation. Shouting "Fireball!" after the intiial definition will allow you to use the exact same fireball every time assuming that you provide the Mana requirement at the location the original instuctions were created at. Assuming that 50 units of Scrap Mana was used to build that Fireball, the next time you can instantly use the same Fireball as before given that you move 50 units of Scrap Mana at the palm from inside the body. 7. Trigger Words are basically the same thing as a Keyword, except they activate Mana outside the body. You can define the Trigger Word before using the magic. Can combine Trigger Words with Keywords. Example for Fire Magic(C): Bond Scrap Mana to Fire Affinity. Instruct the Mana bonded to the Fire Affinity out to form a sphere in some space 20 feet away from you by a straight path and have it be stationary until the trigger word is activated. Again, it is important to note that the trigger word was defined before the Mana left the body. So if the Trigger Word was "Fireball!" it would activate the instructions that was attached to the Trigger Word, in this case it could be activate the magic and then have all the particles travel in reverse as the same speed in the straight path. Important Note: Most of the "instructions" specified in the examples above are still simplied. Just going to have to use some of your imagination to fill in the gaps. For an example, if you were inside the story and were going to repeat these steps, there are more smaller steps involved between the ones described. For the sake of reading the story, the above examples should illustrate well enough.

Hina and I discuss what we should include in our report to General Nero. I want to include everything but Hina prefers to leave out the piece about the referees and our previous knowledge of the snake earring group. We agree on putting in a time lapse in our story that nothing happened the first time we went to the Hodgepodge.   We make our way back into General Nero’s office and give him our findings. I incorporate the piece about our previous knowledge despite Hina’s disagreement. I hope it’ll give us another opportunity to participate somehow. It also doesn’t feel right to purposely leave out information.   “Interesting…” he mutters and smiles. He pauses for several seconds before continuing, “Good work. You’re free to go now.”   “This may be rude of me, but can you give us another task to follow up on this?” I ask.   “What task do you have in mind?”   “Well… The Academy was destroyed by those masked men who may be related to those snake earring guys. We were hoping to have the opportunity to investigate them in Neomeris.”   “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that. You’ll have the opportunity to embark on these personal investigations once you’ve reached the next rank up.”   “Personal? But they attacked our city. We could learn more—“   “Everyone lost something in the attack. Each one wants an opportunity to find some answers, but it’s not on our priority list right now.”   “How can it not be on our priority list? With the Inteiru Expota coming up, they could be planning another attack and deceive everyone into thinking that we did it.”   “After meeting with the Elf, I will personally go to Syrina to inform them of their ruse. We will let them handle it since it’s their territory. We could get caught in the crossfire if we send our men in there now. Besides, if you leave for another mission now, you won’t have a chance to participate in the Rising Champions.”   “Rising Champions?”   “You’ll learn more about it in the coming days. It’s a potential opportunity to advance to Lieutenant quicker. You’re excused. I have other work to attend to.”   We bow our heads and then leave the room. I ask, “Mail station?”   “Yeah,” Hina answers, and we make our way there. “I can’t believe you always have the gall to talk back to General Nero, despite that you want to strictly follow your orders.”   “Well, there’s no rule saying we can’t talk back, is there?”   “I guess not…what do you want to do now?” Hina asks. She continues in a whisper, “Investigate?”   “Hmm…” I interject. It’s really tempting, but the risk’s high. We know where the meeting point is, but there’s no way we could hear what Viessa has to say without getting caught. And someone will find out that we’re missing if we investigate up north. That would take at least a few days…not to mention the dangers even if we were to not be caught. There’s so little to gain and so much to lose. Then there’s this Rising Champions thing. “No, we should stay put for now. I’m curious what this Rising Champions thing is. The fastest way to have our investigation could be to become a Lieutenant as fast as possible.”   “Right…that’s what I was sayin’ to you yesterday. If you take only risk-free decisions, it’ll be a long time until you advance.”   “Well, I mean…slow and steady wins the race, right? I could advance faster by taking risks, but at the same time, it might be slower if things don’t go as planned. And the entire platoon suffers for it through punishments. That’s just something I—wait,” I cut myself off. Two guys are chatting nearby. I stop walking and gesture Hina to turn away from them.   “What’re you—“   “Shh.”   “Thankfully, I wasn’t drafted this year either,” one man says.   “Man it’s not fair. Ya got moved into a Sigma platoon this year, but ya didn’t get drafted,” another man says.   The man laughs. “It’s because Alpha platoons are expendable. They’re saving the big guns for the Inteiru Expota.”   “You know…” Hina mutters and then sighs. I cock an eyebrow as she turns around.   I whisper, “Wait, where’re you going?”   She approaches the two men and says, “Hey. Couldn’t help but overhear. Are you talkin’ about the Risin’ Champions by any chance?”   “Yeah…why? Who’re you?”   “I’m Hina. I joined the army about seven months ago, so I don’t know anythin’ about this. Same with him.”   She didn’t… I turn around, finding her pointing at me. I smile and wave. They give me weird looks.   “Don’t mind him. He’s a bit of a weirdo. So, what’s the Risin’ Champions? All I know is that it’s a way to advance up the ranks quicker, but you’re talkin’ about it like it’s a bad thing.”   “Well, you’re new so it’s not a surprise you don’t know. The Rising Champions is an event held by the four Human kingdoms every year. Twelve platoons from each army form six groups that fight groups from other kingdoms. The kingdom that has the most victories between each Inteiru Expota is chosen as the representative for our race for the next Inteiru Expota.”   “What’s special about bein’ chosen as a representative?” Hina asks.   “Well, nothing. Honor’s the only prize. It’s one thing the kingdoms do to decide which country’s superior to the other.”   “That doesn’t sound so bad. Why wouldn’t you want to participate in somethin’ like that?”   “It’s dangerous. Even though it’s a friendly battle, you’re fighting with real weapons against real weapons.”   “I don’t know how familiar you are with the Academy, but they held a tournament every year. Real weapons were used too alongside magic. So it’s kind of like that?”   The man stares at her for several seconds without responding. Only cocking an eyebrow but then he continues, “From what I know, the rules are completely different. You have referees and safeguards at the Academy…but there aren’t any for this battle.”   “What do you mean, no safeguards? It’s a fight to the death?”   “Well, no. Not exactly. But it can be.   “Explain.”   “I don’t know the exact rules. I only know what other people have told me.”   “That’s fine. Tell us what you know.”   “People end up fighting each other until the other side can’t fight anymore. So what I’m saying is…your opponents could end up seriously injuring you or killing you.”   “What? That doesn’t make any sense. Can’t you surrender?”   “I heard about people surrendering without even fighting, but it’s incredibly dishonorable. You’d be subjecting yourself to punishment if you do that. It’s not like everyone ends up killing each other. It’s when neither side gives in to surrender that fatalities occur.”   “I see. How’s the winner determined? The last man standin’?”   “I’m not sure. The exact rules are determined on the day of the battle by the veteran overseers. Are you in The Reserve?”   “I’m in Sigma 8,” Hina says and then points over to me. I palm over my face. “He’s in 4.”   “Ohh… You were an Adventurer before you joined?”   “Yeah,” Hina answers. One of the men narrows his eyes, grimaces, and shakes his head. He looks to the other man who has a similar expression and points his hand the other way. The two men walk away without saying another word. “What’s your problem? Hey!”   They don’t stop. I put a palm over her shoulder and say, “Forget it. This is why I don’t talk to people anymore.”   “They’re just rude.”   We continue our way to the mail station. “Well, whatever. I’m surprised you haven’t bumped into anyone like that considering you’re talking to other platoons.”   “I’ve been mostly connectin’ with the Delta platoons. They have access to the cookin’ stations. They weren’t rude like that.”   “Those two probably originated from The Reserve. I bet everyone there’s saying bad things about us.”   “Why would they do that? Part of my platoon came from The Reserve, but they’re nothin’ like that.”   “I don’t know. There were two members who left my platoon after the incident in Beltan. Maybe those two are giving me a bad reputation.”   “What’d you do to them?”   “Nothing,” I say. Hina quirks an eyebrow. I continue, “Really, nothing. No, wait. I take that back. I was quite reckless back then and took on a whole bunch of requests whenever the chance arose. They weren’t happy with me taking those huge risks, and I don’t blame them. I definitely wouldn’t do anything of that sort now, despite what you tell me.”   “Doin’ nothin’ is the problem. Haven’t I told you that you need to inspire people? Take the time to train them?”   “And I told you that it’s a waste of time. If they don’t wanna train, they won’t train. So I won’t train them.”   “It’s because of your attitude that people are goin’ to think you’re stuck-up. You have to show people they’re valuable.”   “I really don’t care what people think of me. If I’m in charge of them, they’ll have to do what I say as their commanding officer. If they don’t like it, they’ll quit. They always do, but someone will always be there to replace them. In the end, it doesn’t matter.”   Hina shakes her head. “So you’re the reason that those two guys just walked away mid-conversation…”   “Well, I wouldn’t go that far… I’m sure some of the other Sigma platoons are having similar issues. I can’t be the only one refusing to train them. Do you know what’s going on between the other Sigma platoons?”   “No, I haven’t spoken to them.”   “There you have it.”   “Still… It’s possible that you caused it.”   I smile. “But it’s also possible that I didn’t, so there’s no point thinking about it.”   She sighs. “Okay, Kai.”   The mail station is just up ahead. We split off to check our own mailbox. I unlock mine and open it. Two papers inside. I read the one on top.   Sergeant Kai, come find me when you get this. Captain Albius.   I scrunch up the paper and toss it. What does he want now? I read the other piece of paper.   Congratulations. Sigma 3 and 4 have been selected to form one of six groups to participate for this year’s Rising Champions. You’ll receive more information tomorrow. General Nero.   Yes! Our group was selected. An opportunity to advance to Lieutenant quicker! We’re with another Sigma platoon which should be an easy win for us. What about Hina? I close my mailbox and meet up with her. Nothing’s in her hand. I ask, “You didn’t get anything?”   “Nope. Looks like you got somethin’ though.”   “Yeah. Turns out playing my cards safer got me selected. My platoon is partnering with Sigma 3 apparently. Should be a cinch to bring a win back and impress General Nero.”   Hina frowns and tilts her head. “Kai… Do you know who belongs to Sigma 3?”   I chuckle. “Of course I do. They have former adventurers like us.”   “Yeah, but…do you know exactly who's in that platoon?”   “No. Why’s it matter?”   “It matters a lot. Ada’s in that group.”   “Ada?” I ask, my stomach turning.   “Yeah. You remember her right?”   “Of course.” How can I forget? I clench my fists and frown, thinking only about how she treated me half a year ago.   “Did somethin’ else happen between you guys?”   I relax and sigh. I can’t let anyone find out what about happened. “Oh, no. Just really angry how she was so quick to lump me with the masked men. And how she made Sitos out to be a criminal.”   “Well okay. You two are goin’ to have to get over your differences if you’re plannin’ on winnin’ your battle.”   “Of all people to be grouped with… That’s just unlucky.”   “I’m startin’ to think it wasn’t by coincidence.”   “How do you know that?”   “Do you think General Nero knows that you don’t get along with Ada?”   I hesitate to answer. I know he knows based on what happened during our last interaction but I can’t explain to Hina why I know that. But there’s also that time… “Yeah, he knows. He heard Ada accuse me of crimes back at the big execution with Sitos’ family.”   “So I was thinkin’…he put you two together on purpose to get over your differences. Everythin’ we’ve been doin’ with trainin’ villagers and all that. Learnin’ about the Inteiru Expota. It all makes sense. The Risin’ Champions sounds like a trainin’ exercise to improve teamwork and coordination between platoons. If somethin’ happens at the Inteiru Expota, we’d be forced to work with anyone on our side.”   “That makes sense…but then why didn’t you get chosen?”   Hina smiles with her chest puffed out. “Well isn’t that obvious? I’m well-liked by everyone. I’ve made friends with various Delta platoons. You on the other hand… The lone wolf. The one givin’ everyone in a Sigma platoon a bad reputation.”   I frown. “Okay, okay… Lone wolf, sure. But that other part isn’t true.”   “But you don’t know that, so there’s no point in disagreein’.”   I stare at her. She laughs.   “So I’m forced into the same group as her. But we don’t have to work together. I know her group’s pretty capable because we fought in the tournament before. We could operate as separate platoons during the battle.”   “That doesn’t sound like it incorporates much teamwork. You don’t know about the rules yet either. What if the rules say that you must work together?”   “Ugh… I really hope not.”   Her smile melts into a frown. “Well, I’m goin’ to convene with my friends to fill them in on what’s goin’ on… We’ll spread rumors about me wantin’ to meet me in the cafeteria around dinner time. I’ll see you then.”   “Wait, that’s it? We’re not gonna practice our lines?”   “It’s better if we don’t prepare to make it look natural. I’m countin’ on you to follow my lead and improvise. Just remember that I asked you to meet me,” Hina says and then walks away.   It’s time to do my part. Where would Marin be a little past lunchtime? The archery range, her room, the cafeteria, the training area, or somewhere else? I’ll check her room first since it’s the closest.   I head down the stairs onto the second level and into the ‘B’ sector. Her room is conveniently on the second floor near mine. It certainly would be harder to keep us a secret if she lived on a different floor for the number of times she’s been seen by others wandering these hallways. People would raise eyebrows and rumors would spread. I knock on the door marked with ‘B381’.   Seconds later, the door opens. Marin greets with a smile, “Oh, hi Kai.”   “Hey, Marin,” I greet and walk in. I close the door before showing her the piece of paper with the news. “Did you receive one of these?”   “Yeah. We all got them this morning. I wonder what this is about.”   “We’re gonna end up fighting another group from either Neomeris, Elbar, or Xantho. Apparently, if we win, it’ll make us look good, and I’d be able to become a Lieutenant quicker. “   “That’s great news!”   “It is…but that’s only if we win. I don’t know the rules yet, but soldiers from The Reserve don’t seem too thrilled about it. The worst part is… Sigma 3’s Ada’s group…” I inform.   “Oh, no… I’m sorry to hear that Kai. I know you two don’t get along well.”   “We’re gonna have to somehow see eye to eye if we’re gonna win this thing. I know this is gonna be hard for you too. You’re hardly comfortable talking to our platoon other than Ruby and I. Now you’ve gotta communicate with an entirely different team. But you might not have to. I’m hoping that we don’t have to actually work together. If we’re lucky, we can agree to stay as two separate entities. We’d be a team by only appearances.”   “That would probably be for the best. But don’t worry about me, Kai. I’ll figure something out. How’d the mission with Hina go?”   What happened after the meeting with Viessa sticks to my mind. But right now, the most important thing is the meeting. “It went…well. I need to fill you in on what we’ve learned. It’s pretty important.”   I fill her in on everything she missed. She’s silent for a few minutes. It takes a while to absorb. I’m not surprised. It’s a lot of information.   “The Cursed Expedition… Do you think those masked people were responsible for that too? The timing seems too perfect. This entire time I thought mom and dad died in their line of work…but—“   “It doesn’t matter now,” I say. “The end result’s the same. They’re gone. No use thinking about it now. We have no way of knowing whether they had something to do with that or not. What’s important is finding who those people are and making them pay. Something’s definitely gonna happen at the Inteiru Expota. We’ve gotta focus on performing well in the Rising Champions so that General Nero’s more likely to select us as escort to Neomeris.”   “Okay… Did you want to do some training with our platoon first? Or work out a strategy?”   “Maybe later… I don’t really wanna do anything until we’ve received more information about this thing,” I say. I need to bring up that other matter. “About the thing with Hina… Um… Later today we’re executing the plan to start the fake relationship. I don’t know what’s going on exactly we’re just improvising on the spot. She’s gonna spread rumors that she asked to meet with me in the cafeteria at dinner time.”   “Okay. Did you tell Ruby about it yet?”   “No, but I will when I see her. Have you seen her recently? I haven’t seen her since we first left to train the villagers earlier this week.”   “No, I think she, Jetia, and the others are still gone.”   “Hmm… Well, they should be back in time. General Nero wouldn’t give them a task that conflicts with participating in the Rising Champions.”   “Yeah.”   “Soo…” I say, still delaying to bring up the other matter. “So there’s one more thing Hina wants me to run by you… I know you said you’d be okay with us three, well…doing stuff. But for part of our plan to work, I need to be alone in a room with Hina… doing stuff…several times a week to not draw suspicion. At least make it appear that we are, but Hina’s asking if we don’t have to pretend. Hina said that she’s fine with just a physical relationship but it’s also fine if you don’t want me to do the whole fake relationship thing either because it’ll take away from us. So…the choice’s up to you.”   Marin stays silent for several seconds before asking, “Do you want to go through with it?”   It feels like she’s testing me. But she should already know that my heart lies with her. Though, I still don’t want to really bring up last night to her in detail. This whole act is just a friendly gesture to Hina as her friend. I want to help her if I can. “Yeah. I can’t ignore it. If she doesn’t do anything about it. It could lead to…”   Something much worse. Something unthinkable. Something I won’t let happen if I can help it.   “I understand, Kai. You can go through with it. But only if you promise…” her voice growing quieter with every word. I gulp. She stares into my eyes and wraps her arms around my neck before continuing, “…that you’ll make up the time that we don’t see each other for when we do.”   “Of course,” I answer with a smile.   “How about now…?”   I wouldn’t mind indulging a little…but I don’t want to to keep Captain Albius waiting too long. If he finds out that I’ve been back but haven’t done as he has instructed me, he might get angry. “I wanna, but Captain Albius’ asking to see me. You wanna come?”   “Are you sure if that’s okay?”   “Eh, I’m sure it wouldn’t be a big deal. Worst case, you can wait somewhere while I talk to him.”   “Okay, let’s go.”   We leave her room and then try to locate Captain Albius. He’s not in his office or the training area. He might still be in the cafeteria since it’s close to lunchtime. Not in the cafeteria, but maybe one of the cooking station rooms. We check, and there he is with his platoon. He sees us immediately and approaches us before we enter the room.   “Sergeant Kai, good to see you,” Captain Albius says with a smile. What ploy does he have this time?   “Hello, sir. What’d you wanna see me for?” I ask.   “I’m goin’ to need to speak to you in private, go on a walk with me.”   A bit hesitant, but I’m in no position to refuse. “Sure.”   Captain Albius leads me out into the outer hallway toward the outer corners. Pretty deserted area since there’s no reason to be here. All the entrances to the four zones on this level are closer to the center and entrances to the castle. The only ever reason to be here is for some occasional privacy, patrol, or running laps.   “So I’ve got some insider information for you about the upcoming Rising Champions,” he informs. I’m a bit skeptical since he never does things out of the blue that are solely for my benefit.   “What’s the catch?”   “There’s no catch.” I cock an eyebrow. “I know we’ve had our differences…but it was a misunderstanding. I had the wrong first impression about you. Thought you were just another cocky adventurer but these last few months proved me wrong. I’m truly sorry for how I treated you in the first few months. The thing is… I had no other choice.”   I don’t believe any of this but I nod my head and pretend that I do. He continues, “General Nero has been on my ass ever since the attack on the city. And I really shouldn’t be tellin’ you this, but I want you to see that we can be friends.”   “Friends? I don’t wanna be rude…but you covered me in shit.”   “Wasn’t on my orders. It was General Nero. That’s what happens when he’s angered. His punishments are really brutal. I didn’t want to come into his crosshairs.”   He continues in a whisper, “He’s tasked me to basically treat all the new recruits like trash. Tauntin’ and annoyin’ them whenever possible. I didn’t mind considerin’ I didn’t like how some ex-adventurers behaved in the past and most recruits at the time were adventurers… I didn’t want to get on his bad side, you know. I had to suck up to him. Do as I’m told. He knew that you weren’t lyin’ on that report the first time around.”   I open my mouth slowly into a gape. Wait. No… That can’t be right. Is he talking about that report back then? I clench my fists and answer, “You’re telling me… I had shit dumped on me when he knew the truth the entire time? He made me eat shit for no reason?”   “I had to play dumb because he was watchin’ me. No hard feelings. For some reason, he wanted to pick on you out of all the adventurers who joined. You’ve got any reason why?”   “I have no clue… I thought I was on his good side during our first meeting.”   “Look… I’ve been tryin’ behind the scenes to tell General Nero what a great job you’ve been doin’ and tryin’ to convince him that you’re not another one of those smug adventurers. Naturally, he’s not too fond of them either. They usually come with attitude problems. Got problems with bein’ told what to do. He believes that deliverin’ harsh punishment would change their attitudes for the better.”   “How does delivering harsh unjust punishment change my attitude? I didn’t do anything wrong. Punishment’s one thing…but he made me eat shit.”   “It’s because of his personal experiences. Believe it or not, he used to be a petty criminal. He was caught, endured harsh punishments, and changed completely. That’s why he believes that harsh punishment’s the way to change people. I know you want to get payback, but that’s not what you want to do. Swallow your pride and suck up to him. Get on his good side and reap the benefits.”   He used to be a criminal? I can see that. Sometimes I felt like he was really unprofessional. Captain Albius is right though. What kind of revenge would I be able to achieve? I’d be putting Marin and Ruby at risk. And no one else would believe me because he’s the general. His word against mine.   I don’t think Captain Albius is lying anymore. I knew things were fishy when they suddenly apologized for that mess back then. General Nero is the real villain here. But I can’t do anything to him… It’s better to suck up to him to minimize the damage.   “I personally believe you’ve got what it takes to make it far up the ladder. I vouched for your platoon to participate in the Rising Champions for this year. He wasn’t plannin’ on lettin’ you participate until I pushed him for it.”   “Thanks,” I say. Feels really weird saying that to him after what we’ve been through.   “Anytime, Sergeant Kai. If you need anything, let me know. As a token of our new friendship, I’d be willin’ to do you a few favors.”   This is convenient. “There’s one thing you can do for me today.”   “What can I do?”   “Do you know Captain Citrio?”   “Yeah. I know him. What business do you have with him?”   I could use Captain Albius to make him back off of Hina. But, if it doesn’t work, things could end badly. It’s not like he has any control of any of the other Captains. It’s better to proceed with our plan. “I need him to be present at the cafeteria tonight at 6 PM. He’s been harassing one of my friends and we’re putting on an act to make him back off of her.”   “Oh? That sounds interestin’. I’ll find a way to make sure he shows up.”   “She’s having her friends spread rumors that she asked to meet me at the cafeteria tonight. Just need to make sure Captain Citrio’s actually there when the time comes.”   “I’ll make it happen. Now onto the insider information… How much do you know about the Rising Champions?”   “Not much. Heard from two people before. It’s like the tournament without any safeguards. Dishonorable to surrender but you can give up at any time. Something about exact rules being determined by the veteran overseers. I guess that’s you?”   “Exactly. The group you’ll fight will have one too. We’ll have a discussion and come to an agreement on how the winner should be decided.  I’ve participated a few times both as the fighter and overseer. I’ll tell you exactly what the purpose of this event is.”   “Isn’t it just to select the representative for the Inteiru Expota?”   “Yeah, but…its true purpose’s to allow newbies to get combat experience and toughen them up. Traditionally it’s also used to clear any bad blood between platoons. Makin’ them work together to accomplish a common goal. That’s why I can’t change his stance on movin’ you with another platoon. It’s a part of my job to make sure that both platoons are behavin’ properly and workin’ together.” Captain Albius smiles before continuing, “If Sigma 3 doesn’t behave… I’ll make sure General Nero knows it. Winnin’ the match isn’t the most important determinin’ factor.”   Is he saying what I think he’s saying? That I don’t need to win to impress General Nero? I smile. If Captain Albius is on my side, I won’t have to worry about being penalized. I’ll try my best to get along with Ada. It’s not my problem if she’s still hostile toward me. I thought it was all over but thanks to his insight this trial will be a cinch. It’ll even be better if Ada doesn’t play along and we manage to win. Or maybe it’ll be better if we lose? It would clearly be her fault and she’d take the downfall.   “I understand. Thanks for the heads up, Captain Albius.”   “No problem. Let me know if you need anything else. You’re free to help yourself to our leftovers. I’ll introduce you to my team.”   “Uhh…” I interject, hesitating for a moment because of the last time he offered me food. But that was in the past. He’s only here to help me now. “Sure. I’m pretty hungry since I haven’t eaten. Marin can join too, right?”   “The more the merrier.”   We head back to the cooking station he was at, Marin waiting. She gives me a confused look, but she follows me inside.   “This is Sergeant Kai,” Captain Albius introduces. “I’m sure you know already.”   “Of course we know,” someone responds. “He’s the one who had the gall to challenge you on his first day!”   They laugh. Captain Albius says, “Now, now…that’s all in the past. Sergeant Kai’s won me over. He’s not like those adventurers we’ve dealt with in the past. He’s someone you should keep an eye out for. He’s going to be the newest Lieutenant in record time. I feel it.”   “And this is Corporal Marin, right?” Captain Albius asks, pointing to Marin.   “Yes…” Marin replies quietly.   “Well, help yourself, Sergeant Kai.”   “Right…” I answer and sit next to these men I don’t know. The only thing I can think right now is eating the meat in front of me. There’s a good portion left. From the looks of it, it was a boar.   “Get this man a plate and some food!” Captain Albius exclaims.   “Yes, sir.”   “I need to run some errands. I’ll see you guys at six sharp tonight,” he says and then leaves.   “See ya, Captain,” several men say.   He must be meeting with Captain Citrio. Glad he’s not wasting any time on this. I like how he emphasized six o’ clock. We need the biggest audience we can get. A man hands me a plate. Another cuts a large portion of the boar onto my plate. A bit messy, but can’t complain.   “Here you go, sir,” a man says holding a fork and knife.   “Thanks,” I say and take the silverware. I help myself to the food.   “So what’d you do to impress Captain Albius to this degree?” a man asks. “Captain Albius rarely praises anyone. On top of that, he hates adventurers.”   I’m still chewing, so I don’t answer.    “Whatever man. Captain Albius is on board with this kid, so hell with it. I’m on board. Tell us one of your old adventurer stories.”   “Does the girl want to join too?”   “Umm…”   Right, Marin’s pretty uncomfortable. Well, it’s probably awkward for her to be standing over there too. It’s better for her to join in even if she’s not eating. It’ll be some practice for her socializing with other platoons before we have to work with Sigma 3. I gesture her to come over. The other guys scoot over to make room for Marin.   Heh, now Hina can’t mock me for not talking with other platoons. It’s not so hard. I enjoy my meal while sharing stories, mostly from our fifth year at the Academy.   I eat my fill but stay to socialize with them a bit more. I figure I should maximize this opportunity to get them on their good side. Captain Albius giving me his praise is probably enough, but more couldn’t hurt. Time flies by faster than I would anticipate. We eventually part ways. There are still a few more hours until the agreed meeting time tonight. With nothing else to do, we head back to the second level.   We bump into Jetia at the Crossroads. I ask, “You’re back from your mission already?”   “That’s my line. I was hoping to enjoy some more time to myself without you.”   “Whatever. Is Ruby back too?”   “No, I returned here by myself.”   “Right…is she here?”   “No, I returned here by myself,” he repeats himself.   He annoys me. Jetia never seems to play along with me. I’ll have to work with him the best I can for the sake of this Rising Champions. If I can’t get along with my own platoon, General Nero won’t be impressed. I say, “Well, I found out that we’re gonna team up with Sigma 3 in the Rising Champions. We’re gonna need to learn to work together if we’re going to have any chance of working with them and winning this thing.”   “It’s always like this with you. Something comes up and you want to act like a team when you don’t care about any of us besides Marin and Ruby.”   “Come on…that’s not true,” I say sincerely, despite it not being true. “Look, I’m sorry for the way I acted before. I know I ignored you guys, but this time I’m serious. I’ll train you individually if I have to. I’ll even put in a good word with Captain Albius for you.”   “Hah, that’s worth nothing coming from you.”   “No, I’m on friendly terms with him now. He’s praised me in front of his platoon and said I’d be the next Lieutenant. Ask him yourself.”   “What kind of bribe did you give him? He’s known for picking fights with adventurers. Almost everyone in the army knows him. That goes to show how great he is.”   “Picking fights with adventurers? He didn’t get in trouble for that?”   “Before Sigma platoons were made, all new recruits started as soldiers regardless. Adventurers acted like they were better than everyone else and had attitudes about it. Frequently disobeyed orders from their superiors. Captain Albius bent the rules in his favor and actively put them in their place until they became compliant or quit. That’s how everyone got to know him. He got a lot of praise for it.”   “Is he really that great?” I ask, skeptical. In my eyes, he hasn’t done anything particularly great.   “Of course. His Omega platoon is in the single digits.”   “Omega platoon… I’ve heard that term with Delta and Alpha but don’t really know the difference.”   “I’m not surprised. You were an adventurer. Most of us learned that in the first week.”   “I can’t change what’s done. I’m asking now, so please,” I say politely.   “Delta platoons consist of twelve people led by a Lieutenant. Omega platoons are the same led by a Major or Captain, so they’re more elite. The lower the number, the higher the prestige. Omega 1, 2, and 3 are reserved for the Majors.  Alpha platoons have four people led by a Sergeant. Those are temporary short-term platoons. That’s how I got to know Dano and Banni… Numbers don’t mean anything. I’m sure you don’t know what a Beta platoon is, do you?”   I shake my head. He continues, “Beta platoons are temporary platoons too containing up to twelve people. They’re formed by combining Alpha platoons and people from The Reserve. They’re only formed to serve as additional reinforcements for Delta or Omega platoons.”   “So what number’s Captain Albius’ platoon?”   “7 or 8 last time I heard.”   “So, he’s not that great. There’re several Captains above him.”   “He hasn’t been doing much. I’m sure he could be a Major if he really wanted to.”   “Why wouldn’t he want to? The higher the rank, the higher the pay, the more stuff you can do.”   “Yer an idiot, that’s why. Past Lieutenant, there’s a lot more administrative responsibility. He’s got us under his wing, and I’m sure several others. Majors have to review work that everyone has done and that means reviewing several Captains who review a lot of platoons. They have to meet with the personnel working in the Request Center and Record Zone and resolve any issues. On top of that, they have to meet with the ministers and meet their demands to the best of their ability. General Nero also gives them direct orders. It’s a lot of responsibility.”   “That sound’s boring…but I didn’t know you were this knowledgable.”   “As I said, it’s common knowledge. It’s just yer an idiot.”   “Whatever. Anyway, I’m in good relations with Captain Albius now. I’ll give him word that you’re doing a good job, and you could finally be promoted to the Corporal rank. I need your help to find the other guys in our platoon for group training and coming up with a game plan.”   “You don’t even know their names and you want to do group training?”   “Names aren’t important. I know their faces. Look. I’ll use my savings to fund you a seminar about learning how to manipulate Mana. You’ll be well on your way of using magic and climbing to Sergeant.”   “I already know how to manipulate Mana.”   “Oh, you’ve taken that seminar already?”   “No, I went to the Academy.”   I widen my eyes. “What? You went to the Academy? You were an adventurer? Why haven’t I seen you use magic?”   So many things don’t make sense. We learned how to use basic magic in the middle of our second year.   “No…I never intended to become one. I completed the first year and dropped out early in my second year.”   “You dropped out?” I ask, trying not to smile. He was one of those kids. Was he really that untalented? I let out a chuckle accidentally.   “I know what yer thinking…you idiot. I’ll have you know I was above the average student. I left because my mother fell ill. I had a different childhood than others because I had to do whatever it took to get by and buy her medicine.”   “Couldn’t you have gone back? What happened to your group?”   “By the time my mother regained her health, it was too late. I couldn’t just continue from when I left. I had to re-enroll again. Since I was 15 at that time, I couldn’t enroll anymore. My group was understanding and continued on. I don’t know what became of them.”   “So what…you joined the army instead?”   “Yeah, it’s what I’ve always wanted to do anyway.”   “Then why’d you attend the Academy?”   “You idiot, not everyone that attends the Academy wants to become an adventurer. It’s how you become an adventurer, but does not mean you become one by going there.”   “What? Are you sure?”   “He’s right, Kai,” Marin answers. “The three paths are Adventurer, Soldier, and Craftsman.”   “Why does Marin know but not you?” Jetia asks.   “I don’t know. This is the first time I’ve heard anything about this. I thought everyone in our class wanted to be adventurers.”   “Kai, that’s because everyone signed up to be adventurers in our class. Didn’t you see the options when you enrolled in the Academy?”   “I don’t know what you’re talking about. All I know is, Emdos enrolled me into the Academy.”   “He must’ve known that you wanted to become an adventurer, so he picked that option for you,” Marin says.   “Yeah, he knew. So you were on the Soldier path? What’s the point of going to the Academy if you could enroll in the army anyway?”   “To learn how to manipulate Mana and use magic, why else?”   “If you know how to manipulate Mana, why haven’t you attended the seminar for bonding with an Affinity? You look older than me, so at least a few years. In that amount of time, you never had enough money to go to a seminar?”   “I’ve been in the army for four years. I send a portion of my earnings to my mother. She’s not well enough to work, so I need to help her survive.”   “Alright, I’ll give you enough money for you to attend a seminar for whatever you need. You’d be well on your way of being able to use magic in a fight.”   “No,” Jetia responds. Why would he refuse? He has nothing to lose. “Instead of funding my education, fund the other guys’ education on their first seminar for Mana manipulation. Only then will I agree to rally everyone up for your meeting.”   That’s four gold coins… Is it really worth it? I’m sure he’s going to ask for more than that later. Without Jetia’s help, there’s no way I can convince everyone to attend training. To be honest, I don’t know who is really a part of our platoon. If we don’t have a good showing at the Rising Champions, our platoon may not be allowed to attend the Inteiru Expota. We’re on a time limit too with the snake earring group and masked men… The faster we can go on our own investigation the better. The price to pay is not being able to attend more advanced seminars of our own for a while.   “Okay, I promise,” I respond.   Jetia smiles. “Great. Yer not going to take that back later, are you?”   “No, a promise’s a promise. Do you know where Ruby’s at?” I ask. I’m going to take everything back if he tries to act smart with me again.   “Not sure. She said she was tired, so probably getting some extra sleep in her room.”   “Alright, thanks. I’ll see you and the others tomorrow for lunch.”   “Whatever you say, leader.”   We continue our way back to the second level. Now knowing that Ruby’s back, we look for her. We knock on her door, but no answer. Maybe she’s completely passed out in there. We knock louder, but there’s still nothing. I could use my magic to go in there, but it’s too risky to use right now, and she’s probably not in there.   There are only a few other places where she could be. We check the mail station and meeting rooms on the third level and then all the training rooms on the first level. The clinic too, in case she was sick. She’s not in the outer hallways either. This isn’t the first time she’s disappeared and each time, she said it was just bad luck of not running into her when she’s there. Or somewhere we wouldn’t expect.   There’s no way she would be at the lower level. Only prisoners would be there and the unfortunate guard who keeps watch. She could be in the request center looking for potential requests to take. We haven’t been on a request together in a while so she could be restless about that. Or maybe she’s lying about her whereabouts, but why?   “Kai, she could’ve been tasked with a mission on her own or with someone from another platoon,” Marin says. “Just like how you and Hina were.”   “Hmm…that’s true.” Maybe I’m reading too much into it. There’s no reason why Ruby would lie to us.   We return to my room for the time being. Since there’s only one more hour until the agreed meeting time, we don’t do much. I don’t want to tire myself out and throw our plan up in flames. We spend our time thinking about how we can incorporate our fighting styles together. We agree to meet up later in my room.   The awaited hour arrives.   I arrive on time. The cafeteria is much more crowded than usual. Is it because of Captain Albius or the rumors that Hina and the others were spreading? There’s the usual line of people waiting to get their food with the addition of groups of people sitting at tables without any food. Hina is standing at the center of the room. I walk up to her, noticing Captain Albius with his platoon nearby. An unknown man with him; must be Captain Citrio. With so many people around, I’m a bit nervous, even though I shouldn’t be. This should be nothing compared to when I confessed to…never mind.   “Hey Hina,” I greet, “What’d you wanna see me for?”   “Hey Kai,” Hina says with a smile. “Thanks for comin’.”   She lowers her head. She switches between looking at me and the ground as she continues, “We-well…the thing is…”   I try not to look at Captain Albius or anyone just watching. Don’t want to make it look fake. I just hope Ruby doesn’t see this. Can’t imagine what chaos would unfold. It’s best if she’s on a separate mission.   “For a while now… I can’t stop thinkin’ about you… I have this uncontrollable urge to be by your side. To feel your touch. I don’t want to spend every night not knowin’ what could’ve been, so I just want to let you know...that I really like you!” she suddenly exclaims. Now we have everyone’s attention. I don’t know what the point of that was considering that Captain Citrio’s already watching. She continues normally, “How do you feel about me?”   “Umm…that’s really sudden,” I say while trying to think of something better. If I get the point across that this isn’t just a sudden confession, maybe it’ll be better at convincing this is real. “Well, you’re cute, and if I’m being completely honest… I had a small crush on you back in the Academy days. You had someone back then, so you know, nothing came of it. Recently, those feelings are coming back since we’ve been working together this past week. I’ve had urges any normal guy would have toward a woman…but kept it hidden because I didn’t wanna destroy our friendship”   “What do you mean urges…? Are you sayin’ that you like me?” she asks.   It should’ve been obvious to any of these bystanders from what I just said. Does she want me to say it directly? I gulp and reply, “Don’t make me say it directly. Haven’t we drawn enough attention? Let’s just say that only you can satisfy my hunger.”   “Okay…do you want to go somewhere private?” she asks, holding a hand out.   “Yeah…” I answer and grab her hand.   Clapping and whistling resound around the room. Someone shouts, “Go get him, girl!”   We walk slowly out of the room side by side. We’ve got to give Captain Citrio as much time as possible to follow us. We ended that on an awkward note. I don’t know if our performance was good enough, but too late now. After we’re in the Crossroads, I whisper, “How will we know if Captain Citrio follows us? It’ll be too suspicious if we turn around.”   “I’ve got my guys stationed around. They’ll give us a signal if there’s a bite,” she whispers back. Speaking of the devil, Luke is standing by the steps up to the second level with some other guy.   Luke waves with a smile and says, “Congrats, Hina and Kai. It went well?”   “Yeah, thanks,” Hina responds.   “Good, good, good,” Luke says. A bit one too many goods. Was that the signal?   We continue up the stairs. I whisper, “Are we gonna go to my room or yours?”   “Mine. Captain Citrio knows where my room’s at. It’s in the A block. Simon and Dennis are hiding’ by the ‘C’ and ‘D’ entrances. Dennis will give Simon a signal if he sees Captain Citrio. Then Simon will give us a signal when we’re by the ‘A’ entrance. It’s perfect because of the wall that covers the stairs that lead upward.”   Oh, right. Because of that wall, anyone by the ‘C’ entrance has the best view of someone coming from the first level. Meanwhile, anyone by the ‘A’ entrance can’t see. I don’t see the point though since she already had one signal from Luke. But I guess she didn’t know whether the first signal would be successful.   We reach the second level. I look over at the ‘C’ region to see if he’s actually there. I wouldn’t have noticed him there unless Hina told me. There’s no way Captain Citrio would notice him with his eye on the prize. We quicken our pace toward the ‘A’ block and then wait by the entrance. Less than a minute passes before a speck of Mana appears near the ceiling at the center of the room. Hina tugs on my arm. That must’ve been the signal.   We head up one flight of stairs onto the second floor and walk all the way to A391. We go in and lock the room behind us. I figure this is the best time to tell her what Marin said.   “So, Marin’s fine with it,” I inform. “We don’t have to act.”   “Really?” she asks, smiling. “Did you tell Ruby?”   “Yeah. I looked for her but didn’t find her. She’s probably still on a mission. I’ll tell her everything as soon as I see her.”   “We don’t have a lot of time, so…”   Captain Citrio’s right on our tail. It’ll be suspicious if he hears it from the start when we should’ve already started. I walk over to Hina and hug her. Her slightly parted lips entice me as I move my head closer to her, eventually kissing her lightly on those lips. My bottom half reacts immediately. Losing patience, I plunge my tongue inside, now wrestling with hers.   I caress the back of her body under her clothing, unclipping her bra in the process.  Her grip tightens on my back as I squeeze her nipples. As if to retaliate, she presses against my crotch with one hand. I pull away from her lips temporarily and stare deeper into her eyes, both of us panting. We both take off our top halves. I push her onto the bed and then climb on top of her.   I gently massage her breasts while kissing her on her neck, eliciting soft moans. I move my head down to her hard nubs and suck on one. I put as much pressure as I can using my lips while pinching her other nipple between my thumb and index finger.   “Ah!” she cries out loudly and stiffens her body. It only adds fuel to the fire. I move my kisses down to her stomach and take the opportunity to undress her bottom half. She stares at me blushing lightly with puppy-dog eyes. I gulp. I stretch out her last garment down her legs as loud as possible. There, her flower lays bare devoid of any hair. She mutters, “Stop starin’…”   I slap her on her most sensitive part repeatedly. Her body shakes as I do. She mutters, “More…”   Her juices splash on my hand with every whack. I move my body parallel to hers, wanting to kiss her again. Our tongues mingle. This time, we take turns sucking on each other’s tongue. I slam two fingers inside her. She pushes my head away and whispers, “That feels so good…”   I whisper back, “Is it bad that I’ve been anticipating this the entire day? I wanna thrust my entire body inside you… I even declined sex from Marin earlier because I wanted to be at peak performance for you.”   My erection presses hard against my pants. I can’t keep it together anymore. I climb off of her to take off my belt. And then my pants. And then my underwear. As if memorized by my body, she hasn’t said a word the entire time. I crouch back onto the bed and grab both of her ankles, pushing them toward her head. She shakes her head and then gestures me to come closer. I let her down, still very excited. Maybe she wants a position where we kiss too.   Suddenly, she sits up and whispers in my ear, “I don’t want to go through with this anymore.”   “What do you mean? Captain Citrio’s right there,” I whisper.   “Ah! You’re so hard!” Hina exclaims and shakes the bed. She continues in a whisper, “I don’t want to ruin you and Marin. I like you as a friend and Marin too. Wouldn’t want to destroy what you guys had already.”   I’m a bit disappointed even though I was doing this as a favor for her. I push her down and thrust open air above her to shake the bed. We both pant and moan for the show. She reaches for my member and whispers, “Just this time, only sex is off limits.”   I gulp. So she’s fine with kissing and touching?   We continue acting as if we have our bodies locked together, but really we’re only touching each other. Closing in on climax, we both exclaim each other’s name. I shake the bed more violently in the last few moments.   “Hina-ugh!” I exclaim and explode my juices in short bursts all over her upper body. I flop onto the bed beside her. Faint footsteps resound outside the door. Captain Citrio should be gone now. Just in case, I whisper, “Sorry, made a mess.”   “It’s okay. It’s just this once. I didn’t want to make you stop again because of my selfish request at the last second.”   “It’s not selfish. You’re looking out for me and Marin, right?”   “Yeah…but things will be hard from now. I don’t want to keep actin’ like this when you get nothin’ out of it. Maybe it’s enough that Captain Citrio believes we did it once. He wouldn’t want a woman who does these things on a whim.”   “From what you told me about him, I don’t think that will work. I don’t mind if we continue to act. We’ve already put the plan in motion. I’ll see it through. Besides, I had fun acting. With Marin, it’s more…quiet. We can’t have it be openly known.”   She giggles. “Yeah, that was fun. I wonder what was goin’ on in Captain Citrio’s head while we were doin’ that.”   “Well, you should be safe from Captain Citrio from now on. Wanna get dinner now?”   “Oh, now I know why you agreed to do this.”   “Why’s that?” I ask, not knowing what she’s referring to.   “You want access to the cookin’ station. Since we’re a couple now, it would be strange if we didn’t eat meals together,” she says with a grin.   “Yep…” I answer devoid of any energy. “That’s exactly it. I just hate cafeteria food that much.”   “Let me clean up and we can go,” Hina says and walks to the bathroom.   I start to get dressed. “By the way, what’d you end up telling Simon, Dennis, and Luke? Do they know that our relationship isn’t real?”   “I told them about Captain Citrio, but…well things happened.”   “What does that mean?”   “They already knew I had a thing for you, so I couldn’t really get out of it. They think we’re in a relationship for real. I didn’t tell them about you and Marin either.”   Seriously? That’s a bit bad because I told Captain Albius it was all an act… But I’m sure he won’t spill the beans because he’s only trying to help me now. The only loose string here is Ruby. Captain Albius should be alerted when she’s back from her mission, right? I’ll ask him to tell her to find me as soon as possible when she gets back.   Both of us get dressed and head down to the cafeteria. Captain Albius is in one of the cooking station rooms, so we go there instead of her contact. I introduce her to everyone, giving Captain Albius the idea that our relationship is as real as it gets or at least it needs to seem that way to everyone. He plays along. I confirm from him that Ruby is on a separate mission by herself. So I tell him to tell her to find me as the first thing she does once she’s back.   I part ways with Hina after dinner and return to my room. I still have quite a bit of energy and fire in me despite my encounter with Hina earlier. I have a lot of unreleased energy because we never got to do it.   Marin meets me in my room where I explain to her what happened with Hina and the game plan from now on. I deliver my promise from earlier and get fairly busy that night with her.   …   “Kai!” someone exclaims and bashes on my door.   It jolts me and Marin awake. I sit up from the bed and ask, “Who the hell?”   “It’s Luke. Kai, you’ve got to come quickly!” he exclaims quickly. “Open the door!”   “Hold on, let me get dressed,” I say and get up from the bed. It would be really bad if he saw Marin. I signal her to go into the bathroom. She walks there quietly careful not to make any extra noise. I hide her clothes under the bed and then get dressed. I open the door, Luke standing there, panting. “What’s wrong?”   “Hina and Ruby are fighting in the cafeteria,” he informs.   I widen my eyes. Oh shit! Fuck!   He continues, “It’s bad. Ruby suddenly attacked her. Everyone evacuated the cafeteria because they started using magic.”   “What?! Magic? Are you serious? There’s no one there to stop them?” I ask, quickly shutting the room behind me and following Luke. We practically sprint there.   “Apparently all the Lieutenants and above are having a meeting. That’s where everyone’s running to now. You’ve got to stop them before it gets worse.”   We reach the center of the second level. People are running up the stairs. We go down into the Crossroads and into the cafeteria.   Immediately, witness a scene of pure fire and water. It’s too much to take in.     Both of them scream while launching magic attacks at each other. How the hell did this happen? I know I should be stopping them, but this fight is on a larger scale of a fight than I thought. Almost the entire room has been affected. The tables are in the air encapsulated by Water magic. Other tables are burnt or bunched up together in one side of the room.   No, I know how this happened. Ruby must’ve heard about Hina and me. I did this. I walk into the chaos and exclaim, “Ruby! Stop this right now!”   She looks at me but a moment but turns away. “What’d ya do ta my Kai?! Ya fuckin’ bitch. Ya did somethin’ ta ‘im didn’tcha?!”   “He’s not yours.”   “Yeah, he is! ‘N’ ya knew that! Fireball barrage! Fireball barrage! Fireball!” she exclaims while running around Hina. Two pairs of three miniature fireballs appear from the tip of three fingers that gradually increase in size as they fly toward Hina. A larger ball of fire follows. She’s not playing around. I’ve used Fire magic enough to know that she’s using Rich Mana to build those attacks.   Hina stands still, seemingly ready for her attack. The floating balls of water around the room with the tables inside them slam down on Ruby’s magic. More clumps of water appear in front of Hina too. The magic collide. Smoke and steam spread throughout the room. I can’t see. I continue walking forward to where Hina was standing. I leave only a tiny sliver of my eye open as a gust of wind blows over me. The smoke and steam clear up.   It looks like Ruby’s preparing another attack. I take this chance to run in front of Hina and spreading my arms apart, guarding her.   She yells, “Kai! Get outta the way! She’s got ya under ‘er spell. I know it!”   “No! You need to listen to me! Stop attacking her right now or, I’m never gonna speak to you again!”   She drops her arms down as if defeated. Tears stream down her eyes. “But, why, Kai…?”   I turn around to see how Hina’s doing. Her left arm hangs in front of her, covered in second-degree burns. I grimace. That looks quite painful. “Go ahead and go to the clinic. I’ll handle Ruby now. Sorry about this, Hina.”   She just looks at me and nods. I think she’s trying to keep herself together. Luke runs over and lends her a shoulder. I walk over to Ruby, now kneeling on the ground head down and crying. “Ruby, I was looking for you so I could explain.”   She sniffles and asks, “That yer throwin’ me away?”   “No. Look. You have it all wrong. The truth is, there was someone doing things to Hina that she didn’t like. The only way for them to stop was to pretend that she had a boyfriend. So we’re just pretending. None of it’s true.”   She looks up. “Really?”   “Yeah. But you can’t tell anyone. No matter what. No one can find out.”   “Okay, I got it…”   “And how’d you find out about this so quickly? Captain Albius told me you were on a mission. Didn’t think you’d get back this early in the morning.”   “Oh…yeah. There was a small errand he wanted me ta run. Nothin’ hard, but took a while.”   “This isn’t the first time that you’re nowhere to be found. This time was a mission, but other times weren’t… Is there something else you’re not telling us?”   “Well…I—“   “What in tarnation?!” someone exclaims behind us. I know him. He’s one of the three Majors. One of the older ones, early 50’s maybe. “Identify yourself!”   “We’re both Sigma 4. I’m Sergeant Kai. This is Corporal Ruby. Sir, I can explain—“   “What the hell’s wrong with you adventurers? Do you think you have some kind of special privilege to cause trouble?”   “Of course not, sir, but—“   “The Sigma platoons were created so you could have more freedom and didn’t have to start as a Soldier like everyone else. But it wasn’t enough, huh? You two, you’re coming with me to see General Nero. He’s still in the meeting, so you’ll have to wait.”   We follow him to the third level to General Nero’s office. He comes by with Captain Albius sometime later.   “What do we have here, Major Galan?” General Nero asks.   “The culprits for the chaos this morning.”   “I see. Thank you. I’ll take it from here.”   “Yes, sir,” Major Galan says with a salute and then leaves.   “Well, come inside Sergeant Kai, and Corporal Ruby,” General Nero says and goes into his office. We follow him. Captain Albius right behind us. “Tell me what happened.”   “Yes, sir. I was informed by someone from Sigma 8 this morning about a fight between Sergeant Hina and Corporal Ruby and went to check it out. I stopped the fight immediately. Sergeant Hina’s being treated in the clinic as we speak. I apologize for the trouble,” I say and bow my head.   “I see. Well, I’ll let you off with a warning this time since no one else was hurt. You’ve been doing a great job recently other than this little incident. Captain Albius has said many great things about you. Isn’t that right?”   “Yes, sir. Sergeant Kai has changed a lot these recent months. He’s been doin’ a great job under my supervision.”   “Thank you, sir. I’ll make sure something like this never happens again. Ruby, apologize too.”   Ruby frowns and looks away. “I’m sorry.”   I hit her on the arm lightly. “I’m sorry about that, sir. Come on Ruby, try again more sincerely.”   She looks at them this time and answers, “I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”   “Don’t let this happen again, Corporal Ruby. You’ve got a great leader. Listen to him,” General Nero says. “You’re free to go.”   “Thank you, sir,” I say again before leaving with Ruby. I walk a good distance away from their office before turning back to Ruby. “Ruby, I can’t have you acting like this toward General Nero and Captain Albius anymore.”   “But—“   “Captain Albius only means good to us. He’s helped me a lot and we cleared up a lot of misunderstandings. I won’t tolerate any bad attitude toward him anymore especially. You’ve always treated him poorly. That can’t continue from now on.”   “But—“   “No buts. You do it or I’m leaving you.”   “’Kay… I got it, Kai…”   I feel bad saying that to her because she looks really hurt every time I do, but it’s the only way I can ever get her to listen. Captain Albius is going to be a valuable asset to us from now on. I can’t have her ruining my relationship with him.   “I don’t know if you got the other news, but we’ll be participating in the Rising Champions. So, we’re gonna start coordinating with the rest of the platoon in preparation. Team meeting at lunch. Be there and don’t be late.”   “’Kay…”   “Good. I’ll see you at lunch.”   “’Kay. See ya, Kai!” she exclaims with her usual smile. It didn’t take that long for her to return to normal.   I’d better go check out how Hina’s doing. With that, I head back to the first level.   ~~~~~ Full Image: https://imgur.com/X0FfpD5

I reach the inn and go inside. There’s one thing we forgot to do before we left. Purchase the available rooms for the next few days. Worst case, we only need a few for the ministers, and the rest of us will have to make do without one.   Apparently, the Neomeris government has already reserved twenty rooms for us. I show the receptionist my army ID card, and then he hands me a key. Makes sense to do it this way to avoid overcrowding of the representatives of the Inteiru Expota into one location. They must’ve met and planned this.   I head upstairs and then find my room. I close the door and lock the door before taking off everything.   Crap. I don’t know how good their nose is, but couldn’t they track my scent to this room? I walk over to the window and then open it. Well, this should do fine. I take off my sweatshirt, rolling it into a ball. Don’t want to be seen doing this. I hide around the edge of the window and crouch. Then, I toss out my shirt before closing the window. It’s in clear view in the middle of the street with a couple of confused bystanders.   I strip the remainder of my clothes before hopping into the shower. The blood is a problem. I might have to find a clinic with a healer to quickly close the wound. They might be able to track me that way. It’s not that much, though. Should be enough to wash it off.   I finish with the shower and then dress my lower half. I shiver. It’s a little cold coming right out of the bathroom. I wrap myself with a towel in the bathroom. It doesn’t really help, but it’s something.   Now, I just have to wait for Hina to arrive with my surprise. I unlock the door and leave it slightly open. I lay across the bed while I’m waiting.   There’s some faint communication going on in the lobby area. Then footsteps coming up the stairs. Hina’s here already?   I sit up and then open the door. I hold my breath, realizing that this isn’t Hina. It’s a young girl with short white hair. Big round white ears with a pink center on the top of her head. Two teeth are sticking out of her mouth, just like a rat. Unless it’s all a prop, this has to be another one of the Xog. But, the skin on her face is white and hairless. The rest of her facial features are like a Human’s. Same goes for the rest of the body, including the hands. Except for the furless tail protruding from the back end of her clothes.   With her eyes still closed, she wiggles her nose while leaning closer to me. Her nose has to be different because there’s no way to wiggle the nose left and right otherwise. Has she not noticed me yet? I feel like it isn’t a coincidence that a rat girl showed up at my door. I’m not sure what to make of this situation.   She definitely tracked my scent here, but with what lead? Is this the white rat that I captured? Somehow it turned into a normal-sized Human with rat features. God. This doesn’t make any sense. What do I do?   She suddenly opens her eyes and asks, “Are you who the Feloidians are looking for?”   “Uhhh…” I interject to stall for time. I’m certain that I’m the one she’s looking for, but I can’t get caught now. My heart is pounding. What would a normal person say in this situation? “Who’re you?”   “Oh, excuse my manners,” she says and bows her head before looking up again. “I’m Pem.”   “Kai,” I introduce and hold out my hand. I’m afraid she might notice that I’m nervous, but I’m trying to stay as calm as one can be in this situation. “Nice to meet you.”   She smiles and grabs my hand, but instead of shaking it, she lowers her head toward it.   I pull my arm back before she makes contact and ask, “What’re you doing?”   Pem gives me a look of confusion for several seconds and then says, “Oh, I’m sorry. Humans don’t do that?”   “No…” I answer, not sure what she was planning to do. I figure she might have never seen a simple handshake. It might not exist in Xog culture. “Grab my hand with yours.”   She reaches out and grabs onto my hand. I continue, “Now we tighten our grasps a little and move it up and down a little. This is called a handshake. It’s our common greeting for meeting new people. Well, I’m sure Dwarves and Elves do it too, but I can’t say for sure.”   “Oh, I see. Thank you for teaching me!” she exclaims.   She’s still holding onto my arm while going through the up and down motion. I say, “No problem. You’re only supposed to do it for a few seconds tops. You can let go now.”   “Oh, I’m sorry. I need to check something. Can I come in?” Pem asks.   She’s going to be suspicious if I reject her. But, what if she figures out that I’m the one she wants?   She walks closer to me and sniffs.  Her cheery and calm demeanor is suddenly broken when she asks, “Are you hiding something?”   Shit. Did she figure it out? No matter, I’ll keep on playing the ignorance card. “I don’t know what you’re referring to, but you’re free to come in.”   I gulp as she accepts my invitation to come in. For the first time, I notice that she has two weapons attached to her Titanium belt. The hilt style reminds me of a rapier, but it isn’t one. There isn’t any blade for that matter. It looks almost as if the belt is the weapon. That would make more sense than the concept of a metal belt.   She narrows her eyebrows and paces around me. Pem says, “Let me see your chest.”   That’s what she’s going for. That scratch the tiger guy managed to get on me?   “What are you waiting for? Take off the towel,” she demands.   My palms sweat, and my heart beats faster. I respond, “No, I’m not gonna show you my chest for no reason.”   “So you are hiding something…” she says and wiggles her nose. “You can’t fool me. I smell your fear.”   What?! She can do that?!  What do I do now? Fight her? My weapons are too far out of my reach. There has to be another way out of this. Wait. Fear… Monsters…   “So-sorry…” I mutter with a trembling voice. I make and break eye contact several times. “I didn’t want you to know because it’s a little embarrassing… I’m kinda scared by you.”   Her expression loosens up. She bows her head again and says, “Oh, no. I should apologize!”   I cock an eyebrow. I really don’t know what to make of this situation. Her attitude changes so easily.   Pem continues, “It’s your first time seeing one of us Xog, right?”   “Yeah,” I answer. “I’m not from around here.”   “Same here. What a coincidence,” she says and then laughs. When she’s not giving me a death stare, she seems like an ordinary nice girl…with a few extra features. If it weren’t for those front teeth bulging out of her mouth, she’d be quite attractive. “I didn’t know Humans were frightened so easily… I think you’ll cry when you’re in the presence of Feradians.”   “Cry?” I ask and then crack a skeptical smile. I quickly drop it, realizing I’m supposed to be scared. “Maybe…if they’re really that scary… What’re they?”   “I’ll tell you a few things for free to show that you don’t have to be scared of me. I’m not going to eat you,” she says with a grin while patting me on the head. I don’t like how she’s looking down on me, but that’s a good thing in this case. “We Xog are the most diverse race on this planet. We’re split into two categories. The Dociforms, who exhibit less beast-like characteristics, and the Feradians, who are the opposite. They look more like beasts, but none of us are what other races call monsters.”   “Who’re the Feloidians then?” I ask, remembering that she mentioned it earlier.   “There’s a second way we’re categorized. By our physical features. The Feloidians are the feline beasts, and I’m a Muriform, a family of mostly rodents. Particularly, I’m a rat type, but you can’t really tell most of us apart by glance. We all look similar other than rabbits or those who exhibit more beast traits.”   “Oh,” I interject. Should I ask more questions? Something more specific as to why those Felodians are looking for me. There’s no mistake that those tiger guys I ran into were part of that group. But, I can’t let her show any more nervousness. She’s going to be suspicious, and I can’t keep playing the scared card. Hina, hurry up! She’s the only one that can get me out of this situation.   “Want to see something cool?” She asks with a grin. It seems like she’s the one who wants to show me something, if anything. Before I can answer, she exclaims, “Look!”   She raises her hand in front of her and then something crackles within it. Her wrist and fingers pop out of their sockets and bend in impossible ways. I blurt out, “What the hell?!”   “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you!” she exclaims and returns her hand to normal somehow. “I wanted to show you my special ability to soften and harden my bones. It pretty much allows me to dislocate my bones without any consequence. Cool, right?”   “Yeah…that’s interesting,” I reply. I guess she only looks similar to us., Like Dwarves, Xog may have their own special adaptations that are unique to them. She mentioned that there were different types of Xog. It’s a fair assumption to conclude that they have a variety of different features. If she can do this to her bones, she can essentially bend her body in any way she wants. I can’t imagine what it would be like to fight someone like that in combat.   “So, what special powers do Humans have?” she asks with sparkling eyes.   It seems like she’s genuinely interested, but only disappointment awaits her. We can’t see in the dark, we can’t melt rocks, and we can’t do things like dislocating our bones. There’s nothing special about us. We’re weak and pitiful creatures unable to do anything right no matter how hard we try. It’s so unfair, but we lost the game of life. I respond, “Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”   “Oh, come on. There has to be something! After all, you’re different than other Humans.”   I knit my eyebrows. “What do you mean? I’m the same as everyone else.”   “No, you’re different,” she says and sniffs me. “You smell different. You’re different than the other Humans out there.”   I instantly think about my Mana. That’s the only thing I know that’s different than anyone else. I’m the only one with this Mana. Is that what she’s referring to? How can she tell that by smelling, though? I can’t afford to show her my Mana, so that’s another thing I’ll have to hide from her… The ignorance card is all I have. Hopefully, she can’t smell lies. Otherwise, I’m screwed.   “There must be a mistake. I don’t know what could be different about me, if there is.”   She pouts and answers, “That’s boring. If you let me inspect you, I might be able to tell you. You’ll have to show me your chest first.”   “I assure you there’s nothing special about my chest.”   “Show me! I need to see it.”   “Why do you wanna see my chest so badly…?” I ask, feeling like I might be treading into dangerous territory. She’s going to notice that my concern increases after asking that question.   “I’m sorry for being rude all this time. I haven’t told you anything,” she says and bows her head. “I received orders from my boss to find the Human male with a diagonal scar across his chest. They gave me a small piece of his clothing I used to track here. So, can you show me now?”   Shit, shit, shit. That’s definitely me. If I show her, it’s over. If I don’t show her, she’s going to suspect something too. I think of something that might work, but I don’t know. What other options do I have? None. She’s probably already smelling the fear from me now. I need an explanation, fast.   “No, look. There’s something you don’t understand. I don’t know if it’s because it’s normal in your culture, but…we Humans don’t show each other our bare skins that easily,” I say. The fact that it’s in the winter plays to my advantage. No one’s walking around bare-chested in this weather. If this is her first time here, she hasn’t seen that and has no reference. I continue, “We need a certain level of intimacy and trust first, you know?”   “Hmm… I understand. Will you feel more comfortable if I bare my chest first?” Pem asks. She starts undressing her top.   Oh, no. What have I done? I can’t tell if this girl is seriously sheltered or if Xog’s values and common sense are that much different than ours. I could tell her to stop, but she might take offense to it. It doesn’t make any sense as to why it might offend her, but at this point, I have no idea what to think.   In no time, she takes off her bra, revealing small but round and full breasts. I gulp as my lower half becomes quite excited despite those hideous teeth. Her face isn’t red at all. It makes me think that she does this sort of thing all the time with her own race.   “Oh, I’m sorry!” she exclaims and bows her head. What’s going on now? I’ve gotten used to her apologetic behavior. “My master taught me not to allow weaker males to copulate with me. If you want to do that, you’ll have to beat me in a duel first.”   “Pardon?” I mutter and cock an eyebrow. Did she just…?   “Oh, I’m sorry. I also forgot to mention there are laws preventing us from copulating with other races. So, don’t get your hopes up,” she says with a grin. “I fear you might die trying otherwise. I wouldn’t want to accidentally kill you for nothing, ehehe. I would get into big trouble for that. Besides, I want to be friends with other races! That means you too!”   I sigh and palm my face. I can’t believe I was scared of this girl. At this point, it’s easy to see that she’s just a naïve idiot. If I wanted to, I could convince her to…no, no, no. I have Marin.   “What’s wrong?” Pem asks. “Are you going to show me your chest now?”   “No, look. What I really mean was that when we lay ourselves bare, we plan to have sex.”   “Oh, I’m sorry!” she exclaims and hurriedly dresses. “That’s why you got excited. I’m sorry for confusing you. I can’t do that with you. I’m sorry.”   “Yeah, it’s okay. So, that’s why I can’t show you my chest,” I say.   “Don’t worry, I understand,” she says. She tilts her head. “That puts me in quite a pickle, though…”   “That window over there was open when I got here,” I say and nudge my head in that direction. “Maybe the guy you’re looking for went out there?”   “Oh…” she mutters and walks over to the window. “The smell does seem to lead here.”   Pem opens the window and sticks her head out the window. She leans back inside moments later. “I’m sorry, but I have to return to work.”   “That’s totally fine,” I answer. Please leave.   She walks up to me and leans into my personal space. I don’t move and try to keep calm as she sniffs me all over from head to toe without explanation.   “Okay, I’ve memorized your scent. I’ll remember you as my first Human friend. Kai, right?”   “Yeah…and you’re Pem,” I respond. I feel a bit honored that she’d call me her first Human friend when all I’ve done is mislead her.   “Yep. Thanks for showing me that Humans aren’t as wicked as they say,” she says with a smile. “I’ll come to say hi when I’m not busy. Bye, and I’m sorry!”   She dives out the window. What’s she sorry for this time? Wait… If she’s looking for the scent, the shirt I threw is literally right there. I run to the window and look down. Pem is gone, and so is the shirt I threw.   The shirt is in her possession, and she memorized my scent. It won’t take long at all for a nose of her caliber to figure out that it’s been me all along. But isn’t that why she apologized again? She already knows?  This situation can’t be any worse than it is. I sigh.   “What’re you sighin’ for?” Hina asks. What timing she has. She’s at the door with a white thing in her hand, presumably my replacement attire. “We’re you talkin’ to someone?   “Yeah, I’ll have to catch you up again.”   “Nevermind that for now. Check this out,” she says and tosses me the white clothing.   That’s when it’s evident that Hina bought something new for herself too. A black sweatshirt with the image of a slice of cheese in the middle. Mine has a black rat in the middle. Seriously? I’ve had enough rats for one day.   “I had a hard time decidin’, but I figure we should have matchin’ tops, so people don’t grow suspicious of us, you know?”   “You could’ve chosen something better…”   “Come on, there’s nothin’ better than this,” she says and giggles. “With everythin’ that’s happened.”   I grimace and shake my head before putting it on. At least it’s warm. I replay the events that happened while Hina was on her shopping trip as I equip everything back on.   She looks at me like I’m hopeless and says, “I can’t believe you took advantage of that poor rat girl and made her strip. As expected of the lady killer.”   I can’t believe that nickname has been spreading throughout the Castle. I swear, I’m going to kill Jetia one of these days.“That’s all you have to say? I didn’t make her strip. There’re more important things we need to worry about here.”   “We don’t have time to fancy your rat fetish,” Hina says. I stare at her blankly. “I’m kiddin’, okay? So serious…”   “Gee, I don’t know. It’s not because of a bunch of intelligible upright monsters with superpowers are all looking for me, and Pem has strong evidence that it was me. Her smell’s so powerful that she can tell if I’m scared or even excited. And it’s not because we’re extremely late for our team meeting. Now, let’s leave,” I say and walk out the door.   Hina follows and says, “Well, to be fair. You don’t need a superpower to tell if a man has a boner.”   I pretend that she didn’t say that and move on. We eventually arrive at the Icy Tavern.   Ada and the others are practically scowling at us the moment we walk inside. They’re at the same table as before. Lotrem and the Dwarves with him are gone.   “You’re late,” Ada says and pounds the table with her palms. “All because you guys decided to go on a date? Have you forgotten our objective?”   This doesn’t look good from our end. I understand their frustration, and I’m not sure how to start explaining how we got ourselves in this situation. It first requires confessing that we broke the ground rules.   “It’s not what it looks like,” Hina initiates as we pull up a chair and sit down. “We got here as soon as we could.”   Well, that’s not exactly accurate, but I don’t want to waste any more time messing around. I’ll let her tell the story, only filling in the blanks when I need to. She’ll probably need me to do that a lot, actually, considering her inability to comprehend the Dwarves. Then there’s my personal account of my encounter with the Xog.   So, we tell them everything that we learned from Lotrem, to the underground city, to my meetings with the Feloidians and Pem.   “And here we are,” I conclude. They didn’t interrupt us once during our story, despite revealing that we broke the ground rules. And now, they aren’t saying anything. It’s a lot to take in.   “So, basically…You guys found nothing,” Ada breaks the silence.   I cock an eyebrow and say, “No, did you hear a word we—”   “We heard everything. I don’t need to know about your attraction to rats. Clearly, you’ve forgotten our main objective.”   True, it did leave my mind for a bit because I was more concerned with matters closely tied to our lives. I don’t want her to feel like she’s won this conversation. I reply, “No, we haven’t. The underground area could be a potential base of operations for the masked men. They already have the Aerkin arena, which probably isn’t allowed up here, so that means there could be more illegal dealings down there.”   “He has a point, Ada,” Aisha says.   “Tch. I didn’t say there wasn’t a possibility there. He went on too many tangents talking about the Dwarves and the Xog. That stuff doesn’t matter to us now. I don’t care if Humans built the underground area or the Dwarves did. I don’t care when it was built. He’s already wasted two of our hours. The least he could do was cut the filler when he briefed us.”   Even though Ada has stopped coming after my throat, it doesn’t mean she’s stopped being less of a bitch. I can’t believe no one was interested in the Achilles Sundance Circuit or that the other races have special abilities. It almost makes me feel stupid for not going along with Hina’s antics. These people are too serious.   “Well, I’m glad that he didn’t,” Aisha says.   “Why are you on his side?” Ada asks.   “I’m not on anyone’s side, but what they discovered could be of great use to us. The other races could very well be involved with the attack on our city as long as there exist members of other races with animosity toward races not their own,” Aisha says. Ada stays sighs and says nothing more. The power dynamics in their group are too uneven. Either that or only Aisha wants to talk over Ada.   Aisha continues, “From what Ada and I have observed in the Elven District, Elves treat Humans with prejudice. Deniz and Melody were mistreated by Dwarves in a restaurant in the Dwarven district. Humans are guilty of this too. We don’t treat each other equally. It’s going to be hard to achieve coexistence when we don’t respect everyone the same in our own society. We learned that first-hand as female members of the army.”   That goes along with my discussion with Hina, Marin, and Ruby the other day. How there are rumors about how all the high ranked females in the army slept their way up the ladder. In either case, it seems like women have the unfair advantage. Because there are more of them at the top of the ladder than at the bottom.   But many people look down on females that learn the art of melee weaponry. Though, it’s true that they tend to gravitate toward Archer and Mage positions as I’ve observed in adventurer groups. It was the same for us too.   Is that problem truly one and the same as pursuing friendly relations with other races? I’m not sure. It’s not as if there aren’t any friendly Dwarves, Elves, or Xog. I don’t know if Pem means good at this point, considering the situation. But Lotrem seemed welcoming. And Viessa is trying to push for coexistence. Our initial encounter was a bit rough, but that quickly changed.   Well, if we mistreat females from other races as we do in our own population, that might be seen as something much more because they’re not Human on top of it. It depends mainly on how they treat each other and what’s normal.   There’s one thing I have to make certain. I say, “Before you guys tell us what you’ve found, promise me that you’re not gonna tell anyone about the Aerkin arena underground.”   “You don’t have to worry about that,” Aisha says. “We already know about it.”   “Pardon?”   “More accurately, we know about the Achilles Sundance Circuit, but not the Aerkin arena. The same general rules applied for Drymo, though. If you try to report it to the authorities, successful or not, you’ll be hunted down by all sorts of people,” Aisha informs.   “Did you live in the Royal District?” Hina asks. “I didn’t expect that out of you.”   “I didn’t want people treating me differently, so I didn’t make it obvious. I purposely dressed in commoner clothes,” Aisha says.   “We’ve always known that Aisha was something special since day one. That’s why none of us raised a fuss when Aisha made herself the leader,” Deniz says.   Everyone snortles. Even Ada joins.  Aisha blushes and says, “Don’t talk about the past. I’m embarrassed thinking about my entitlement and immaturity from those days.”   I scoff. I’m a little irritated by their tangent. Ada’s the one who was going off on me about filler, and here we are. All eyes are suddenly on me, but I don’t know what to say. “Ahem…so how’d you learn about Aerkins?”   “Well, my family’s actually the one sponsoring most of the battles that take place in Drymo. We have an underground arena of our own under our home. I’ve watched a lot of the battles for fun before enrolling in the Academy. It’s a little embarrassing, but I wanted only wanted to attend because, in the legend, Achilles was an adventurer too. I wanted to train a companion of my own one day,” Aisha explains.   Doris and Melody laugh. “She forced Melody and me into learning archery because she wanted to practice training us. She was already good because of tutoring lessons by a pro.”   “Enough about the past. Before we move on to our discoveries, there’s something you two should know about the pass you received from the Dwarves,” Aisha says.   “What’s that?” I ask.   “Don’t let anyone from the army or any government official see you have the marking,” she warns.   I gulp and then ask, “What happens if someone does?”   “I have no clue. They crack down on this sort of thing a lot because of the dangers it presents to the population, if a monster escaped into the city or went berserk at the wrong place. They’re willing to punish anyone who is known to have any connections to the sport. I haven’t heard back from those who’ve been caught.”   “Who takes them? The army?” Hina asks.   “Yes. That’s why you should get the mark removed as soon as possible. The consequences could extend to your entire platoon.”   “Well, we still need it, for now, so we’ll be careful,” I say and then turn to Ada. “Don’t even think about turning me in. Or I’ll feed them Aisha too. And her family.”   Ada scowls and answers, “I wouldn’t do that.”   “Now, now. Let’s be nice,” Aisha says and then turns to Doris. “Moving on. Why don’t you start, Doris? With your big discovery. “   Doris nods and then says, “Well, Irwin and I found two suspicious men. After eavesdropping, we found out that they’re keeping someone in a dark place where no one can hear his screams. They’re planning to go back later to torture him. It was going to be the last time, so they plan to kill him.”   That does sound dubious. I ask, “Who do they have?”   “Some guy named Porters,” Irwin answers. “They used some very vivid descriptions for the few words we caught. Their plans for their victim were progressively more intense than the previous. To summarize what they said, they we’re going to start mild by dripping hot wax onto him. Then, simultaneously choke and, ‘beat the shit out of him.’ Later, cutting him slowly with a dull knife. Finally, in the most sickening voice, ‘Show no mercy.’”   “Is Porters someone important?” I ask. “Why’d they target him?”   “We don’t know. No one knows anything about him that we asked,” Doris says. “But they don’t need a reason. Remember the Underground under the Academy?”   True. It’s like that one guy we encountered. Putting himself at risk to have a little fun. But I’m skeptical. They wouldn’t get discovered this easily. “Are you sure it was them? Were they well-built?”   “Not really,” Irwin responds. “They didn’t look like fighters, but you never know. Their specialty could be magic. But they spoke with such enthusiasm and power when they were talking about their plan. It sounded heinous. Worst case, we might discover what hidden place they’re talking about.”   “They were suspicious, so it’s worth checking out. They looked around in paranoia, careful about who was listening,” Doris adds.   “Not careful enough, apparently,” Hina says. “It sounds like a trap.”   “Yes, that’s why we’ll only go with our full group. They plan on meeting back at the same bar after collecting supplies,” Aisha says.   “If you guys took any longer, we would’ve missed the opportunity completely,” Ada says. “We need to go back to that location before we miss them.”   “You mean, you don’t know when they’re gonna return? We should head there now,” I say and stand up.  A part of me is worried about the Xog situation, but the Human district should be the safest place for me right now, though it doesn’t seem like it stops Xog from coming in there. Pem went there without a problem, though she wasn’t a Feradian.   Doris and Irwin lead us to the place they found the suspicious pair. On the way, they told us a few other trivial details about them. We also start planning on our strategies for engaging them after they lead us to their hideout.   We reach the restaurant where the two men agreed to meet up. No current signs of them. The eight of us split up and blend in the area around the perimeter.   Nearly an hour passes, and still nothing, We don’t know if they’ve already left, but we’ve agreed to camp it out for a maximum of three hours before moving onto the other leads we have.   On top being on the lookout for the two men, I keep my eyes peeled for any Xog in the area. The fact that I haven’t seen a single one eases my anxiety.   Another hour passes, but then someone shows up. The physical description matches what Irwin and Doris told us. He’s wearing a black hooded mantle and carries a massive bag. All his torture devices are probably in there. Not too long passes when the other guy shows up dressed up the same. He also has a similarly sized bag with him.   We follow them with some distance between us. We don’t want them to know that we’re stalking them. It’s quite easy to track them. They take the most direct paths without going into alleys. It’s easy to blend in with the crowd.   The two men stop at the front entrance of a medium-sized house. Not too long after, they open the door and shut it behind them. The secret place they were talking about was a simple house? That can’t be right. But then it hits me. What if there’s a secret passage in there? That’s one thing we’ll never be able to check under normal circumstances. There are thousands of houses throughout this city, and we can’t check every unit.   I regroup with the others at the front of the house. Since this is off the main street, we can’t do anything conspicuous or out of the ordinary. Eight people crowding in front of a home would be stupid. Ada’s the closest one to the door, so she’s the first one to walk up to the door. Moments later, she turns back and then shakes her head. So the door’s locked. No one’s stupid enough to keep the door unlocked when they’re about to torture someone. We’ll have to find another way in.   We could easily break in, but that attracts too much attention. It would also alert those inside. I’m the closest to the right side of the place, so I survey that edge. Windows on the first and second floor, but they’re all closed. I don’t expect them to be open in the middle of the center. The best we can hope for is that they’re unlocked.   I doubt anyone’s going to pay attention to what happens on the side here, so I walk up to the closest window and then try sliding it in various ways. Seems locked. The curtains are blocking the view inside too.   The backside of the house is a side street with fewer people, which makes things easier for us, but still not convenient. We don’t know who could be watching. The houses lined up in front, or anyone walking by. One stupid mistake could lead to someone reporting us that could make its way up to General Nero.   The window situation looks the same here too, and there’s no backdoor. We have no way in from the ground…but there’s a chimney on the roof. It would be inefficient for all of us to go down that chimney and would attract some attention. One of us needs to take the risk and then unlock some of the windows for the rest of us to enter.   Ada meets up with me from the left side of the house. If anyone can do it, it’s her. She’s got Wind magic, though her equipment may make it more difficult. I whisper, “I have an idea if you’re up for it.”   “Spit it out.”   “Do you think you can get onto the roof somehow and go down the chimney? Then, you’d be able to unlock the windows and door for us from the inside. I don’t know if you’d be able to do that without getting caught.”   She looks at the ground for a few seconds in thought before replying, “I can do it, but it’ll be safer if I take off my armor for this one. It’s a stealth mission. I’m going to find somewhere nearby to store my equipment and then come back. Tell the others.”   “Hurry. Time’s ticking for our victim inside,” I say.   She nods and runs off. And I rejoin the others huddled together on the other side. I let them know what Ada is planning to do, so we should situate ourselves at various entrances and enter when she’s  completed the task. If any one of us hears anything that indicates Ada is in trouble, we’ll all bust in. It might create a scene, but our lives come first.   After we see Ada on the roof about fifteen minutes later, we move into our positions. We haven’t heard any screams yet despite being close to the windows. Could it be an underground passage after all?   Ada moves the curtains aside and then unlocks the window from my side. While it does cross my mind it might raise a few eyebrows, but I quickly discard all thoughts of worry from my mind. I slide the window and hop inside. Afterward, I shut and lock the windows behind me. Finally, moving the curtains back into place.   It’s quiet. Too quiet. The inside looks like an ordinary home. I slowly walk around. Several of the others are already at the entrance. Soon enough, everyone is here.   We don’t say much and only nod in agreement. Deniz, Ada, and I lead since our weapons are the most suitable for this environment. I follow Ada through the house, eventually arriving at the stairs to the lower level. Luckily, the steps are made of stone, so it doesn’t make any noise as we go down.   There are faint noises in the distance, but they’re strange. They’re not the ear-piercing screams I was expecting. But, my intuition still tells me that there’s something wrong here.  We get to the generic basement underneath. There’s an unnatural hole in the ground here. That’s where the noises originate.   The downward passage doesn’t take us too far until there’s a crudely crafted door at the end of it. The noises from earlier have become high pitched. Then they suddenly stop.   “End it... End it, Reaves,” someone says.   Uh, oh. We have to hurry! They’re planning to kill him now! The same thoughts go through Ada as she opens and then busts the door open.   She tackles the naked guy on the left. The remaining two are without clothes too. The guy on all four looks to be the victim. Without overthinking, I kick the guy on the right hunched over him. He lets out a grunt as he’s knocked back. It was at this moment I realize these guys aren’t any real threat, but we should help this chained up guy, who I assume is Porters. He is blindfolded, has his hands tied behind his back, and feet chained to the wall. He also has small paper cuts throughout his body and areas with solidified wax. He gags.   “I’m sorry, don’t kill me!” the guy Ada tackled yells.   The smell of the room hits me. It smells like a certain kind of man stink. But that’s not what causes me to narrow my eyebrows, scrunch my nose, and frown with an open mouth. I would free Porters, but a familiar thick liquid covers his back where his hands reside. The part that confuses me the most is that he has an erection too. Someone forced into this situation wouldn’t have that at all.   “Shut up and don’t move or I’ll kill you!” Ada exclaims.   “Reaves? Jon? What’s going on?!” Porters exclaims. The tone of his voice confirms my suspicions. He knows these two men. And it doesn’t sound like he was about to be killed at all.   “Please!” the guy I kicked pleads to Ada. “I know I disobeyed my father’s wishes, but you don’t need to kill us! At least let Reaves live!”   Ada stands up without a word. The two men embrace each other. It was at this moment she must’ve realized what was going on too.   “You sick fucks!” Ada exclaims and then spits on them. She clenches onto her weapons. “You’re better off dead!”   “No, please!” they scream.   “Whoa!” I interject and step in between Ada and the two men. I don’t know what she’s thinking in this kind of situation. They’re into some weird shit, but it doesn’t mean they should die. The others stare in disgust from the back of the room. “We don’t have time for this. Let’s get out of here and move onto our next lead.”   Deniz grabs onto Ada, who thankfully backs off without causing more of a scene. She’s got some bit of some white dripping down her pants. I can’t help myself but let out chuckle and smile, but quickly return to a neutral expression. As everyone leaves the room, I follow. Everyone seems to abandon stealth as they all walk out the front door as if nothing happened.   “I’m getting my equipment back,” Ada says with little energy. “See you back at the tavern.”   The rest of us gather in the area between the two streets nearby. I sigh, turn to Irwin and Doris, and then ask, “So…which one of you guys wanna explain to me what just happened?”   “We’re sorry…” they say in unison with their heads down.   That aside, I’m confused why they spoke about their activities in the way that they did. I say, “It’s alright. No one would’ve guessed that they were into that sort of thing.”   “No, it’s something we considered, but didn’t think it would end up to be true,” Irwin says. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s a stigma surrounding homosexuality. The rest of society shuns them if it’s known, so they go through additional measures to avoid discovery.”   I can relate to that with my fake relationship with Hina and my secret relationship with Marin. It’s hard keeping up the façade sometimes. I can’t believe people make such a big deal over something so trivial. Why can’t everyone get along? It’s not like they’re harming anyone else.   “Unfortunately, Ada is one of the extremists with views believing that they’re better off dead, so that their kids, should they have any, aren’t gay either. Eventually removing them from the entire population.”   I never knew about this issue. It makes me think that coexistence may be harder to achieve than I initially thought. I wonder if any other groups are not accepted in our society.   On the one hand, we may have wasted a few hours with this lead, but I never would’ve learned about unseen inequality in our kingdoms otherwise. There’s also the issue with secret passages. We didn’t find one in this case, but it doesn’t eliminate the possibility. If I recall, Sitos’ place had a place like that. And Aisha’s place did too… It’s a common pattern for mansions to have underground passages, so it might be helpful to check some in the area in Syrina. For now, we all head back to the Icy Tavern.

Neither of us says anything as we leave the city. I want to say something, but it feels hard to say anything considering how we ended our last interaction. I didn’t plan on asking her about that thing either, but I feel like I need to after finding out about what she did for us. At the same time, I don’t want to make things even more awkward between us if she’s not interested in that sort of thing. Especially since we have to complete this mission with just the two of us.   “So, I guess you can’t show me your new tricks yet,” I say to break the silence.   “I guess not. There’ll be a time for that, eventually. Look forward to it because it’ll blow you away,” she answers with a grin.   “You’re over-exaggerating,” I say, skeptical. “Now I’m gonna be disappointed if it isn’t anything amazing.”   “It is, so you won’t be.”   “Right… Anyway, how much of a coincidence is that the meet-up point’s at the Hodgepodge? That’s just weird. I mean, think about it. General Nero must’ve received a report about the suspicious individuals in Aramore when we were already here. Doesn’t that mean the client or whoever made the report was there the whole time? They could’ve just brought it up to us instead of sending a request all the way back to Drymo.”   “It is a bit weird, but it’s probably just a coincidence. We’ll find out when we get there.”   “Yeah, I guess…” I say. I still can’t bring myself to ask her about the threesome.   “You don’t have to stay up with me, you know,” Hina says. “I know how you like your naps. If you’re tired, go ahead.”   “Nah, I’m good,” I answer. I’d like to sleep, but… I wouldn’t be able to anyway with this on my mind. There’s no better time than now when we’re completely alone. Who knows when I’ll have that chance again when we arrive at Aramore.   “Don’t be modest. I know you’re tired. That’s why you asked about leavin’ in the mornin’, right?”   “Oh… That was… Well… I was actually worried about you, as your friend. Because that’s what friends are for.”   “You’re actin’ weird…but thanks for your concern. I’m fine, so go ahead. Only one of us needs to be up right now. I’ll count on you on our way back.”   It’s hard to say anything back to that. But if I fall asleep now, I’ll probably miss the best chance to ask her.  It’s now or never. I gulp. “Actually… I… Umm…talked to Marin last night about your…problem.”   Hina looks at me with a contorted expression. “You what?”   “I told her about Captain Citrio…and your concerns…” I continue. I feel like if I don’t get to the point, she’ll get the wrong idea. “I asked Marin for permission first and she’s fine with it.”   “Permission for what?”   “Well… Basically, you can join us at night and sleep next to me, if it makes you feel safer. We can also fake being lovers…to really get Captain Citrio off your back. But we really won’t be because…well… I have Marin.”   I finally say it all, but have no idea how she’s going to react to this. My heart’s pounding but only because of the awkwardness. It doesn’t matter to me if she accepts or declines. Just a friendly gesture, as her friend.   “Are you serious?” Hina asks.   I nod silently.   Hina gulps and responds, “I’ll have to think about it.”   With that, she faces forward again. That went smoother than I thought. A weight off my shoulders.   I fully stretch out my body with my back against the wagon. I should sleep. I close my eyes and relax.   …   Someone lightly taps on my cheek. “We’re here.”   I open my eyes and yawn. We’re in the village already, but not sure where. The Hodgepodge definitely isn’t around here. It’s hard to see clearly since it’s dark. I ask, “Where’re we?”   “Opposite side of town to the Hodgepodge,” she answers.   “What? Why’d you park us so far out?”   “Because we don’t want to attract too much attention.”   “That’s why we came alone though. He didn’t specify that we have to sneak around. Faster we get this done, the sooner we can leave. He says it’s urgent so let’s go,” I say and hop off the wagon.   Hina sighs. “I know you only follow orders to a T without carin’ about anythin’ else, but come on. Can’t you exercise a little more caution? It’s not like bein’ sneaky here goes against his orders.”   She’s right. I just didn’t want to be here, to begin with. I concede, “Fine…”   “Don’t worry. I’ll take responsibility if anythin’ goes wrong as a result of bein’ careful,” she says.   I force a smile. “Whatever, take the lead.”   I follow her lead through the village. It’s not as big as the city, so walking to the Hodgepodge from here won’t be too bad. The place is quiet, as expected, considering that it’s a few hours past midnight. Hina avoids the main path and instead goes through the space between houses. I understand why she wanted to park the wagon far away since it’s noisy, but to me, this is way more suspicious than simply taking the main route. If anyone sees us, they’ll only think that we’re up to no good compared to casually strolling down the path.   Eventually, we reach the Hodgepodge. Hina tries to open the front door, but it’s locked. She turns toward me, expecting a solution. But don’t look at me. She probably already knows what I’d be willing to do in this situation. I shrug.   “I’m goin’ to break the lock,” Hina whispers.   “What? Absolutely not,” I answer back quietly.   She laughs softly. “I’m kiddin’.”   I frown and shake my head. If I don’t suggest something sensible to do, she might do something crazy without my consultation. I highly doubt only one of us would be punished if something does go wrong. “Try knocking.”   She nods and turns to the door. A thought suddenly crosses my mind. What if she bangs on the door and ends up waking up one or more villagers? I grab her arm before she has a chance to knock.   “I got this,” I say.   Hina grabs my arm this time. “Wait… You’re not thinkin’ of bangin’ on the door, are you?”   “Of course not… Why would I do that? I don’t want to inconvenience any villagers with the noise.”   “Okay, just checkin’. I mean, you were expectin’ us to go through the front with the transport practically tellin’ everyone in the area that we’re here, but it wouldn’t be our fault if those suspicious people catch wind of it and flee.“   That remark wasn’t really necessary, but it’s partially true. I don’t say anything back and finally, proceed to knock on the door. With enough force that it’s audible, but no one from the neighboring houses will notice. We wait a full minute in dead silence.   Damn it. If this was going to happen, we should’ve left in the morning… but General Nero wanted us to go immediately. Now, look what happened. Whoever requested this didn’t know when we would arrive. Of course, they wouldn’t be awake waiting for us right now. I sigh.   “Looks like we’re crashing here for a few more hours. Turns out our immediate trip here was a waste of time. Urgent mission, my ass,” I say. “Let’s just find the nearest inn and stay there until dawn.”   “Yeah…” Hina says with little energy. A bit unusual for her.   “What’s wrong?”   “No-nothing. Let’s go,” Hina says and turns away, walking back where we came from. I follow her but then a door creaks from behind me. I stop and look behind me. The door’s open at the red house across from the Hodgepodge. That’s where I saw the two hooded figures before. A young man walks out.   “We’re you meeting someone at the Hodgepodge?” he asks.   Hina and I look at each other for a moment. Hina answers, “Yes. You’re the one who made the report about a few suspicious figures?”   “Yes… Come inside and I’ll fill you in on the details,” the man says and gestures his arm inside the house.  I was expecting some older folks to be living here considering that two people didn’t go to the training sessions. Maybe he was preoccupied…with someone. But since they were both standing up looking out the window, that doesn’t seem plausible anymore. Maybe he had guests over and they were waiting? I follow Hina toward the entrance.   Doesn’t look like there are any lights on inside. Almost complete darkness other than the light from the night sky. The man asks, “It’s only you two who came, right?”   “Yes, that’s right,” Hina answers as she walks inside. The man closes the door behind us. Now it’s really pitch black. “It’s a bit dark in here, can you turn on the lights?”   “Yes, of course. We’ll go into this room on the left.”   I use the outline of the barely visible wall and the sound of his footsteps to guide me. I have a bad feeling about this.   Hina screams as soon as she walks into the room. It only lasts a brief moment as her voice is cut off. Shit!   I immediately reach for my sword, but it’s too late. A blade is pointed at my neck and something else stopped my hand from drawing my weapon. A man says, “Don’t move.”   I gulp. I didn’t sense them at all. That means either two things. They’re good at hiding their killing intent or they mean no harm. Or both. We’re still alive, so that’s good news.   A lantern is lit on the other side of the room, revealing several hooded figures in the room. Four of them are split evenly between Hina and me while the last one holds the lantern.   “What are you planning?” the woman asks. Her accent is a bit strange.   What the hell’s she talking about? Seeing how Hina has her mouth covered, she can’t say anything. I respond, “What’re you talking about?”   “Do not play dumb with me. You were here earlier to provide training that has since concluded. Why have you come back?”   I have a fairly good idea what’s going on here. The man wasn’t really the client…but that these people are the suspicious individuals the person who put in the request wanted to investigate. I have to be really careful about how to answer the question. She apparently knows about the training mission we were here for, so I can’t really lie in this situation. If I reveal that we’re here to investigate them, would they end up killing us? If we don’t report back to General Nero soon, obviously he would know something happened. That would be the last thing these people want.   “We’re here because of another request,” I confess. “Someone saw some suspicious individuals and we came to investigate.”   “Do not lie to me… That request was just an excuse for you to reach the border, am I correct?”   “No, border? Neomeris?” I ask, remembering that we’re fairly up north.   “Yes. You were planning on meeting your associates up there inside the pond to purchase some goods.”   “Inside a pond? Goods? I really have no idea what you’re talking about…”   “You do not?” the woman asks and takes off her hood. My eyes widen. She has long, curly, golden hair. She’s a beauty, but what really catches my eye are her long, pointy ears.   “You’re an Elf?” I read about them in books but never seen one for myself. They really are as beautiful as they say.  It also explains why her accent is new to me.   “Yes… You do know what this means, do you not?” she asks with her eyes locked into mine. Her eyes shine green despite that it’s dimly lit in here. Her stare feels much more menacing now without her hood on.   “Not particularly…”   “Nevermind that. Let us discuss your business partners. Do you know how dangerous they are? Who knows if they will let you live after you finish your trade.”   I sigh. She doesn’t get it. I have no idea what the hell she’s talking about, but she’s acting like I’m actually following her crazy train of thought. “Look, I really think you have us confused for someone else.”   “Do I really? So you are not planning anything at the Inteiru Expota with your snake friends?”   Snake… Snake?!  I immediately think of the masked man. My scar tingles. I could never forget the shape of that black snake symbol. I clench my fists and jaws. Does this woman know something about them?   “Do you know something about them?! The white masked men?”   The woman doesn’t answer. A few seconds later, she says, “Let them go. They are not our enemy.”   “Are you sure, my Lady?” the man next to me asks.   “Yes. I did not detect any lies from him and his anger is genuine.”   I’m not sure what I did, but they sheath their weapons and let me go. They release Hina too. I still really want to know what she knows about the masked men, but I relax. I don’t want them to turn hostile again.   “I apologize for the rough introduction, but I had to make sure that you are not our enemy and that you are someone that can be trusted. My name is Viessa,” the woman says. “And I am the one who put in the request that was assigned to you.”   I knit my eyebrows. Wait… That doesn’t make any sense. No matter how I look at it. Dark-hooded outfits in a house with no light. They’re fairly suspicious. Are they hiding from someone else or is she telling me that she put in a request to put an investigation on themselves?   “What do you mean, you put in that request?” Hina asks. “There’s no way you did. Otherwise, General Nero would’ve told us we were meetin’ an Elf.”   “Viessa asked me to put in the request,” the young man who led us here answers. “I owed her that much for saving my life.”   “Why would you do that in the first place?” I ask.   “You do not know anything, do you?” she asks. I cock an eyebrow. She sighs and then continues, “We are breaking international laws just by staying in this village. The Inteiru Expota is happening soon and any if word spreads, it could mean canceling the event and possibly spark a war. I needed to get contact with the army without bringing attention to myself.”   She mentions it again. I rest aside the matter of the masked men for now. I ask, “Inteiru Expota?”   “You do not even know that much? It is a grand gathering between all the representatives from all races that occurs once every three years. The next one is in about three weeks.”   Grand meeting? Three weeks… Suddenly, the training mission General Nero assigned to us makes more sense. He’s bolstering our defenses…but what’s the point in that? I gulp.   “What’s so important that you needed to break laws and risk sparkin’ a war?” Hina asks. “There’s no guarantee we’ll stay quiet about this.”   “You are right, but we have safety measures for that. The risk matters not. It is imperative that I speak with the king about extremely concerning matters.”   “Is it about the masked men that attacked Drymo seven months ago?” Hina asks.   “Masked men…the boy did mention that as well. What is this attack you are talking about?”   “How can you not know? It was a large scale attack. The damages were huge and over a thousand people died,” I inform.   “What?”   “You know something about them, don’t you? You mentioned something about a snake… The masks these people wore had a black snake symbol running across the left side of the mask.”   “No… I do not,” she says. An answer I didn’t want to hear. “I was talking about snake earrings. It is a bandit group that operates in Neomeris…but may be connected to this attack you speak of.”   “Do members of that bandit group wear the snake earrin’ around their left ear?” Hina asks.   “Yes. How did you know?”   Hina smiles and then turns to me. “We finally found a lead, Kai.”   “What’re you talking about?”   “The referees. Don’t you remember?”   Oh! Right. Those suspicious looking referees back in the tournament. I completely forgot about them. Hina found that one of the three executives of a bandit group in Neomeris resembled one of them… His name was…I don’t remember. Are they related to the masked men…?   “It seems you know of them.”   “Not really, but we were hopin’ to learn more about them.”   “Very well. We will exchange information on what we know but you must also put in good word for us to meet with the King.”   Hina answers, “We can’t do that, but we can report it to our super—“   “No. That will not work for us. It must go directly to the King.”   “Why’s that?” I ask.   “I cannot say.”   “What do you mean? Isn’t this about the bandits with the snake earrin’s? About how they might launch an attack on the Inteiru Expota?”   “Yes…but there is more to it. It is better for you not to know for your own safety. “   “What’s in it for you to help us?” Hina asks.   “I have told you. It is to seek a private audience with the King. But if you cannot do it, we will find other ways to make it happen.”   “We didn’t say we couldn’t do it. We can report it to our highest superior, General Nero. He has direct access to the King,” Hina informs. “I meant why you’re meddlin’ in Human affairs. As far as I heard, Elves aren’t exactly fond of Humans.  I’m sure most Elves would love to see an attack happen at the Inteiru Expota to give them another reason to hate Humans.   Viessa smiles. “You are correct. There are many extremists who think that way. However, I wish to pursue friendly relations with Humans. I do not harbor ill will against your kind despite the many that do. I want nothing more than the Inteiru Expota to proceed smoothly. Helping the Humans deal with one of the troublesome outlaw groups that populate the kingdom would be a sign of good gesture in addition to guaranteeing that the Inteiru Expota occurs peacefully. It would also show many Elves that the bad reputation Humans have earned are attributed to evil criminals that do not follow the traditional law, especially if the Army themselves were to stop the menace.”   “That’s all?” Hina asks.   “Well, I wish for all the races to coexist in every sense of the word, eventually. So that means that we must also reconcile our relationship with the Dwarves…  Ensuring that this meeting goes well is very important for my goal.”   “Do you know what they discuss at the meetin’?” Hina asks.   “I do not, but there was a steady progression toward co-existence in the last decade. Neomeris was first declared neutral territory for all the races nearly a decade ago. That means that other races could live there or do work. In the last Inteiru Expota, other races other than Humans could enroll into the Academy in Neomeris. It may be that in a month, staying in this village would not be breaking any laws.”   “I see… I hope that your dream comes true. I want to learn more about other races. I’m Hina, by the way.”   “I’m Kai,” I introduce. My fingers move around restlessly. My curiosity is getting the better of me.   “Are you goin’ to the Inteiru Expota as a representative?” Hina asks. Something about the air around Viessa and the way she speaks gives me that feeling too. Like she’s a minister or from a wealthy family.   “No, of course not. I am simply an Elf who wishes for a bright, warm future,” she says with a smile. She sounds convincing, but I still feel like she’s lying.   Well, if she was someone important, there’s no way she was able to make it this far without being discovered.  Even though they did address her in a formal way. Probably just from a rich family. But then again, that doesn’t really explain these guards. They’re not ordinary at all. I can tell. The guards around Sitos’ home was at a much lower level, and they never really had anyone escort them. They were capable fighters though. This woman might not be.  Pointless thinking about this. Now onto the real matter.   “Now we have that out of the way, tell us about this criminal group you’re talking about. The one with the snake earrings,” I say.   “Hold on a second,” Hina interrupts. “Why’re you makin’ a detour to Drosera about a criminal group that operates in Neomeris? Shouldn’t you be goin’ to the Neomeris government instead?”   Oh, right. I was so focused on finding out more about the criminal group that I didn’t think about that. Viessa doesn’t know about the attack on Drymo and she went to Drosera instead of Neomeris despite that. But why?   “That is…”   “What’s that other piece you haven’t told us?” Hina asks. Viessa looks down. “You don’t have to worry about our safety. Kai and I are pretty strong. We graduated from the top of our class at the Academy.”   “I see. I suppose I can let you in on the secret if you also promise that you will not do anything rash.” Hina and I nod our heads. “The thing is, they are disguising themselves with Drosera’s symbol.”   “So they’ve killed some of our own?” Hina asks.   “I do not know.”   This reminds me of the time we went to Beltan. Ragnar mentioned bandits killing and then taking the equipment of Drosera’s soldiers. While it didn’t occur to me at the time, that could be a serious problem. Especially now that I know about the Inteiru Expota. “Are you worried that these criminals are gonna do something and frame us?”   “To put it simply, yes. That is why I must speak to your king about this as soon as possible. Since they are impersonating Drosera, your country is affected the most. It is only right to inform you first. You should take care of your own matters for yourselves.”   Something about this still doesn’t feel right. This still doesn’t explain why she needs to meet with the king herself. She’s still hiding something. I don’t think she would go through all this trouble just to take some credit for discovering something about this bandit group. “Wouldn’t it be faster if we went there ourselves to tell General Nero, and then he can tell the king? Why do you need to go there yourself?”   “I’m wonderin’ the same thing.”   “Well, I am meeting him for other reasons as well. While I am not a representative for the Inteiru Expota, I know someone that is. I planned on informing the king about a few matters that would be good to know about. You two seem trustworthy, but you understand that I cannot share it with you.”   Seems like we won’t get any more than that. Back to the matter on hand. “So, what do you know about that criminal group?”   “I do not know much about them since I have only been here for a short duration, so my knowledge about them is limited. I knew that this group, in particular, has evaded authorities for a long time, so I wished to help with that. I do know a few things however, from word of mouth and discovery.”   “Like what?” I ask.   “They operate mainly in Neomeris, are involved in the black market, and have been around for around a decade.”   “Isn’t that when Neomeris was declared neutral territory?” Hina asks.   “Yes, unfortunately, it may not have been a coincidence. Despite that Neomeris was neutral territory, many people have been hesitant on visiting due to their activity. Humans, in general, more or less have been blamed as a result. They have been more active this year, and I fear that they may have something planned for the Inteiru Expota. The event was almost canceled seven months ago when Elf slaves were found inside one of the noble’s homes at Syrina, the capital of Neomeris. There was an international outrage. Both sides had large armies present and war could have broken out at any time. The stalemate lasted well over a month but ended without conflict.”   “And you think that the group with the snake earrings played a role in that? The attack on Drymo was around seven months ago too.”   “Yes, I think they planted those Elves there. I am interested in hearing more about this attack. The timing seems too convenient to be a coincidence.”   I bite my lip and look down. Chills spread throughout my body just thinking about that day. “There isn’t much to be said. I was taking a nap when suddenly, I heard loud bangs outside. It was already chaos. After that, I went looking for my friends when… I discovered it was too late. I met one of the masked men there responsible for my friends’ lives. I’m certain he’s the one who led the attack. Later, I found that the Academy took the worst hit. All the students had either died or were tortured. The school and dormitory were basically demolished.”   “I am sorry for your loss. The attack seems to have been very serious. It must have been planned meticulously. The attackers took advantage of the fact that a large chunk of the army went to Neomeris and the defenses were low.”   “There was another reason too,” Hina adds. “Many high-ranked adventurers were absent as well due to a high reward for an expedition to the Cursed Territory.”   I remember something. There’s one thing in common between what Viessa told us and the attack on Drymo. A scapegoat. “There’s one more important thing you need to hear about. There was a wealthy family who the army found to be conspiring with the masked men due to the amount of evidence they found in their household. I know for a fact they wouldn’t do anything of that sort. I talked to the head himself and it sounded like he knew something but wouldn’t say. His son was one of my closest friends who passed away. He was made out to be a complete criminal. When I know for a fact he was tricked and manipulated by the masked men.”   “It is highly likely that the masked men who attacked your city were working with the group who almost sparked a war between our kingdoms or are part of the same group. Hearing your story has convinced me. You mentioned before that you knew of the criminals who wore the snake earrings on the left ear. How did you come to learn that?”   Hina explains, “It was around two years ago when we were participatin’ in the tournament at the Academy. There was a group of referees we found to be really suspicious in the way they behaved and acted. We learned that they were substitutes for the original referees that were assigned for the job. I dug around lookin’ for information and found that no one had seen the original referees. I also discovered that one of the executives of a bandit group in Neomeris had brown slicked back hair and a golden nose ring which matched a description of one of the referees. This was when I learned that all their members had a snake earrin’ coiled around their left ear which the referees did not have, but still suspicious.”   “That is very suspicious indeed.”   “His name’s Gudar unless he was usin’ a fake name. Does that sound familiar to you?” Hina asks.   “No, it does not. I do not know any of their names or what they are called. They are good at hiding and keeping a low profile. I thought that between all their illegal activities, a few of their lower-ranked members would make more mistakes and be caught, but it has not happened yet. It makes me think that their group is either small or well-trained. They have more than one hideout and they are all most likely very well hidden. I stumbled upon one of their members jumping into a small lake and not resurfacing. The entrance to one of their hideouts must be underwater.”   “A hideout underwater? That doesn’t seem possible. Have you told anyone about it yet?” I ask.   “It sounds far-fetched but there is no other explanation. It would explain why no one has discovered their hideout yet. I discovered it at the same time as them disguising themselves as Drosera soldiers and did not have time to go back to Syrina. I will inform them after I have spoken with your king.”   “Where’d you find that lake?” I ask.   “Did you not make a promise to me that you would not do anything rash? I am sure that you are a very capable fighter, but it would be wise if you stay away from them. I will not lead you to your deaths. That is all that I know about them, so now I will tell you what to relay to your leader. There is a small lake southeast of this village inside a small forest. That will be the meeting point. We will wait there for as long as two weeks. Time is of the essence, so the sooner the better. Do you understand?”   “Yeah, we got it. We’ll head out now and make sure to pass along your message,” I say.   Before I have a chance to leave the room, Viessa says, “One more thing. Nothing will come of revenge.”   Nothing? I don’t think so. I ignore her remark and leave the house. Hina follows. I sigh. “Well, it’s time to go all the way back to Drymo.”   Hina’s looking down. She doesn’t seem too thrilled about it. I continue, “Let’s take the shortest path back to the wagon instead of going around in circles. You can take your nap while I take the reins this time.”   “Actually…” Hina mutters. She stops behind me. Her eyes wander left and right. “I thought about what you said, and I’m fine with it.”   She walks closer to me with flushed cheeks and continues, “So…let’s do that here. I don’t want to sleep in the carriage.”   I’m caught off guard by her sudden proposal. I thought she would take at least a day to think about it. “What about the mission? It’s really important that we pass along Viessa’s message…”   “It shouldn’t be a problem if we delay it by a few hours. She said that she’d be waitin’ for two weeks.”   “But the sooner the better…”   “She’ll understand that we need rest. General Nero won’t know that we made immediate contact with the client.”   “Well, alright,” I concede. A few hours of sleep can’t hurt. It’ll be rude to refuse at this point considering that I’m the one who brought up the suggestion to her.   We head for the nearest inn. It takes a few minutes to receive some service considering the time of day, but we purchase one room for one night. Silence follows us up the stairs and into our room.  Even though we both agreed on doing this, it doesn’t make it any less awkward.   Hina takes off her armor and says, “I’m goin’ to use the bathroom really quick.”   She goes into the bathroom and closes the door. I take off my armor and sheaths, dropping them to the ground. A little chilly without my armor on because of those armor warmers. I need to take a leak too, so I wait for Hina to finish.   The water rushing from the shower resounds. What does the word quick mean to her? I sigh. If she was going to take this long, I should’ve gone first.    Ten minutes pass, but she’s not done yet. Bah.   I leave the room. I contemplate on going into one of the other rooms, but I have no way of knowing if they are occupied. It would be a really awkward situation if I came upon a room someone simply forgot to lock. Don’t want to create a scene. It won’t be pleasant, but I go outside. No one’s really going to notice at this time of day. I go to the side of the building and relieve myself.   I go back inside into the room upstairs. Hina’s already in bed. I lock the door.   “Where’d you go?” Hina asks.   “Needed to take a leak,” I answer and walk over to the bed. How many clothes should I take off? Since we’re just sleeping together, probably just my pants. I take off my boots and pants before crawling into bed.   Hina immediately scoots closer to me. That’s when I realize, I made a huge mistake. Her hand squeezes my nether regions. One stream of her warm breath moisturizes my face.   “Whoa!” I interject and sit up immediately. The blanket uncovers me and her. She’s completely naked. My lower half can’t help but feel excited.   “What’s wrong? Was I too aggressive?” she asks. “I thought you wanted me to initiate since you didn’t take off your clothes.”   “I-uh-this…” I mutter. “I…sorry. There’s been a misunderstanding.”   My eyes dart between her bare body to her face to the wall and back again. I continue, “Marin said it was fine to do this with us three together…but not if it was just you and me. I thought we were just strictly sleeping together today.”   “Oh…” Hina says with little energy. She frowns and lies back down. “Sorry for jumpin’ to conclusions…”   I feel really bad. I thought it was clear what my proposal to her included, but it wasn’t. I lie down again covering the blanket over the both of us.   “Hey, Kai.”   “Yeah?”   “Is it fine if we cuddle? I won’t do anythin’, I promise.”   “Okay,” I answer. That seems reasonable. As long as we’re not doing anything. I turn over to my side, facing her.   “Can you ditch the shirt too?”   I’m a bit hesitant because then it’ll be skin to skin contact. But it’s the least I could do for her. I got her expectations high over bad communication. Just to be sure, I say, “We’re not gonna have sex today, just so we’re clear.”   “I understand. I’ll respect it.” I take off my shirt and toss it on the ground. We wrap our arms around each other, pressing our bodies closer together. I try to main composure, keeping my bottom half in check, but it’s failing. “Thanks. Good night, Kai.”   “Yeah, good night,” I say and close my eyes. Too wide awake to fall asleep though. It takes all of my willpower just to keep myself from doing anything I shouldn’t be doing. My hands become restless. I slide them up and down her back without going into any danger zone.   “Sorry, you can’t sleep like this, can you? I want to stay like this for a bit longer. I don’t mind if your hand slips. Just kiddin’ though. I know you won’t,” she says and then giggles.   “You’re quite a handful,” I say and lie on my back with one arm still around her. This way, I can’t give in to the urge to touch her more than I would to a friend. I take my mind off things by thinking about what we learned from Viessa. “So it seems like General Nero knows more than what he’s letting on. I learned from a villager yesterday that the training were something the army forced on the villagers. General Nero did say that everything we’re doing’s for the safety of our kingdom… Does he already know that something will happen at the Inteiru Expota or is he just cautious?”   “He’s probably just cautious after what happened seven months ago.”   “I still can’t believe something that big was going on up there and we didn’t even know it. They must’ve been devastated to find out the city was attacked when they came home. Something could be happening now and we wouldn’t know.”   “I think Viessa would’ve told us if somethin’ like that was happenin’ now. “   “Yeah, you’re right… I wonder if the reason why Sitos’ family was so fast at being interrogated because of the similar things going on in Neomeris around the same time.  We learned of the possible connection between one of those referees and the snake earring group a long time ago. We might’ve been able to stop the madness if we investigated deeper.”   “Don’t think about that, Kai. There’s nothin’ you or me could’ve done at that time. You heard Viessa. These men are dangerous. I think you and me both learned after the attack, we’re not as strong as we think we are.”   “Yeah, but it doesn’t make me feel any better about it. This stuff has also got me thinking.  Be it these masked men or snake earrings. Without the masks or earrings to identify them, how would we know who they are? Those masked men could’ve been living among us this entire time. They could still be living there and we don’t know it.”   “I know, and it honestly scares me. I’m surprised no one has discovered anyone from the snake earrin’ group yet. Unlike the masked men, their faces are identifiable. It almost makes the snake earrin’s pointless because it gives them away.”   “It’s pretty dumb of them, but clearly, they aren’t dumb since they haven’t been caught yet. Maybe it’s just a way to stop friendly fire?”   “Not a very good way of doin’ it.”   “Nope.”   “Are you still goin’ to blindly follow all your orders after hearin’ what Viessa had to say today? I’m sure General Nero won’t let us in on what comes after this and we might not even be one of the escorts to the Inteiru Expota.”   “Escorts to the Inteiru Expota?”   “Yeah. There has to be one, right? Our kingdom’s representatives will be goin’ there. Durin’ that international conflict, the elites went there in case a war broke out. The stakes are high and there has to be some kind of escort in case things go wrong.”   It’s a hard decision. I told myself that no matter what, the safety of Marin and Ruby comes first. But, it’s also really important to find out as much as I can about the masked men and the snake earring group if I’m ever going to find that man responsible for everything.   Hina continues, “If you want to break orders and investigate about anythin’, count me in. I’ll find a way to convince my platoon to help or just those from the Academy. “   “We’ll see what happens when we report back to General Nero. I’ll let you know.”   “Okay.”   “By the way, did you decide if you wanted to put on an act and pretend that we’re in a relationship?”   “Oh… Yeah. Let’s do it.”   “How do you wanna go about that? And are you gonna fill your platoon or friends in on it?”   “I’ll definitely fill in my friends on it and...about the circumstances. I won’t fill in everyone. It’s better if we minimize the number of people who really know. What about you?”   “Well, Marin already knows. Ruby… I’ll explain to her when I get a chance to. I won’t tell anyone else.”   “I see. We’ll have to plan somethin’ convincin’, otherwise, things could end badly for both of us.”   “Is the only time you see Captain Citrio in his office?”   “No… I see him sometimes in the cafeteria, the trainin’ area, the halls, and even near my room. He’s a total creep,” Hina says, tightening her grip around me. I’ve got to figure something out as a good friend would do.   “So basically, he stalks you?” I ask.   “I think so.”   “That’s a good thing, I mean, that’ll be good to utilize. So we’ll have to do some acting when we know he’s watching. Either you or me will confess with a big crowd so that everyone will see or hear about it. And then we go to my room or yours. Captain Citrio’s bound to follow us and find out the truth for himself. And that’s when he’ll hear us through the door. Of course, we’re not actually doing it…but he won’t know. You’ll have a real excuse for refusing his advances and he’ll back off. How’s that sound?”   Hina smiles. “Sounds good. But do we have to act…? We aren’t doin’ anythin’ this time because you asked Marin specifically if it was okay to join you two in bed, but can you ask again? I know your heart lies with Marin, and I’m fine with that. It’ll just be physical between us.”   My bottom half’s excited again. She stares at me intensely. I can’t find the right words to say. It’s not that I’m against doing this with Hina, but it feels like I’m betraying Marin for desiring it. It’s dangerous grounds even if Marin consented. I don’t want my feelings for Marin to change because of this. Hina continues, “For this plan to work, we’ll have to spend a few nights together a week or it’ll be suspicious. I want to make sure your needs are bein’ met too. I’m sure Marin would understand.”   “But I also won’t hold it against you or Marin if either of you doesn’t want to do this anymore. Doin’ this means that your time together would become limited. You would end up spendin’ more time with me, even though you don’t like me. If we go with this plan, it’ll be harder for you guys to keep your secret. If anyone found out, everythin’ will be for naught or worse. Your reputations would be ruined. You really shouldn’t be goin’ this far for me. I appreciate you goin’ this far already. I…” Her words stop short.   “Don’t say that. You’ve done a lot for me too. I heard about the real reason why you got blacklisted for a week from Luke yesterday. You believed me despite knowing nothing. Not even Marin believed me right from the start and she was at the scene. If Marin’s okay with this, I wouldn’t mind spending more time with you. I don’t dislike you. If I’m completely honest, I’m worried that doing this will change my feelings for Marin. Because I might actually like you. You’re cute and—“   Hina suddenly kisses me. A short one, before leaning back. Maybe to see how I would react. I liked it. It’s fine if we only kiss, right?   I lean forward this time to kiss her back, lightly on the lips. One kiss leads to the next, each one with more intensity than the previous.   I lay her on facing up and approach her lips from above. Her arms wrap around me, pulling me in as I kiss deeper. My body practically touching hers. My hands are too restless to stay idle. I put both of my hands on opposite sides of her waist, slowly moving up. Her breasts are petite but her nipples make up for it. I squeeze both of them. She squeals a little through her nose and her body squirms around. I’m not sure if she likes it.   She pushes me away, so maybe not. Her face is flushed. I ask, “Sorry, was that too hard?”   “N-no… I just think that we’re goin’ too far. Sorry I kissed you out of the blue. We should wait until you ask how Marin feels about all this.”   “Right…no, you’re right,” I say while lying down across from her. I don’t know what came over me.   “Are you disappointed you didn’t get to use that on me?” she asks while shifting her gaze between the bulge in the middle of the sheets and me. I frown and stare at her with no words to say to that. She laughs. “Just kiddin’.”   “You little rascal,” I say and then sigh.   “Well, we should get some sleep. I’ll give you some space so you aren’t distracted by my cuteness,” she suggests as she scoots on the opposite side of the bed. She smiles and says, “Good night.”   “Good night, Hina.”   With that, she rests her head on the pillow and closes her eyes. Looking in the same direction will only distract me further. I turn around to face away from her. I close my eyes and spend several minutes trying to relax, eventually drifting into sleep.   …   Ugh. How long has it been? Hina squeezes her grip around me. When did she…?   “Hina?” I ask but no answer. Her arms are shaking.   She’s really scared, even in her sleep.  We’ve got to execute this plan as soon as possible so she doesn’t have to feel this way all the time. I roll my body around to face Hina. I hug her.   Her smiles and giggles from yesterday seem fake after seeing this. Although she could also miss her old boyfriend. We’ve all lost something. I probably still tremble in my sleep sometimes. Marin is there to support me, though. Friends support each other, and that’s what I should do.   I grab her shoulder and shake her.   “Mmm… Kai?”   “Time to get up,” I say and get out of bed. I start to get dressed.   “How long’s it been?”   “Well, it’s not dawn yet, so a few hours at best. If you wanna sleep more, you can in our ride back.”   “No, I don’t think I need it. That was the best sleep I’ve gotten in a while, even if it was only for three hours.”   “Really? Well, suit yourself.”   We make our preparations to leave immediately. Since we have the opportunity to dine outside the Castle, we take some provisions with us. Luckily, most of the villagers are still asleep and we’re able to leave the village without much of a commotion.

I open my eyes very briefly but close them again. It doesn’t feel like I slept well at all. Marin rolls around in bed. Maybe I’m not the only one. Remembering last night, I scooch closer to her and then wrap an arm around her. She’s faced the other way. “Marin…” I grab one of her breasts. She squeals but something’s not right. It’s much larger. Maybe the grip’s wrong. I touch and squeeze multiple times at different places but it still feels off. She smells different too. Wait a minute…this isn’t Marin… I open my eyes and take my arm off her. What the… I sit up and look around. I’m not in my room anymore. A completely different room. Where the hell am I? Then I remember that there was a mystery girl next to me. She sits up too and asks, “Honey, what’s wrong?” Her red long hair, large breasts, and slender figure catch my attention immediately. She looks at me and smiles. My heart pounds rapidly and I gulp. My lower half is excited too. I have an almost uncontrollable urge to jump on her but I hold back. I can’t be thinking of such thoughts when I have Marin. Where is she? And where am I? How’d I get here? I was asleep in my room with Marin and… The dots connect. I’m still asleep and this is a dream. I cock an eyebrow. This woman with red hair must be what I think Marin would look like in the future. “Marin?” “Yes, honey?” she answers. That settles it. I smile. Marin’s never called me honey before, but it has a nice ring to it. I don’t hold myself back anymore and push her down onto the bed. I climb over her and squeeze both of her breasts. A surge of adrenaline courses through my body. This feeling’s nothing like anything I’ve experienced before. Not even for her.  It feels unbearable. Even the inside of my mouth is producing a lot of saliva. As if I haven’t eaten in days and a bowl of delicious soup is in front of me. But instead of the soup, an older Marin is in front of me. I can’t hold back anymore. I’ll skip the usual steps and go right into the action.  It helps that she’s nude too. As if inviting me in, she spreads her legs. I position my body over her, about to put it in, but I notice something. A mole on her neck that wasn’t there before. I try to hold back the beast inside me. What if this isn’t Marin? It’s my brain tricking me. Even if this is a dream and none of it is real, I don’t want to be disloyal to her. I focus my attention on her facial features. The ones that I know really well. She has…purple eyes… It can’t be her because Marin has brown eyes. Even though I know it’s not her, my body still wants her.  It feels like there’s something inside me in the center of my body. I don’t know what it is but it gives me a weird sensation. I try to loosen the grip on her breasts, but I can’t. It’s like my hands are glued to them. Marin, Marin, Marin, Marin, Marin… I repeat her name in my head. I can’t be disloyal to her. I fight back the nearly uncontrollable urge to jump on the woman in front of me. I let go of her melons and lay down in the space next to her. I still need to ask who this woman really is. I don’t ever remember seeing someone like this before. “Who—“ She climbs over on top of me. “Honey, if you don’t want to be on top… I will.” “Ho-hold on a second… I don’t know who you are, but I don’t want this.” “You don’t want me?” She asks and then grabs my thing. “When you’re this hard. You want me.” Her words tempt me. I grit my teeth. Every part of my body wants to, but when I think about Marin, I don’t want to go through with it. At the same time, I can’t muster the strength to push her off me. She moves around while on top of me while still holding onto my member. “Honey, you’ll feel better soon. Just relax.” She’s about to sit down on me. I have to get her off me. Something inside me clicks the moment she drops her body. I exclaim, “No!” I push her off me with all my strength. She falls off the bed. She gets up immediately, frowning. “Ow…” “I don’t know who you are, but you’re not Marin. Even if this is some crazy dream, I won’t do that to her.” She looks at me expressionlessly for several seconds before bursting out in laughter. “What’s so funny?” “So, Marin’s your girlfriend? Not some girl you have a crush on?” My girlfriend? I never thought of her that way but in a way, she is. Though we keep it a secret. “Yeah.” She smiles. “I see. So that’s how you were able to resist. It must’ve been hard, right? To resist me.” I gulp. Part of me still wants her, but I’m able to keep composure. It’s no doubt that if I didn’t have Marin, I wouldn’t have been able to resist. She continues, “And here I thought you wanted to live out a fantasy.” “Fantasy? This is a nightmare. I’ve never had such a weird dream before.” The reason why I’m having this dream must be last night. I was more passionate than ever with Marin. I told her my secret and she told me one of hers. Felt like we became closer with less to hide with each other. She bursts out laughing again. “Dream? You’re a funny one. I won’t play house with you anymore, so stop playing stupid.” I have no idea what she’s talking about. This is getting weird for a dream. Usually, my dreams are more…violent. I’ve had about enough of this dream. I lay down on the bed and close my eyes.  Wake up, wake up, wake up… “You’re taking this joke too far. It’s no longer funny,” she says. I open my eyes, finding myself still asleep. There’s no point in talking to her. She’s a part of my mind, after all. I must’ve met her before and forgot. It could be that I’m trying to remember who she is by having this dream. “Who’re you again? I’m having trouble remembering.” “Eprillon,” she answers firmly with narrowed eyebrows. That doesn’t ring any bells. “Wait…how old are you?”  “Sixteen,” I reply quickly. Even though I didn’t mean to answer her. “Oh… I suppose you’re too young to know…” This is getting a little creepy. I’m not sure where I met this woman. I’ve only ever known Emdos since I was young. Was she someone we passed by in the streets when we went out? Or is she someone that was around before my first memory? Or did I forget? “What’re you talking about?” “Your parents didn’t tell you anything?” “I’ve never met my parents.” A chill goes down my spine. I answered again, but I swear I didn’t mean to. I have a feeling this is going to turn to a true nightmare very soon. But that’s a good thing because I can wake up. I’m still scared, though. Maybe because it feels too real this time. The door’s on the other side of the room. I sit up. “I see…” she mutters. It appears that she’s in deep thought. This is my chance to ditch her. I hop off the bed and dash toward the door. I open it. The other side of the door is made out of a silver metal. Ahead is a long passage with the width of the door. The entirety of it is made out of the same metal. At the end is another metal door. I dash toward it. “Where do you think you’re going?” “Away from you!” I shout. It seems like I can’t refuse to answer her questions. A familiar purple haze suddenly appears in front of me that covers the entire passage.  Void magic?! It’s too late to stop. I go through. I flail my arms reflexively, soon falling on a bed face up. The woman is next to me, smiling. But I don’t see the portal above me. I sit up to confirm my suspicions. It’s a one-sided portal that faced the ceiling. Last night is when Marin helped me figure this out. My mind’s really messing with me. Is this a test? I’ll fight Void magic with Void magic. I prepare instructions to create an exit one-sided portal to the hallway. But something’s weird. There’s a part inside my torso area where I can’t move any of my Mana. I ignore it and continue. Both of her portals disappear. “Why would you want to get away from me?“ she asks. “Let’s talk.” “Because you creep me out. It feels like I’m your puppet and this will turn into one of my usual nightmares soon.” “Wow, you really don’t know anything. A word of advice, you should stop whatever you’re planning or you really will be my puppet.” I ignore her and hop off the bed. I activate my magic and then run into the portal in front of me. I appear right in front of the metal door I saw before. I reach for the doorknob.  Suddenly, my vision changes. I’m lying face up on the bed again. What the hell just happened?   I look at the woman, who is still smiling. She couldn’t have possibly used the portals on me again. I had it blocked, but she might’ve had something already set up. But, I didn’t see anything before it happened. I sit up. There’s nothing above the bed either like before. I don’t know why I’m surprised. This is a dream. She can do whatever she wants, apparently. “How do you know about Void magic if your parents didn’t tell you anything?” she asks. “I learned how to use the portals through a Magic Scroll inside a book Emdos gave me. It originally came from my parents,” I answer while looking around the room. If I can’t leave through the normal way, I’ll make my own exit. “Who’s Emdos?” “He’s the one who raised me.” I hop off the bed again. I turn toward the wooden wall next to the bed where there is no furniture blocking the way. “Did the book have any information about anything else?” “I don’t know. The only thing I read was a letter my father wrote saying something about me being the last hope. I don’t know what he means by that and I didn’t get to read any more of the book. I lost it.” I answer and bond my Fire Affinity to my Mana. I’ll emit Fire magic from my palms and burn an exit out of here. “The only type of Void magic you know of are the portals?” “Yeah,” I answer and then pause my plans to burn a hole in the wall. Wait a minute. “There’re other types of Void magic?” “I’m the one asking the questions here. Give me what I want, and I’ll tell you everything you don’t know. My service to a junior.” “What do you want?” She points to my member. There’s no need to play along with her. I’ve always known that there were other forms of Void magic that I didn’t know about. I shake my head. “That’s not gonna happen.” “It’s going to happen whether you like it or not. Especially if you keep on doing what you’re doing.” I ignore her and point my palms toward the wooden wall and then activate my magic, releasing a stream of hot flames into the wall. It burns the wood into ash immediately. I move my palms around to create a large enough opening to go through. But something’s strange. I stop my magic. A silver metal is behind the wood. The same colored metal as the door and the passage. “No matter what you do, it’s pointless.” Pointless? We’ll see about that. I’ll wake myself up forcefully. I write instructions to release my strongest fireball to come out of my palm. The same as usual but with my Mana instead so it won’t take long. I need to distract her in the meantime, so she can’t stop me. I ask, “Why’s there metal behind the wooden wall?” “The metal separates from the inside to the outside.” “But why have the wood at all?” “Do you sleep in a room made out of metal?” “No, stone.” “Stone… So you live in a castle?” “Yeah.” “Does it feel like home?” “No.” “Exactly. That’s why this room is made out of wood,” she says and then walks over to me. She lightly strokes my cheek once with her hand. “To make you feel comfortable when I brought you here.” I push her hand away and take a step back. I don’t want to be tempted by her again. “Well, it didn’t make you comfortable enough. Why don’t I show you around the base? This room is a very small chunk of it all.” “Base?” “That’s right. That metal behind the wood you see there encases the base,” she says and then starts to put on her clothes. She’s turned away from me. This is my chance. I point my right palm toward my face. I close my eyes. “What are you doing, you fool!” I activate my magic. A hot feeling envelops my face, but nothing beyond a minor burning feeling. I open my eyes. There are no flames coming out of my palm. What happened? That magic should have ended me instantly… The woman stomps her way toward me with a frown. I bond my Mana with Fire Affinity and try to release it as a stream out of my palm. Nothing comes out. She grabs my chin and turns my head her way. “Doesn’t look serious. I’ll have a medic heal you later. Are you trying to kill yourself?” “Yeah, so I can wake up.” “I don’t know many times I have to tell you. This is reality,” the woman says and then sighs. “Come with me. I’ll tell you everything later. Then you’ll see that this is not a dream.” “Whatever,” I say.  No matter what she says, this is just a dream. I’ll see what my mind has in store for me. I follow her through the narrow passage. She opens the door at the end. It’s bright. I go through and find myself outside. I shield my eyes from the blinding bright light. “I thought you said we were inside a base?” “We are. What you see is not what you think. Look closely.” I look around. Looks like an ordinary village to me. A large one at that. Children, women, men out and about. Grass and dirt on the ground, trees around the village. There’s a blue sky, clouds, and light, but something’s off. The clouds aren’t moving. And there’s no sun. I turn around to the door we went through. The other side of the door is made of wood instead of metal. The wall around the door have the mountains and scenery painted on them. I touch them and confirm that it’s fake. “What’s this?” I ask. Why do they have a fake outside inside a building? Even if it’s a dream, it’s very mysterious. They must be using Light Crystals and Glims or P-Glims with Mana Crystals to create the light among other things. “It’s a simulation of village life. Some prefer to live in this environment.” “But…why? Why not live outside with a real sun?” “Safety reasons.” “Safety from what? Monsters?” “No… It’s more of a precaution,” she answers. Two men are walking toward us. “Commander,” they say with a salute. “Is this him?” one of them asks. “Yes,” the woman answers. They point their gaze at me. One of them says, “Okay, come with us.” “That’s not necessary,” the woman says. “I’ll take it from here.” The two men exchange a brief glance. One of them asks, “Are you fulfilling your duty?” The woman frowns. “Yes. I have been for over a decade. Why would I stop now? All the things I’ve done for this community.” “Please, excuse him, commander. He’s still young,” the other man says. “What? I have to make sure she’s not getting cold feet. She was completely emotionless when I was with her. It was like I fucked a doll. It was awful.” The woman slaps him. “Get out of my sight.” “Heh. Even if you’re the commander now, I wanted to remind you of what your only purpose is.” “What’s wrong with you?” the other man asks and smacks the man’s head with his hand. “Go on ahead of me, I’ll meet you there.” The man walks away. The remaining man continues, “One other thing, Arlene. It’s about your oldest daughter.” Arlene sighs. “We’ve talked about this. We’re only going to use her as a last resort.” “Our supplies are running low. She also consented given that she chooses her mate.” “I don’t care if she’s consented. She’s too young to make that decision.” “It’s strange that you’re playing the role of a mother now. Is it because she’s about how old you were when you made that decision?” the man asks, but Arlene doesn’t answer.“Do you regret it?” “No, of course not. We would’ve been doomed to make the same mistakes as our predecessors.” “Your daughter just wants to commit to the same cause. I know you’ll make the right choice,” the man says and then walks away in the same direction as the other man went. “Who were they?” I ask. “The older one was my second mate. The younger was my last mate,” she says and continues walking. I follow her and ask, “Mate…? Is that what you want from me?” “That’s right. Aren’t you a smart one?” “Yeah. Why does it have to be me? If your goal is mating, won’t anyone do? You already have a daughter…” “I’ve had several daughters…and sons… But only a few of them are alive now.” “What happened to the others?” “It’s best you don’t know. Look, you have something they don’t. Void magic. And your Affinity is very high. It was a part of my plan to bring you here and mate with you. As well as to store your seeds for the future.” “Store my seeds…?” I can’t believe what I’m hearing. It doesn’t sound sanitary. “Yes, and you know how it goes right? How Mana capacity and magic talent is largely dependent on the parents.” Does it work like that? Did I learn that at the Academy and forgot about it? I’m not sure if I was paying attention for that. “Um, sure?” Arlene stops walking and turns around. “Sure? This isn’t common knowledge for you?” “No,” I answer quickly. “I can’t even begin to imagine how primitive the place you ended up is,” Arlene says and shakes her head. “With your high Void Affinity combined with my own almost guarantees strong pure-blooded children.” “So does that mean your children now are weak and can’t use Void magic?” “Well, they can’t use Void magic because they were never taught… I have no reason to teach it to them because it serves no purpose in their daily lives. I’ll create a training regimen eventually, but it’s not important right now. It was a poor choice of words. By strong, I mean that they have high Affinity for Void magic. If I didn’t create children with your seeds, children several generations down the line might not have any Void magic talent at all. That would pose a danger to our plan.” “Plan?” She ignores me and continues walking. I follow. “So I’ll be able to use your seeds to create strong children for the rest of my life.” “What’s the point? You said you don’t use Void magic in your daily lives. Why do you need to create strong children?” “They don’t use Void magic, but I do. After I pass away, there needs to be a successor to my work.” “I see…” I say, though none of this makes any sense to me. I feel like it’s pointless figuring it out since this is all in my head, but I don’t know how Void magic plays into any of this. “What work do you do?” “Isn’t this place mysterious?” she asks while looking around. I look around and see nothing too out of the ordinary, other than people living indoors as if it was outside. The village is bigger than I originally thought. Nothing too strange or out of place. I’m not too familiar with village life. There’s no sense of adventure. Wait a minute…are these grass and trees fake too? Or those crops over there. With this fake sunlight, they wouldn’t be able to grow. But it’s a dream. Anything goes. I answer, “Not really. I’ve had stranger things happen in my dreams.” “What’s so hard to believe? That there’s light but there’s no sun?” “No, it’s obviously a combination of a Glim, a Light Crystal, and a Mana Crystal doing the work,” I reply. Arlene stops walking and turns around again. “It doesn’t explain how these plants are able to grow.” “You know about Glims?” Arlene asks in a tone more serious than before. “Yeah.” “What do you know about them?” “They give Mana instructions when it passes through the Glim and higher quality Mana produces a stronger effect. It’s made out of this crystal material. Oh, and you need Intermediate Runic magic to make them.” The woman squints her eyes slightly, focusing on the ground. “That’s all?” “Yeah.” “I see…” Arlene still stands there looking at the ground. She mutters, “That’s mysterious…” “Excuse me?” “Nothing,” Arlene says and then continues forward. “There’s nothing mysterious on what you’re seeing. If you know about Glims, then you know about Runic magic. It’s converting the magical object of light into a physical object.  It’s more complicated than that, but know that the end result is a replication of sunlight.” I get the vague idea. So this place isn’t as mysterious as I first thought. Of course, something like this is possible. I’ve never thought about these things. What’s my mind trying to show me?  “We’re almost at one of the exits,” Arlene informs. We enter a dense forest. The village isn’t visible from here. “To the outside?” “No, to this village. You’ll be able to see it soon.” “Where’re you taking me exactly?” “A couple places. The research branch to start off. I’ll show you proof that this isn’t a dream.” “Whatever. What were you saying earlier? The reason why you don’t live outside’s because of a precaution? For what?” Arlene chuckles. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” “You’re right. I don’t believe any of this.” “That’s why I’m going to convince you that this isn’t a dream before saying anything else. The exit is up ahead.” I’ll prove to myself that this is a dream before that. I’ll find some inconsistency somewhere. There’s a clearing up ahead. The exit is shaped into a large arc. It’s big enough for a wagon to go through comfortably. The passage is made out of that silver metal I saw earlier. Light comes out of the ceiling here too. I ask, “Is this sunlight too?” “No, that’s regular light. The village and the basking area are the only two places with simulated sunlight. Our supply upkeep isn’t high enough to maintain simulated sunlight everywhere in the base.” We’re almost at the end of the passage. I thought there would be a door or something, but there isn’t. Arlene stands in front of the wall at the end. Is this where the nightmare starts? I gulp. “We’re here,” Arlene informs. A purple portal appears in front of us. It must be Arlene’s Void magic, but where does it lead? There’s no way for Mana to move past this solid metal wall. I follow Arlene through the portal. We arrive in two similar looking hallways. Straight ahead and to the left. There are pairs of metal doors on opposing sides evenly spaced across the two paths. This place reminds me of the living quarters at the Academy. “This is where our researchers live.” I stop walking and turn around. The purple portal is gone and what remains is a similar dead end. I want to try the same thing she did and see what happens. Arlene asks, “What are you doing?” I turn back around. “Just trying to see if I can copy what you just did.” “No, don’t waste your Mana.” “What, why?” “It’s nothing big,” she says after a delay. She continues walking forward into the path ahead. “Just saving you the trouble of trying when it won’t work.” I follow her. “Then how’d you do it?” “That’s a secret.” Of course it is. She won’t tell me because she doesn’t know how. She’s a part of my mind. I don’t know, so she doesn’t either. Another strange thing is that there’s hardly anyone here. Other than who I saw in the village. And she mentioned something about supplies. Those men from earlier said something about that too. What does that exactly mean? The simulated sunlight is created through Glims and Light Crystals. If she said that there aren’t enough supplies to maintain the entire base, that must mean that there aren’t enough Light Crystals. The only way to obtain Affinity Crystals is to extract them from monsters who have them. Normally that task is left to Adventurers…but I don’t think that exists here. This has to be an inconsistency to get me out of this dream. Though, she’ll probably say something like it’s a secret or something that doesn’t prove or disprove anything. With nothing to lose, I ask, “How do you get enough Light Crystals and Mana Crystals for all this light? Are there people hunting monsters outside the base?” “Well…we have ways,” she says. There it is. The vague answer I expected. When I think about Drymo, there must be over a thousand people using Affinity Crystals every day. We didn’t replace the Affinity Crystals in the living quarters very often, but I find it hard to believe that Adventurers would be the ones to bring all the Affinity Crystals to a city. Not all Adventurers do it either. Our group didn’t. I never really thought about these things. Maybe I’ve been taking too many things for granted. “Is there someone living in every single one of these rooms?” I ask. “No, we mainly built these ahead of time so we don’t have to expand in the future. We only have a few hundred people right now.” We pass an adjacent corridor but continue forward. At the end is a lone door. Arlene informs, “We’re here.” I have no clue what she’s planning to show me. It would have to be something I’ve never seen or could even imagine existing. She takes out a keychain with several keys on it and then unlocks the door with one of them. I follow her inside. It looks like an ordinary bedroom except the room is made out of metal. I’m not sure if all this was a trick or if there’s something here. I ask, “What’s this place?” “My room.” “I’m not gonna do it with you if that’s why you brought me here.” “Don’t worry. That’s not why,” she says and walks over to a drawer. She unlocks it with another key. “It’s because of this.” She takes something out. She’s holding a familiar object. It’s a Gun made in the same metal as the walls. It’s shaped differently, though. Looks smaller too. “There’s no way you’ve seen anything like this. It’s called a—“ “Gun,” I answer. I sigh with disappointment. Arlene widens her eyes and asks, “You know what this is?” “Yeah. I learned about it earlier today. It’s one of the Artificial Magic Weapon models. Those things that can hold Glims, Affinity Crystals, and Mana Crystals to allow anyone to use magic.” “Interesting,” she says with a smile. “If you know about it, can you dismantle it?” “Of course,” I answer. She tosses me the Gun. I catch it. Heavier than I expected for something of that size. By dismantling she must mean remove the parts inside. I look for the mechanism that opens up the compartment. It doesn’t seem to be anywhere. There are some tiny buttons but they don’t do anything. Now that I have a closer look at the Gun, it seems too small to house any Affinity Crystals inside. “What’s wrong?” “I can’t find the switch that opens the compartment.” “That’s because it’s not what you think it is,” Arlene says and then takes the Gun from me. She does something with the Gun and clicking resounds. I knit my eyebrows as pieces of the metal drop to the floor. It’s not a Gun. The top of it is visible and there are clearly no crystals of any kind inside. There are these small yellow and orange colored pebbles. “This is a type of gun called a pistol. It has nothing to do with magic.” She kneels down and picks up the parts of the gun. She puts them back together. Nothing to do with magic? How does it work? I think it’s supposed to shoot those pointy yellow pebbles out, but I can’t imagine it would be very fast. It’s not real. None of this. But how did my mind come up with any of this if that’s true? Is this really not a dream? “This metal you’ve seen all over the base is called steel. You’ve probably never seen that either, have you?” “No.” “It’s a strong, cost-efficient metal. About as hard as Titanium, but a bit heavier. You won’t believe this is real until you see it in action. Close that door and stand back.” Arlene stands up. I do as she says and close the door. She points to a spot on the wall near me. “Stand there.” I move over to the spot indicated. A pair of portals appears in front of her. “Watch closely. You probably won’t be able to track it with your eyes immediately. Guns shoot these small pointed pieces of metal called bullets at a high speed.” She extends her arm out with the gun in hand. Part of it sticks a little past the first portal. A loud bang resounds. A vibration goes through my entire body. What just happened? Something clanks on the floor less than a second later. It’s a bullet. It’s slowing down rapidly as it passes through the portals while hitting the floor. The two portals disappear. The bullet bounces off the wall and it rolls by my feet. I focus my eyes on the gun in Arlene’s hands. That’s a gun… I was able to see the bullet for a moment before it hit the ground. Is this really not a dream? It makes more sense if it wasn’t because this isn’t like any dream I’ve ever had in my life. None of this makes any sense. “Well, still think this is a dream?” “I don’t know.” “Well, there is one more thing I can show you,” Arlene says as she returns the gun back into the drawer. She closes it and locks it before walking over to the other side of the room. A purple portal appears in front of the wall. “Follow me, slowly, and watch your step.” I follow her into the portal. We end up outside on a small balcony area. I widen my eyes at the sight in front of me. What appears to be a huge ravine. Below us is complete darkness other than another larger steel platform below is. It’s far enough where I wouldn’t want to jump down there. The ravine extends farther than I can see in both directions in a straight line. The top of this cliff is in sight, but we’re fairly deep down. A sight in the starry, bright, sky catches my attention immediately. This has to be what she wanted to show me. A full moon and a half moon at the same time. They seem larger than I remember compared to the moon I’m used to seeing. “A beautiful sight,” Arlene says. “You’ve probably haven’t seen anything like this in your world.” “My…world…?” I ask. Did I hear that right? That means this is…   She smiles and then says, “You wouldn’t have believed me before, but yes, this is another world. I brought you here with Conjuration magic.” What the hell? My mind goes blank. This is too much information to process.  If what she says is true, so many other things would have to be true too. “I’m sure you have a ton of questions for me, but there’s still a lot of time left before you have to go home. The infirmary isn’t far from here. Follow me,” I follow her back into her room using the portal. The previous revelation aside, the fact that there isn’t a door here bothers me. I remember she said that metal encases the entire base, but I thought that at least there would be a metal door that let you go outside, but she’s been using Void magic everywhere. “Hey, is the base really surrounded by steel?” “Of course.” “What’s the point of all that when it’s already underground?” “It’s complicated. I’ll tell you all about it later,” she answers and opens the door. I follow her out the door. She locks it before we continue. Based on her answer, it seems that we’re completely trapped in steel. But there’s a problem with that. What if they run out of space? This place seems pretty big, but eventually, there will be too many people. To begin with, how did they manage to spread this steel so far and cleanly? It seems to be all in one piece rather than in layers. There’s no way that they did all of this in a short timeframe. “Was this base initially smaller?” I ask. “Keen observation. Yes, it was. We kept it enclosed from the very beginning. We constantly expand. The passage between the village and here is still under construction. I only allow certain people to live and work in the research branch. That’s why there was a wall in between. It was also because putting a wall there was faster than constructing a door. Creating the wall is simply magic, but creating a door requires manual labor.” “Magic?” “Earth magic, specifically. I assign those talented with Earth magic to jobs like these. Expanding the base, building, and waste control. That platform you saw below outside was connected to the waste room. All of our waste and trash are collected into Earth cubes. I transport them outside using Void magic and dump them outside.” Runic magic must be involved too in the creation of these walls. But she said that these steel walls are made out of magic…? “I thought the special property of Earth magic only allowed you to create wood, rock, and dirt.” Arlene laughs. “You’ve definitely been misinformed. Earth magic can create almost anything that comes from a planet’s composition. Unless you’re capable of using Earth magic, I won’t bore you with the details.” There are so many things I don’t know about magic. The things that Ragnar showed me and now this. The things she said earlier bother me, though. Conjuration magic. Can it really do something like bring people from other worlds? I thought it was more like creating something. At least I thought that’s what Moria taught. There are still those issues I attributed to this being a dream that doesn’t make any sense anymore too. My intense desire to do it with Arlene, my inability to not answer her questions, how she managed to bring me to her without a portal, how she moves Mana past a physical barrier, and everything else. “Still…the world you live in now seems very interesting. It shares commonalities with Eprillon, but at the same time it doesn’t,” Arlene says. “What do you mean?” “You told me Glims were crystals that when Mana passes through them, assigns them instructions based on their Mana quality.” “Yeah.” “I know Glims to be simply any Mana permeable object that assigns instructions to Mana.” “Any Mana permeable object…?” “That’s right. Mostly things like dirt, wood, rock, and water. They don’t have to be crystals.” “I see,” I say. Maybe just the ones I’ve seen were made out crystal. Doesn’t seem to be a big deal either way. “Initially, I thought you’re from Eprillon too, but I’m not sure now.” “You keep going about Eprillon, but what’s that exactly?” “It’s the name of another world. Where we came from.” “We?” “Everyone that lives here.” “You traveled here…from another world? How?” I ask. I honestly don’t know how that’s possible. Bringing me here with Conjuration magic is one thing since that’s temporary, I think. But permanently moving to another world… That’s a stretch. It can’t be, Void magic? “Yes. I have an idea of how it was done…but I’m not sure.” “What do you mean you’re not sure?” “It was my parents who did it.” “Where’re they now?” “They passed away.” “Oh, I’m sorry.” “Don’t worry about it. It’s been sixteen years. More importantly, tell me about your world. What do you do there? How’s life?” “I work for the army now after I lost several friends in an attack by criminals. Life was good before that. I went to the Academy to learn how to use magic and be an adventurer when I was 11. Graduated a few months ago and completed E ranked missions until that attack.” “I see. It sounds like the place you grew up in is already very developed. Something is strange, though. You speak the same language and are familiar with objects such as Glims. I know that at least several other parties traveled to other worlds around the same time. There have been no previous accounts in our history of people employing that technique.” “That technique…does it have something to do with Void magic?” “Yes, actually. I wouldn’t recommend that you try it yourself. It will cost your life.” I widen my eyes. “Is that how your parents…” “Yes. I can’t say for sure that’s what happened to your parents since someone else could’ve cast the magic,” Arlene says. “There’s one thing I know for sure based on what you’ve told me. Emdos, your caretaker, definitely knows something.” “Yeah, I know. He told me that he would tell me when the time comes. They were famous adventurers together. He said that they weren’t killed out of hate. Does that mean Emdos could be from another world too?” “That can’t be true.” “Why not?” “That letter addressed to you by your father. By last hope, he meant that you’re the only one with Void magic. That means that no one else with Void magic was brought to your world. Adventuring existed in Eprillon too, but it doesn’t sound like Emdos is from there. Your father wouldn’t have said you were the last hope otherwise. Emdos is lying to you.” I frown. There’s just no way. Sure, he lied about how the shower mechanism worked when I was little. He lied about making my favorite food on my first day at the Academy. He lied when…wait. I guess he has lied to me before,  but I trust him. He said he would tell me everything one day. “We’re here,” Arlene informs as she opens a door. I follow her inside. “Welcome, Arlene. Fiona hasn’t arrived yet,” a woman says. “Our specimen is already here,” Arlene says and points to me with her hand. A woman with wrinkly skin and brown hair walks up to me. “Oh, he’s young! What happened here?” She waves a hand over my face. A green glow emits from it briefly. The pain from my face disappears. I knit my eyebrows and touch my face. The burns are gone. Wow, I didn’t think she would be able to heal that injury so fast. “There ya go, sweetie.” “Uh, thanks,” I say. “Ann, I need you to find Fiona, and bring her here immediately.” “Alright. She’s probably still asleep. I’ll be back,” Ann says and walks past me out of the room. Asleep? That reminds me. It’s obviously night outside, but in the village, it wasn’t. Maybe that’s why I haven’t seen many other people in this place. Everyone might still be asleep. I ask, “Is it because everyone’s still asleep that this place seems so empty?” “No, most of the people in the research branch are out in the expedition.” “Expedition?” “An organized team I put together to explore the surface. We need to learn more about the world we’ve arrived in.” “I see. How do people in the village sleep when it’s always so bright?” “It’s not always that bright. It gradually becomes brighter throughout the day and then dims when night approaches. The days are simulated in a 24-hour cycle mimicking Eprillon. This planet isn’t on the same cycle. Everyone has a slightly different sleep schedule based on their role in the base. Everyone’s role is important to our survival.” Hmm… It was a good thing that Arlene brought me here when I was supposed to be sleeping. Marin was with me too. I hope she doesn’t worry too much if she wakes up. I’ll have a wild story to tell when I get back. Arlene was so insistent on mating with me, but now she’s not trying anymore. Something’s off. She referred to me as the specimen. What’s this Fiona person going to do when she arrives? I cough before speaking up, “Well, what’re we waiting here for?” Arlene smiles. “For Fiona to arrive. But I suppose we could get started now. You can stay right where you are…” She walks toward me. I gulp and take a few steps back. My back now against the wall. Is she gonna try to mate with me again…?   “What’re you doing? I’m not gonna do it with you.” “You can’t resist anymore. You’ve fallen completely under my control. I could easily mate with you now if I wanted to,” she says and strokes my chest. I gulp. For some reason, I can’t move. I can’t move any of the Mana inside my body either. “But I won’t. There’s another way.” “Huh?” I still can’t move. Arlene slowly moves her hand down between my legs. I groan as she takes hold of it and strokes it back and forth. “Wha-what’re you doing?” “Exactly what it looks like. Collecting your seeds. Close your eyes and think of Marin, if you’d like.” I won’t be able to stop myself from releasing my fluids if it comes down to this. Despite that she’s doing this against my will, she could easily mate with me in this situation. Why is it that she’s choosing not to? It doesn’t make sense to me.  If there’s another way to get what she wants, why hasn’t she done that with her other mates? “How will you mate with me without doing it with me?” I ask, trying to keep my calm. “Easy. I’ll put one of your seeds inside me when the time is right.” “Why haven’t you done that with your other mates?” The grip around my thing gets tighter. “Because of tradition. Because I’m a trophy. Every year, there’s a competition for men of all ages to compete in. The winner of the competition will mate with me each year. The winner is thought to be the strongest and create a more capable child.” “So you’ve been with a different man every year…? Has there been a different winner every year?” “Yes, because the same man can’t win more than once. It’s to create variation in magic talent. If the same man were to mate with me every year, there would be more issues with inbreeding several generations down too.” “Haven’t you found someone…special?” She frowns. “None of this has anything to do with love or anything like that… Since the day we came to this world, I had no other choice. It was either to let my parents’ sacrifice be all for nothing or help ensure our survival. I was willing to swallow my pride for that. I didn’t plan on letting filthy Halfblood kidnappers have their way with me the entire time. I trained and planned for this day. After I collect your seeds, I won’t ever have to mate with them again.” She strokes harder and faster. I groan and pant. I can’t… I close my eyes and explode. Euphoria spreads throughout my entire body. A wooden cup is in front of my thing. I take a deep breath in and then out. “You were kidnapped?” “That’s right. I would’ve been with the Purebloods if not for them. It’s in the past now,” she says and then looks into the cup. “Not enough.” “What’re you doing?” I ask as she takes off her top. “Desire me.” I gulp as every ounce of my being wants to climb onto her, but I don’t move. My friend who went limp after being overwhelmed with pleasure stands firm again. Arlene strokes it rapidly again. “I envy you. You can freely choose your mate and experience love. You know, I find you very attractive. I was hoping to enjoy sex for once, but I can’t.” It hurts. My thing throbs with pain every time she strokes it. I’m going to lose it again soon. I close my eyes and think of Marin. I don’t know how much time passes before I explode again. “Sorry about this, I’ll need to do it one more time to be safe. I’ll answer all of your questions afterward. You need to be well-informed about what happened 17 years ago.” I can’t think of anything right now other than Arlene and her body. It becomes hard again. I throb with pain on every heartbeat. I wish she’d stop even though she won’t. I grit my teeth and keep my eyes closed. I lose track of time again. “Arlene, I’ve brought Fiona,” Ann says. Footsteps resound closer to me. “Good. I’m almost done with our specimen,” Arlene says. “Come here, Fiona.” “No, it smells over there…” a woman says. “I’ll do it from over here when you’re ready.” “Fine,” Arlene says and speeds up her hand. “Ugh!” I exclaim and then pant. Pain radiates from my entire groin into my lower stomach. I feel extremely fatigued. “Do it,” Arlene says. I open my eyes. The wooden cup that has my seeds is on the ground. Blue flames erupt out of nowhere that envelop the entire cup. Something feels weird inside me. I still can’t move, though. Arlene turns toward me. “Oh, no. Something is interfering with our connection,” she says. My vision is fading despite that my eyes are open. “There’s…need…know…” My hearing is fading too. Arlene’s mouth moves but I only hear some words. “Beware…Mana…” … I wake up and open my eyes, panting. I sit up and look around. I’m in my room. Marin’s nowhere to be found. Pain radiates from my lower region. I place both of my hands around my thing. What the hell just happened? I had this dream…no it wasn’t a dream…   I try to remember everything that happened. A flush resounds in the bathroom. The door opens and Marin comes out. “Kai, you’re awake? It’s still too early… Go back to sleep,” Marin says as she joins me in bed. “What’s wrong?” “Marin, this is gonna sound weird, but have I been sleeping here the entire time?” “Yeah…why? You were tossing and turning. Were you having another one of those nightmares?” I knit my eyebrows. “No, it’s nothing.” “Okay, if you say so. Is something wrong with your…thing?” Marin asks as she glances over to where I have my hands placed. “Oh, yeah… Just really sore.” Marin blushes and then answers, “Well, you were really passionate last night…” I blush and stand up. “Gotta use the bathroom.” I head into the bathroom and close the door. I look into the mirror. I can’t believe that it was all a dream. It was too realistic. There has to be a hint that I was actually there. I walked through the village area barefoot. I felt the dirt stick to my soles. I raise my legs to look at them. Completely clean. No traces of dirt whatsoever. I slide my palm across them and notice nothing unusual. I smell my arms. Nothing. My face too. I burnt it with my Fire magic, but Ann healed it with magic. I sigh and lower my head toward the sink. I never got any real answers how any of the magic worked. Was everything just a result of everything I already knew and the possibilities that I never thought about? The last thing that Arlene said. Beware Mana. It reminds me of the folklore at Beltan. That using too much Mana turns you into a monster. I must’ve somehow twisted everything that happened today into this fantasy dream. I look back into the mirror and widen my eyes. I grab a part of my bangs with my fingers. It’s burnt. In the dream, I tried to kill myself by unleashing my strongest flames into my own face. I don’t know how it disappeared, but is this proof that it wasn’t a dream? No wait… I think back to earlier in the day. There was a moment I came into close contact with Fire magic. It was when someone from Ragnar’s group launched me into the air. I used the Artificial Magic Weapon to help me avoid the incoming ball of fire. It must’ve been at that moment some of my hair was caught. I sigh. I think a part of me just wants to believe that it was really real. Now that I think about it, it was really ridiculous. It couldn’t have been real. There were too many things that just couldn’t be true. I use the bathroom before heading back to sleep.

"Hiro, don't just stand there!" I exclaim. He turns tail while the others catch up. I run with him before facing the two charging at us when Sitos catches up.   "I'll take the guy on the left," Sitos claims, preparing to swing his sword.    I focus my eyes on the one ahead of me. We clash our swords a few seconds before the one behind him clangs his weapon against Sitos'. All the joints in my body ache as he pushes my sword back. Sitos is also having trouble. I grit my teeth and grimace, putting all my strength into pushing him back. It doesn't work. I need to get away!   Before his weapon nearly pushes my own into my neck, I want to jump backward, but my legs don't respond. Move damn it!   The man in front of me clicks his tongue and looks toward Sitos. My legs give out as the man pulls back, apparently switching his attention to Sitos.   "Sitoster, watch out!" Drugo exclaims as he runs past me.   A flame sphere appears behind the man Sitos is fighting. It goes on a straight path toward his back, bursting into flames. "Argh!"   Sitos jumps back, joining up with Drugo. The man hit by the flame sphere drops to his knees. "I felt somethin' hot behind me. What the hell was that?"   "I saw some fireball appear behind you," the other man explains, making way back to his comrade. "These aint yer average kids."   I find the energy to stand back up, making my way to Sitos and Drugo in front of me. The others stand behind us.   "Six against two. Give up," Drugo says. The two men drop their weapons on the ground almost simultaneously.   Both men grovel, and the one hit by Fire magic says, "Okay, okay! We give up!"   I drop my stance, as do the others. Their other friend comes running toward us. "What're ya two doin'?!"   I tense up and ready my weapon, but one of the two on the ground says, "Bro, we can't win. Let's just give up."   The man drops his weapon, puts his hands in the air, and walks toward us. I relax.   "What do we do with these people now?" I ask.   "That couple over there will know what to do," Drugo says.   "Marin, let's go talk to those two."   "Sure." With that, the two girls run toward the couple. Suddenly, the man walking toward us changes direction. Before any of us can react, he grabs Luna and pulls out a dagger with his other hand. He points it to her neck.   "Luna!" Marin screams.   Damn, doesn't he care about his two friends here?! I grit my teeth.   Drugo exclaims, "Hey, what're you—"   The two groveling men suddenly have weapons in their hands. One of them stabs Drugo through the leg while the other one slashes with a sweeping motion toward me. I hold up my weapon at the last second, jumping backward at the same time. My guard breaks easily, and my legs suffer a shallow cut. Sitos jumps over the sweep and cuts the man across his shoulder, between the gaps of his armor. Drugo retaliates and stabs the other man through the arm that stabbed his leg.   "My arm!" one of the men screams. Sitos kicks the other man to the ground, pointing his sword in front of his face.   "Whadaya think yer doin'?! I have yer friend right—" The man holding Luna hostage suddenly trips as he's walking backward and interjects, "Argh!"   He lets go of her as he's pushed away by Luna. There's something smoking around his abdominal region.   Sitos says, "Give up. Don't move or I will—"   The man under his foot attacks him. Sitos pulls back his weapon to defend, but his arm gets cut in the process. He pulls back and clicks his tongue.   "Or you'll what?" the man asks and snickers. He gets back on his feet and continues, "Yer only kids after all."   "Don't forget 'bout me!" Hiro exclaims, running around the man. He points his right palm at the man and shouts, "Water ball!"   A sphere of water appears from Hiro's palm, eventually bursting on the side of the man, drenching him in water. Sitos charges at the man, pointing his left palm toward the man. "Lightning!"   A yellow bolt of lightning comes out of Sitos' palm. Sparks of electricity fly all around the man. He screams a cry of pain before loosening his grip on his weapon and collapses on the ground.   I walk over, pick up the sword, and toss it in a random direction. The other man lies on the ground unconscious with a small pool of blood forming around his right arm. Drugo in a crouched position still has a sword stuck in his leg. A bad feeling envelops me as the sound of a man screaming pierces my ears. I focus my attention toward Luna. Fire comes out of both of her palms on a straight path on the man. The flames cover the man as he rolls on the ground.    "Luna stop!" Marin exclaims while grabbing Luna from behind. Subsequently, she stops, but the man still rolls on the ground as he flails around his body parts. He continues to burn.   "Hiro put him out!" I exclaim as I run toward the burning man. He follows me. By the time we get to him, he stops burning, and his body smokes. He doesn't move. Glimpses of the skin that's visible on his arms, neck, and face have a bubbly appearance. Parts of his skin bleed, whereas other parts look pinkish or black.   I cover my mouth as a nauseating, thick smell enters my nostrils. It resembles a mixture of metallic and sulfuric odors. I'm unable to control myself and vomit on the ground, but the smell lingers as if I taste it inside my mouth.   "Kai, are you okay?" Luna asks, apparently unaffected by the odor. Marin runs away, probably to throw up too.   "Yeah…" I gulp before asking, "Is he dead?"   "I don't know. Maybe?"   I kneel down to the pan and put a finger on his neck. He has no pulse. I gulp before announcing, "He's dead."   I get up and wipe my finger on my pants.   "Oh well. I don't have to feel bad since he left me with no choice, right?" Luna asks, smiling.   Is this my fault…? I did say all that...but...talking about it and doing it are different matters.   I don't want to say anything that might make her sad. I ignore the uneasy feeling and with a smile say, "Yeah, it's his fault."   Still tasting the vomit in my mouth, I step away from the corpse. The middle-aged couple approaches us.   "I don't know who you are, but thank you for saving us," the man says. They both bow. "We don't have much to give you as a reward, but we can surely reward you if you accompany us back to Beltan."   "That won't be necessary. Can you tell us how to get to Drymo? We're a little lost," I explain. They briefly turn to each other before looking back at us.   "We don't mind, but…it looks like your friend over there won't make it," the man says, pointing in a direction behind me.   I turn around. Drugo's on the ground with the sword still lodged in his leg. His right arm is supported by Sitos.   "Drugo!" I shout as I run over to him. He breathes hard and sweat drips down his face.   "We need to dress that wound. Take that sword out of him, and I'll wrap his leg around this," the man says, carrying his shirt in his hands. Sitos and Hiro hold Drugo down as I grab on the sword. Drugo's body twitches as I pull out the sword. Blood rushes out of his wound. The man rolls up his shirt and ties a knot around the injury. Sitos and Hiro help him stand him.   "Our village is not that far from here. Hang on until then," the man says. Marin joins back with us before the couple leads us to their village. We keep a slow, steady pace, eventually arriving at their village within the hour.   "Wait here," the man instructs. The couple walks ahead of us and talks to the guards in front of the gate. After about a minute, the guards open the gate, and the couple comes back. "We're nearly there."   We follow the couple into the village, eventually leading us to a large farm. Plentiful amounts of produce litter the fields and dozens of cows graze in the grassy plains on the side. We enter the house at the end of the field.   "Mom, Dad, is that you?"   "We're back. Is Derek still sleeping?"   "Yes, welcome ba…" a young woman appears from the hallway and asks, "Who are our guests?"   "We only made it back safely because of them."   "Oh, no… Wa-was it him?"   "No, it wasn't. But they recognized us. Sorry Ariane. But there's no hope for him now."   "Th-there has to be a misunderstanding! Ragnar would never—"   "People change."   "But—"   "Not another word. We need to leave to bring the doctor here. This child needs prompt medical attention. Take care of them while we’re gone."   "Wait!" The door closes behind them. Ariane sighs before saying, "Bring him over here. I'll take a look at him."   Sitos and Hiro help Drugo over to a chair. She unties the blood-drenched shirt and puts her palm over his wound. A faint green light glows around her palm. I raise my eyebrows before asking, "Is that Healing magic?"   "Yes."   "That's amazing. You have a rare talent! When did you graduate from the Academy?" Luna asks.   Ariane frowns before answering, "I didn't go to the Academy."   "Are you like Kai then? A renowned person had taught him before he enrolled at the Academy," Luna says.   "I learned from Ragnar," Ariane says with a smile. "Your leg should be fine now. Why don't I look at the rest of you now?"   Drugo stands up and stretches his legs, bending them several different ways. "Yup, I think I made a full recovery."   "I don't understand. Why're your parents getting the doctor if you could just do that?" I ask as she moves to look at everyone else's injuries.   "My parents don't approve of magic. They often reprimanded me for practicing."   "That's weird. Why would they disapprove?" I ask.   "It's a long story." My stomach grumbles. She laughs before saying, "Why don't I get you something to eat first? You must be starving."   She brings us some bread to snack on before continuing her story. "People with magic talent were a rare thing in our village, but there was a talented pair that appeared about 40 years ago. They were Ragnar's parents. They learned magic on their own and were the pride of the village. Tourist attraction, wealth, trade, business…everything increased over the years they racked up achievements in other places around the world. It was known that they were born and raised in this village. The years after that, the children of age of this village were entered into the Academy in hopes of cultivating unripe fruit.   "The villagers say they never heard back from those children again. They only learned of their demise nearly a decade down the line. About two years after Ragnar was born, his parents met an unfortunate end. My parents who were close friends with his parents say that their fame attracted all kinds of bad people. Among them were those who hunted the strong. Ever since the news of their deaths reached the village, it has been taboo to use magic."   "I've never heard of magic usage being taboo," I say. "Is Ragnar a close friend of yours? It sounded like he was in some kinda trouble."   Ariane sighs. "Yeah… Sorry, just listen to me talk for a while longer. I just want someone to hear this. I told you earlier that Ragnar is the one who taught me how to use magic. Like his parents, he was highly gifted in magic. He learned on his own behind the backs of his grandparents and the eyes of the villagers. He wanted to go to the Academy, but he never got to. Neither of us did. He dreamed of going on adventures like his parents did. He was always happiest when he talked about exploring the world.   "Two weeks ago, he was tasked with a job to establish new business relations with a nearby village. Since his grandparents wanted him to inherit their business, they wanted to give him experience in that sort of thing. But, he never came back. We feared the worst. A few days ago someone thought they witnessed him together with some hoodlums. The village organized a group to rescue him, but yesterday he suddenly returned. He said, 'I got away,' and we left it at that.   "I was just glad he was back, unharmed. There was an air about him that was different, but I didn't know exactly what. He started asking me questions like if I wanted to explore the world with him among other things. I regret I didn't give him an answer… Later that night I heard he knocked out the guards and opened the gate for the same hoodlums he was with earlier. They took a large chunk of the village's supplies and rode off. My parents said he was leading them…the bandits. Even if it's true, I won't believe he's doing it out of malice. I've known him my entire life. There's no way he’d hurt anyone. Everyone's eyes are clouded." She grits her teeth.   "It doesn't sound like he's a bad person. Right, Marin?" Luna says.   Marin smiles. "Yeah, I hope you clear up the misunderstanding."   "Thanks," Ariane smiles before continuing, "I feel a lot better now."   The door opens. "We're back."   The couple enters the living room along with another man. The couple widens their eyes as they look at us. They turn to Ariane before exclaiming, "Ariane! We've told you again and again! To never use your magic! You'll be happier in the end. You don't understand now."   "Happy? I'll never be happy as long as you treat Ragnar like some criminal!"   "Darling, it's done. We reported to the head, and he officially exiled him from this village. By tomorrow, all of Drosera will learn of his bounty. Forget about him."   "Wha-wha-what…" Ariane mutters while gaping at the floor. Nearly five seconds pass before she grimaces and shouts, "I hate you!"   She storms off, opens a door, and slams it behind her.   "Sorry you had to see that. She's been very unstable over the past week. Since the doctor is already here, why don't you let him take a look at you?"   "Sure," Drugo answers, following the doctor into another room. The door closes behind him.   "I understand you guys want to return to Drymo, where the Academy is located. I can arrange for transportation to leave today if you'd like. I hope you decide to rest here for at a least a day so we can repay you, but we won't force you to stay," the man informs.   "Guys, I just remembered… We have the keyword test tomorrow! What're we gonna do if we don't make it in time?" Hiro asks.   "Not tomorrow. The day after tomorrow, moron," Sitos corrects him before continuing, "There is no problem if we stay here for a day."   "So that's how it is. Do you guys have more food around here?" I ask, feeling like my stomach is bottomless.   "Of course! We don't live on a farm for nothing! We'll do our best to deliver you the best meals until you depart tomorrow!" the woman exclaims.   We enjoy a mini-banquet of food dishes we rarely got to eat at the Academy. We alternate the remainder of the day between eating and sleeping. It continues to the next day.   "Good luck! Come back anytime!" the man shouts as our wagon leaves. Ariane, her parents, and her little brother wave as we ride away from the village.   I sigh. "The last two days felt like forever. I'm definitely gonna take a nap in our old room when we get back."   "How the hell can you say that after sleeping for an entire day?" Sitos asks with doubt. "Take your nap after we inform the teachers on what happened."   A chill goes down my spine as I remember the lost book. What am I gonna do…? I have to convince everyone to keep everything a secret…but how…?   My head plays out several different scenarios, but none of them seem viable. I stop thinking when Sitos suddenly asks, "Kai, do you have anything else to add?"   "Huh?" I ask, unsure of what he means by that.   "Are you deaf? Like I was saying… We plan to tell the teachers everything what I just said. Do you have anything you want to add?" he asks again, but I have no idea what they've said.   "Uhh…well…I don't think we should tell them anything," I answer. "We ended up ruining the floor and lost the couch. They might kick us out because of that or make us pay for it. I don't wanna take that chance."   Sitos laughs. "The damages were not that bad. I am sure someone could easily fix that hole we made. More importantly, I bet the reward we would get for reporting everything we found would be worth a lot more."   "Yeah! Maybe we'll be famous too! And they can make me a new hammer."   "So no one wants to add anything else?" My mouth opens, but no words come out. "Then it is settled."   What am I gonna do if they find that book? What am I gonna tell Emdos…? Shit! Why did I have to lose it in the first place?! I recall the unexplainable occurrences revolving around the book throughout my years.   "Kai, what's wrong?" Luna asks. "You look pale."   "It-it's nothing…I'm just tired. I'm gonna take a nap," I say and close my eyes, lounging my elbows over the edge of the wagon. Several of them laugh.   "Un-fucking-believable," Sitos says.   I can't help but keep thinking about the book. Hiro asks, "Do ya think we'll encounter any monsters around here? After…and…"   …   I open my eyes forcefully while jerking my body forward, feeling like something grabbed me. Huh? What was that…?   I look around. A familiar setting surrounds me. This is…the Residential District…   The others look at me blankly. I scratch my head and smile. "I just had a bad dream. By the way, did someone grab me before I woke up?"   They look at each other before turning back to me. They respond nearly in unison, "No…"   Something still lurks at the back of my mind, so I ask, "Did you see anyone suspicious?"   They give each other confused looks before Sitos asks, "What the hell are you talking about? That must have been a really bad dream."   Feeling the atmosphere tensing up, I laugh. "Yeah, never mind."   "Did someone chase ya with a giant carrot?" Hiro asks with a straight face then breaks into laughter.   I frown and narrow my eyebrows. "No, what the hell? I'm not scared of that anymore!"   "Then tell us what ya dreamed 'bout!"   "I didn't have a dream," I say accidentally, realizing my mistake after the fact. Hiro gives me a neutral look before melting into a grin.   "Kai's in denial! He's still scared of carrots!"   "No, that's not true!" I say, feeling hot puffs of air exit my nostrils. I sigh then say, "Never mind…"   The wagon rider takes us all the way to the bottom the hill that leads up to the Academy. We thank him before heading up to the entrance. The two guards standing by the main entrance give us a few strange looks.   "Wait a minute. What is with all that blood staining your clothes? You are not 5th-year students yet, are you? I have never seen those weapons before either…"   "Let us pass. We have something of foremost importance to pass to the teachers," Sitos says.   "That will have to wait. We need to verify who you are first."   Fulharm walks into our view and looks our way. "Oh! If it isn't Emdos' pupil, Kai!"   "Emdos? Glacius?" one the guards asks.   "That's right," Fulharm says.   "Oh, we are sorry about that mix-up! You and your friends can pass!" one of the guards says.   I raise my eyebrows. Wow, if I had known how people would act if they knew Emdos taught me, I would've mentioned it so much sooner! Is Glacius his other name…?   "Fulharm, we have something to tell you," Sitos informs as he leads us to a secluded area. Fulharm stares at the weapons in our hands.   "I'm a little interested in where you got those weapons…"   Sitos give him a summary of everything that happened.   "I see…" he says as he rubs his chin. "I'll let some of the other teachers know about this, so don't tell anyone else. Fixing that floor for you won't be a problem. I'll do it myself."   "Whatabout our reward?" Hiro asks.   "Hmm… I'll mention it after I pass it along some of the other instructors, along with a replacement for that hammer. In the meantime, I'll take those weapons off your hands."   We give him the three swords. He heads off in another direction. "I'll be in your room, 1C, to fix the floor after I store these weapons."   With that, we head back to our dormitory. I say, "Well if you'll excuse me…I'm gonna go take a nap in my old room."   I wave at the others before going into our old home, the door unlocked. I lock the door, take off my empty backpack, and then fall on my bed. It's nice to finally sleep in my own bed…   I fall asleep.

After asking passersby, we learn that the Icy Tavern is at the heart of the city, the intersection of the four districts. That’s where Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and the Xog intermingle. We’ll finally be able to see the other races. I can’t wait. Hina’s excited too. Otherwise, her palms wouldn’t be sweating. It could mean that she’s nervous, but there’s no reason to be.   “What’re you excited more to see?” I ask. “Xog or Dwarves? Personally, I wanna see the Xog. If they’re as outlandish as what the books say.”   “I’d rather see a…Dwarf,” Hina mutters.   A Dwarf? That’s so boring. It’s almost as if she’s…nervous.  I smile before saying, “What, the idea of meeting a Xog scares you?”   She turns her head toward me and exclaims, “O-of course not!”   “Your face’s red.”   “It’s cold,” she answers calmly.   “If you’re that cold, your fingers wouldn’t be sweating,” I say. Hina doesn’t respond. She doesn’t have an excuse for that, but the hand never lies. I don’t see the big deal about Xog. From what we’ve read in the Academy, they can be the same size as us or as tall as a house. Some have a lot of hair, and some don’t have hair at all. The description is contradicting a lot. But, when Viessa first revealed herself, it was just as the books described.   It makes me think that the books could all be right. But what kind of thing would it be like? Is Hina nervous because they could be anything?   “They can’t be that scary,” I say. “I mean…if Elves, Dwarves, and Humans are willing to live with them in the same city, how bad can they be?”   “I guess…” she answers with little energy.   ‘You wanted to be an Adventurer,  but you’re scared of this?”   “That’s completely different, and I’m not scared. I’ll admit I’m nervous, though.”   So, she’s willing to admit that. It’s basically the same thing, but I’ll let it go. “How’s that any different?”   “You hunt monsters as an Adventurer. You walk into a zone filled with them expectin’ to see them, and with the monster codex, you know what you’re exactly walkin’ into. No surprises. They’re not very smart either. What’s there to be scared about?”   I tighten my grip while thinking of that day. “You haven’t met a real monster.”   “And what’s that?”   I remember it clearly. I answer,  “An Albino Flying Squirrel.”   “An Albino—“ Hina breaks out in a cackle. “Flyin’ Squirrel!”   I try to stay calm, not letting her laughs get to me. She doesn’t know the destructive power that it had. “It wasn’t an ordinary version of the Albino Flying Squirrel. It had red eyes.”   “Red, eyes!” she exclaims and continues laughing. Suddenly, she stops and says, “Ow, you’re hurtin’ me.”   “Oh, sorry,” I apologize and let go of her hand. I clenched my hand on hers without realizing it.   “You look serious. I thought you were tryin’ to be funny.”   “If it were a joke, Hiro might still be alive.”   “Hiro…the loud one that you mentioned died to a monster? It was to an Albino Flyin’ Squirrel?”   “Yeah.”   “I’m sorry for laughin’…when it was your friend who died. I take everythin’ back.”   “Nah, it’s fine. Anyone would’ve laughed considering that they’re normally E ranked monsters,” I say.   “What were you sayin’ about red eyes?”   “I asked Moria about it. He said that those with red eyes are called Anomalies. Exceedingly rare and powerful. There’s no record of anyone beating one.”   “Seriously?” she asks with widened eyes. “You guys managed to escape it?”   I don’t like the way this conversation is heading. I’d move it along elsewhere. I can’t reveal my Void magic to her after all. “Yeah, we got lucky. Hiro…took the fall for us.”   “That was very brave of him. I have a lot more respect for him now.”   “Yeah, well. So, there you have it. You never know when you’ll meet an Anomaly, so you don’t always know what you’re walking into.”   “You’re right. I was wrong about that. But… Anomalies are exceedingly rare. Those masked attackers are scary…why? They can think, learn from mistakes, and make decisions, unlike monsters. That’s what makes them really scary. You never know what they’re truly thinkin’. Where they could be watchin’ you or huntin’ you.”   “I guess I can agree with that, so how does that tie in with your nervousness with the Xog?” I ask.   “Well, they can think like us too. They’re people too…or I don’t know. From some of the descriptions...I picture them as upright monsters. When I think of monsters that are capable of makin’ decisions and thinkin’ for themselves, that’s what makes me a little nervous.”   Imagining a wolf walking upright on its hindlegs is a little intimidating. Especially when I think there could be an entire population of them walking in the streets. I reply, “I get it.”   “Good. Can I borrow your hand? My hand’s cold,” Hina says and holds out her next to mine. “Try not to crush it this time.”   “Fine,” I respond and hold her hand. “As long as you promise you won’t cry if the Xog turns out to be a little scary.”   She squeezes her hand on mine instead. She smiles and says, “Admit it, you’re actually scared too. I did you a favor by askin’ you to hold my hand, so you wouldn’t have to ask awkwardly.”   You don’t want to play this game with me. I gradually put more force into the grip on her hand.   “I’m sorry,” she utters quickly and relaxes her hand. I loosen mine too, applying enough to still hold on to it.   Heh. I get the last laugh. The buildings up ahead are painted blue instead of the red buildings in this area. That must be the central district.   Part of me wonders how long ago the races have been living together in this city. Since the other races have their separate entrances, they must have their unique districts too.  Viessa said that other races could live here or do work nearly a decade ago. So, that should’ve been nine years ago or three Inteiru Expota’s ago.   So, was Syrina built before or after the races came together? Considering that these districts separated clearly, I can only assume that the other districts are colored differently, too.  Viessa didn’t mention anything about the Inteiru Expota being new, so there must have been more Inteiru Expotas in the past held here. Did the Humans here live in the other districts before the other races moved in? And if they did, were they shoved all onto this side of the city? I feel like there’s more than enough space, but I have so many questions.   While I’m still lost in thought, Hina raises her hand and shakes it while it’s still locked with mine. “Kai, look!”   I look toward where she’s pulling my hand. A fat bearded kid is walking across from us. No, that has to be a Dwarf. No way a kid’s face ages like that or grows beards. So, they’re like Humans but smaller in height and a bit wider…   “He’s small like the books say,” Hina says and then lets out a chuckle.   The Dwarf walks toward us and narrows his eyebrows. “’Ey, lewk. ‘Tis a fuckin’ Human. Shut yer puss, ye fuckin’ flat nugget. Ma tools be big enoof ter wreck havok in yer shed. De bewks dun tell ya dat. Call me smol agin an’ Ay will make ya chew ma banger.”   I don’t comprehend everything he said, but he definitely seems angry. Hina opens her mouth and lets out a few sounds but no words, so she probably didn’t understand entirely either. Don’t want him to get too close to her. I step in front to block him from her before things turn for the worst.   “Sir, I’m sorry. She didn’t mean to offend you,” I say.   “Oi'm nae deaf. 'Tis a wee tew late fer dat,” he says. No one around us seems to care about what’s happening, not even other Humans.   Wanting to defuse the situation quickly, I reach into my pocket to grab a handful of coins. I hold out my palm in front of me. It’s only about ten silver coins, but that’s over half of my weekly salary. “Look, we’re both new here and don’t know anything. Take this and let us be on our way.”   He stares at me with the most menacing look for several seconds until he finally takes the coins from my palm responds, “Fine.”   "Ward o' advice. Nivver call a Dwarf smol unless yer lewkin ter start a figh’. Fuckin’ Humans…” he scoffs and walks away.   Hina and I stand in place for a while longer until he’s far from us.   “Dwarves are scary…” Hina says. “He was talkin’ so fast I couldn’t understand what he was sayin’. So they don’t like bein’ called sm...”   She looks around her before continuing in a whisper, “Small.”   “Apparently not,” I answer. “Let’s hurry up.”   Glancing around, it’s still mostly Humans around. We continue our way with the directions we got earlier, eventually reaching the Icy Tavern. While we saw more Dwarves and some Elves, we didn’t see anything that could be a Xog.   “What took you so long?” Ada asks as we enter the tavern. She and her team are standing by the entrance. “Where’s the rest of the team?”   “We had to improvise,” Hina explains. “The ministers wanted to explore the city.”   “What? They’re not supposed to do that. It’s General Nero’s orders.”   “Yeah, we told them. But, they aren’t fans of him so they don’t wanna listen,” I say. “Just the two of us for now.”   “Fine, let’s get started then, “ Ada says and then turns to Aisha.   “Right. Let’s move to the corner,” Aisha says and walks toward the corner farthest from everyone else inside the tavern. It’s all Dwarves, so it’s a good thing that we’re moving away from them. Who knows what’ll happen if they mishear one of us talking and have a misunderstanding. They’re a bit loud, so it’s doubtful that they’ll hear us anyway. The rest of us follow her.   “Logistics. We’re missing about half of us, so that decreases our odds of finding anything on the first day, the most important. Our team’s completely free today, but I don’t know about you guys,” Aisha says and turns toward Hina and me.   “I wouldn’t count on it. There’re eight of us here. We can split into pairs of two, and with the entire day ahead of us, I’m sure we’ll find something,” I say.   “Groups of two…we talked about this. It covers more ground, but it’s riskier. Especially since half of us here are less effective in close-quarters where we’d be likely to be investigating. We don’t have much of a choice now, so I’ll agree. On one condition, everyone’s only to do light scouting and investigating. Don’t go too deep by yourself.  So regarding the sewers topic, you’re only to look for the entrance. We’ll reconvene here in two hours to see if anyone has found any leads. Then we’ll go as a bigger team to investigate the noteworthy ones,” Aisha says.   “Sounds good,” I say. “So, which pair’s taking which district? If we wanna be efficient. There’re five districts while there’re only eight of us.”   I already know which three Hina doesn’t want to be in.   “Actually…about that,” Aisha says. “Someone recommended that we don’t go into the Xog district.”   I knit my eyebrows. If the races are living together in the city, it would be weird that if we’re not allowed in the other districts. The ministers wanted to explore the Elven district too. They should know whether or not that was possible before deciding that. I ask, “What do you mean? It’s not allowed?”   “It’s allowed, but no one recommended it. It’s not a highly regulated area, and it’s not safe. Everywhere else is fine, though.”   “Who told you that?” I ask.” That sounds like the perfect place for the masked men to hide. They could’ve been the ones to tell everyone to keep out.”   “It’s possible they’re operating there, but I think we should avoid that area for now. We double-checked the information with practically everyone on the street. They all say the same thing. It’s doubtful that everyone’s working with the masked men,” Aisha says.   “Okay, well, that simplifies things. Four districts and four pairs,” I say. If we can’t go to the Xog district, there’s only one other district I would prefer. I’d better speak up before Hina takes the lead and makes it impossible for me to disagree. I smile. The same goes for her. “We prefer to stray in the central district. Pearl’s dying to see one of the Xog for herself. Shame that we’re keeping the Xog district out of limits for now.”   Hina gives me a nasty look for a moment, but it transforms into a smile. We have to play the role of a happy couple in the end, or our cover is blown. I’ve figured out that I can control our actions more or less by having the first say. But she’s probably realized that too. She says, “You took the words right out of my mouth, Darling. That’s why I love you. You always know what I want.”   I’m the only one who knows her smile is not an innocent one. But hey, we’re convincing them that we’re a true couple. They’ve been skeptical of us lately. I did her a favor by playing into both of our interests.   “We’ll let you two stay here then. Ada will go with me to the Elven district, Melody go with Deniz to the Dwarven District, and Doris with Irwin in the Human district,” Aisha says. “Remember to tread lightly. This is our first round of investigations. Anyone have concerns?”   No one speaks. Aisha turns toward Hina and me. “Well, we’ll see you back here in two hours.”   Hina and I nod. The six of them leave the tavern. Hina squeezes my hand and says, “Darling, I think we need to have a discussion.”   “You don’t wanna play this game with me again,” I say and clutch my hand tighter around hers. She stops trying to out squeeze my hand and frowns. “Besides, with the number of times you’ve screwed with me, you deserve it. Also, I saved you from the Dwarf earlier.”   “I could’ve handled him myself.”   Liar. You looked like you were about to wet your pants. Admitted you were scared too.   “’Ey,” a Dwarf suddenly says behind us. This guy is a bit taller than the other guy and his beard braided. There’s so much grime on his face that it looks like he hasn’t bathed in weeks. It’s obvious by his stench too. I want to get out of here. “Ye juss gonnae stand dare er sit down an' order somedin’? Ye Humans always be rude usin’ ma business fer meetin’ an' nodin’ else.”   Damn. We should’ve left with Aisha and the others when we had the chance. I have a feeling that it would be better to oblige than to walk away at this point. It might be insulting to them to refuse, or maybe we’ve already made a bad impression. It’s not like they’re going to chase us down and try to kill us, but this could be a good chance to learn more about them.   “Of course, we’re sitting down to eat something,” I respond. I’m a bit hungry anyway. We haven’t had anything to eat since we’ve arrived. Hina looks at me with a confused expression. I lead her to the nearest table and sit down.   “Dun be shy. Sit closer wiff de rest o' us. We dun bite,” he says and points with his hand to a table next to a group of Dwarves.   Reluctantly, I stand back up and sit down where he indicates. Hina follows my lead.   “So, wha' will ye have?” he asks. He asks that as if I know what’s there to be offered.   “Just get me some soup if you have some,” I say, wanting to get it over with.   “Oh, Ay wou' nae recommend any food fer ya, sir. Ye knoo hoo it goes. Stick ter de drinks.”   I don’t know what he means by that. Is he saying that I can’t finish it? Seeing how Dwarves are a bit plumper than us, maybe the food portions are a lot bigger too. “Whatever, just get me the soup. I’ll eat anything you give me.”   “Sir, Ay dun dink ye understand. Ye must be new 'round haur.”   The group of Dwarves next to us laugh. One of them exclaims, “Boss, wha’ be de big deal? Let deez Humans have dare soup.”   “Aye yai yai…two rock soups fer de Humans comin’ roight up,” the server says and walks away.   Rock soups…? He’s not being literal, right? Rocks aren’t edible. Must be a metaphor for something else like how ‘on the rocks’ mean ice. They’re named the ‘Icy Tavern,’ after all.   “What about my order? I didn’t say I wanted soup…” Hina mutters and then whispers. “What’re we stickin’ around for?”   I whisper back, “Well, I was hungry. And you owed me some money for making that other Dwarf go away. I had to act fast before you decided to handle him yourself. Running away could have pissed them off resulting in them chasing you down.”   “Yo-you’re right…” she mutters with widened eyes while looking down at the table. Good thing I acted fast. Seems like she was actually thinking about bolting. She’s really easy to manipulate right now, though. Heh. I’ll find her other weaknesses, so she’ll never mess with me again.   “Bahaha!” multiple Dwarves laugh at the table next to us. They’ve been rowdy since we walked in here. What’s so funny?  “Drink up, drink up! ‘Tis a celebration!”   Another Dwarf chugs a stein. The entire group cheers him on and explode into laughter after he slams it back onto the table. Your usual antiques of a drunk crowd.   “Listen, ye may have beaten me dis time, but a new shipment o' Aerkins be comin’ in. Ay will bet dat one o' dem will finally beat ya,” one of them says.   “Nae way. Ye will have ter start trainin’ one fer yerself if ye want a chance against me,” another answers. “Ay dint get dis far by chance.”   “Bahaha! Ay know, Nazug. Oi'm givin’ ya a heads up. Dis new shipment Ayve heard rumors abart be on an entirely different level. Ye best be prepared. Ay dun want ter see de current champion go down so easily.”   “Danks fer de warnin’, friend. Ayve got ter battle anoder challenger soon,” Nazug says and stands up from his seat. “Ay will see ya later.”   “See ya later. May de spirit o’ Achilles be wiff ya.”   Our server’s walking toward us, holding onto two big bowls, one on top of each hand. What kind of soup is it going to be?   “Lotrem, ye be sure we ken trust dem?” one of the Dwarves next to us asks.   “Relax, brahder. We’ll figure it art later. Drink! We still have ter celebrate Nazug’s win streak!” Lotrem exclaims. “More beer, boss!”   “Oi'm workin’ as fast as possible hold yer horses. Two rock soups fer de Humans,” the server says.   “Oh, dis will be good,” Lotrem snorts. The two other Dwarves with him snicker too.   The Dwarf sets down the bowls in front of us. He didn’t provide us with any spoons which I find strange. What’s stranger is inside the bowl. Several different colored roughed objects are inside. Some are about the size of an apricot, while others are like grapes. If I didn’t know any better, those were rocks, but that can’t be it. I lift up the bowl seeing how I have no spoon. The bowl is pretty heavy for this little amount of food, which indicates to me that these might literally be rocks.   I lift the bowl toward my mouth to sip this strange liquid. With one small sip, I knit my eyebrows. This isn’t water or anything I’ve tasted before. It does a burning feeling down my throat, so I figure this was a type of alcohol. The taste isn’t reminiscent of what soups should taste like.   The only thing left to try is these colored rock-like objects. It’s not very sanitary to reach into the bowl with my hands, but there’s no other option. I take one of the smaller ones. Maybe these will melt in my mouth like candy. I carefully pop it into my mouth and suck on it, as if it was hard candy.   Initially, only the taste of the clear liquid is distinguishable. Afterward, the only way I can describe the flavor is like that of a metal; a bit of a sour aftertaste. I don’t think that’s the right method of eating it either. The only other possibility is if there’s something soft inside this hard shell. I bang it against the table in which a high pitched thump resounds. Yep, one hundred percent rock. All of them are rocks.   The Dwarves next to us are grinning, and it looks like they’re trying to keep themselves from breaking into a cackle. Unless their teeth are somehow made of something much harder than rock, I don’t see how anyone would eat this.   “Wha’ be wrong Human? Ye said ye would eat anydin’,” Lotrem says.   “Well, then, tell me Lotrem. How would you eat this?” I ask, feeling like the Dwarves at only messing with us at this point. I’m not trying to start anything, but at the same time, I won’t simply take it.   “Eavesdroppin’ intae our conversation an' gettin’ familiar now, are we? Well, sin' ye asked nicely, Ay will tell ya wha' Ayd dae if Ay came wiff ma lady. Ayd take one o' de medium-sized rocks ter shove in her hole, lettin’ it fester inside her fer a while. Only eftor her juices doroughly cover de rock, Ayd take it art ter dip in de soup,” he replies.   Dwarves may be harder to understand, but they’re still speaking mostly in the Human language. He’s very clearly trying to pick a fight with us. Suggesting something like that when the whole reason we’re pretending to be a couple is to help Hina with Captain Citrio making unwanted advancements on her. Now, these random Dwarves are suggesting something inappropriate to her. I won’t stand for it. I stand up from my seat and ask, “What’re you trying to say?”   “Oi’m only answerin’ yer question. Nae need ter get worked up abart it. Dun be such an Elf.”   “How exactly did you answer my question? You think I’m dumb enough to think that you were serious when you suggested I should shove some rocks between my friend’s legs?”   They stare at me in silence for several seconds before bursting into laughter again.   Lotrem exclaims, “Ay won again! Next round’s on ya.”   “Yeah, yeah…” the Dwarf next to him says.   “Darling, let’s pay and leave,” Hina says quietly behind me.   That might be for the best. I wouldn’t want this to turn like the first mistake I made upon joining the Army. I look toward the server in the back of the establishment and say, “Hey! How much for the two rock soups? We’re out of here.”   “One moment!” he exclaims, carrying an entire plate of steins.   “Hey, Lotrem. Our Human friends not be very happy. Maybe ye ought ter explain ter dem wha’ be guin on.”   “No need. We’ll leave,” I say.   “Dun be loike dat. Ye moight still be able ter enjoy dem if Ay shove dem intae our holes instead.”   I don’t answer. I don’t know what to think at this point. Is that something a Dwarf usually would say when they’re trying to make amends?   “Brahder, ye won de bet. Stop beatin’ a dead  horse an’ tell dem already,” another Dwarf says.   The server sets down the plate of drinks on Lotrem’s table before turning toward us. He nervously looks down onto our unfinished bowls of soup.   “Boss, dun worry. We’ll cover fer dem,” Lotrem says.   “You don’t have to. We have enough,” I answer, not wanting to owe this rude Dwarf anything.   “Dun be loike dat. Yer misunderstandin’ de whole din’. ‘Tis an onguin bet we dae on unsuspectin’ Humans. De hole O’im talkin’ abart be roight haur,” he says and points to the side of his abdomen. He lifts his shirt, revealing something disturbing.   “The fuck?!” I exclaim while taking a step back. There’s a slit on the side of his belly resembling something that of the female body.   “Dats pretty rude, but Ay will let it slide. Best ya learn dis befer ya get intae a mixup wiff de wrong crowd o' Dwarves. 'Tis an outer stomach we have called a Beje. We use it ter predigest rocks loike doze in de soup. It softens de rocky material intae somedin' jelly-like wiff de acid substance inside. Each Dwarf's juices taste slightly different, so 'tis always interestin' ter utilize someone else's Beje fer a different taste,” he explains.   That’s super weird. I think before speaking up, “So, that’s all you eat?”   “Oh, heavens nae. We cou' live aff feedin’ only on rocks, but we enjoy fine cuisine tew. Dare be cheap rocks an' finer rocks. Doze in de soup be mid-tier. Probably owor ten silver coins fer de whole bowl,” Lotrem informs.   “Fifteen silver coins, ter be exact,” the server informs.   I widen my eyes. It was good that they stopped us from leaving. We learned something useful and got out of paying a ridiculously expensive bill for practically nothing. I thought the only thing that contrasted us was our physiques. That brings me to question what else differs, but now’s not the time to learn about Dwarves. We’ve got to investigate leads. I say, “Well, thank you for paying for us and telling us a little about yourselves. It was helpful.”   “Bahaha! Nae problem! Ay dint get yer names,” Lotrem says.   “Kai, and that’s Hina,” I say while pointing to Hina who has been quiet this entire time. Still scared of conversing with them despite their more friendly behavior. “She’s a quiet one.”   “’Tis nice meetin’ ya. Have a good one. We’ll probably be seein’ ya ‘round.”   I smile before turning for the door. We’ve spent enough time here. Did he overhear us talking about our investigation earlier? There’s no way he heard us from that distance, especially with their rowdiness. It’s weird for him to think that our paths would cross again. He might’ve seen Ada’s group escort the ministers upstairs. I guess a lot of people are here for the Inteiru Expota, so it’s not unusual to assume.   “Still think Dwarves are scary?” I ask. “Those bunch seemed pretty friendly.”   “Oh, yeah…” Hina mutters. Her face is red.   “What’s up?” I ask.   “It-it’s nothin’. Let’s get movin’,” she says and walks away from the Icy Tavern.   I stare before shaking my head and following. I grab onto her hand and look to the side of her face. She should be able to see my head turned, but she keeps her view straight, avoiding all eye contact. There’s very clearly something. I sigh before saying, “Your face’s pretty red, and don’t even think about blaming it on the cold. Out with it.”   She glances at me with a frown. “Fine… It’s about the Dwarves.”   “What about them? That Beje of their’s pretty cool, right? Although, a little gross the first time you see it.”   “Is that what the weird lookin’ thing on the side of their body was?”   “Yeah, were you not listening?”   “I was…but…”   “But?”   “I can’t understand what they’re sayin’, okay?” she finally admits. “It’s not that they’re scary anymore.”   “Hmm…yeah. I had trouble following what they were saying at first too. I got used to it pretty fast. I understand most of it now.”   “So, can you summarize what they said?”   If she didn’t understand anything, that means she completely missed their joke about the holes… Well, talking about that isn’t important. “Basically, they predigest the rocks by putting into that Beje of theirs. Some acids melt it, and it turns into jelly. They take it out, and I assume put it into their mouths afterward to eat normally. Or dipping it into that weird liquid before that.”   I continue, “And before you ask, they can eat normal food too.”   “That’s pretty interestin’. Do you think Elves and Xog have somethin’ different about them too? Viessa looked normal other than for the ears.”   “Maybe, I’m sure we’ll learn eventually. I have a feeling there’s more to Dwarves that we don’t know,” I mention. Now that I think about it. They were initially talking about something. It sounded like some kind of fighting ring. The first Dwarf that left, Nazug was his name. He was undefeated, and from how their conversation ended, he’s headed to another fight.   “Oh!” Hina interjects and then chuckles. “Belly jelly! That’s where they got the Beje name from.”   “Wow…” I mutter and palm my face. Their naming sense is very literal. “By the way, I picked up a potential lead from one of their earlier conversations.”   “A lead?”   “Yeah. There was a guy named Nazug talking like he was gonna fight someone.  The other Dwarf referred to him as a champion. I’ll bet that there’s an unofficial fighting ring somewhere.”   “Light investigation only, remember? It sounds like that might be underground. We should double-check if there isn’t an official one first.”   “I doubt it. He was saying that he had another challenger. Sounds pretty unofficial to me.”   “It’s nice that we know this, but how will we find them? Knowin’ does as much good as we know the masked men might utilize the sewers.”   “That’s true…but we can ask someone. Asking someone about wanting to spectate a fight sounds a lot less suspicious than wanting to know where the sewer entrance is,” I say.   We roll with that idea, asking anyone on the street who is willing to spare a second to speak to us.  We even try asking a few Dwarves since it might be a Dwarven thing much to Hina’s dismay.  Of course, we don’t see any Xog around.   We found nothing other than that it’s not an official tournament or fighting ring.   “What now?” Hina asks. “The location might be in another district or even outside the city.”   “Yeah… I guess it’s a dead end. Still, it’s something to share with the others. I guess we’ll just make a few laps around this part of the city,” I say. “Might finally see one of those Xog. If you thought Dwarves were scary, imagine what a Xog will be like.”   “Shut up, don’t make me think about it. Are you really lookin’ for suspicious people?”   “I’m doing both,” I answer. A bit hard to detect any real suspicious figures. Since we haven’t been in the area before, what we consider abnormal might be normal in the area. The organization of the city is different. It’s like the Trade District, Residential District, and Adventurer’s District from Drymo were merged into one district for every district. It’s a bit chaotic.   Two hours of light investigation is a bit overkill considering the rules. We can only go into publicly crowded places, avoiding all suspicious-looking alleyways and dead zones.   Something moves in the corner of my eye. I stop look into the nearby alley. I swear I saw something, and it wasn’t an upright figure. It was something with a tail. If I didn’t know any better, it might’ve been a monster. But that doesn’t make any sense.   “Darling, what’s wrong?” Hina asks.   “I thought I just saw a monster run past over there,” I say, pointing into the alley. There’s more connecting alleys deeper within.   “You’re seein’ things. How can there be any monsters in the city? Besides, we can’t check over there because those were our ground rules.”   That’s true, but at the same time, actually witnessing something suspicious is different. If I go back and report that I saw this, it will be worth nothing. By the time we gather the group to search the area, whatever it was would be long gone. We’re still in the city. Nothing terrible can seriously happen even if it’s in an area with fewer or no people.   “Let’s check it out. It’ll be quick,” I say, letting go of Hina’s hand to run forward into the alley.   “Darling, wait!” she exclaims behind me.   I ignore her and continue to the intersection I saw a glimpse of the figure. I look left and right, trying to remember whether the thing came from one way or the other. The one time snow would be useful, and there isn’t any. The city managed to stay clear of it despite conditions outside.   I go with my gut instinct and go right. There’ a big open area up ahead. The back end of a building is on the left and the right. We’re basically in between two streets.   It makes me wonder why they decided to construct the city this way. It’s like they’re trying to include secret passages within the city purposely from the start. There is no other exit except continuing forward or returning back. No windows or doors present at first glance. No one around either.   “We shouldn’t be here,” Hina warns.   I reply, “It’ll be fine. Me and you, we’re strong enough to handle most encounters.”   “There’s nothin’ here anyway. It was your imagination.”   I walk around the edges of this open lot. There has to be something here. “Let’s check out this area to see if there’s anything fishy.”   “Fine… I’ll help you look,” she concedes.   I can’t seem to find anything. But, my gut feeling tells me that it’s here somewhere. I search the entire lot with no luck. I ask, “Did you find something?”   “No, but I’ll trust your intuition and try somethin’,” Hina says and stands still in the middle of the lot. She places both of her palms face down with her arms fully stretched, pointing to the ground. “Might be a little cold.”   Soaking us with water in this weather? What’s her game plan? If she floods the area, it’ll go all over the alleys. People will come if they see water coming out of nowhere. I’d like to think she has a bit of common sense so that she wouldn’t do that.   A thick, flat layer of Water appears that covers the entire lot from edge to edge. It soaks my feet wet with the water level reaching all the way up to my waist. She’s abusing her high Water Affinity as usual. Somehow, she manages to keep the water contained within this area so that it doesn’t leak out into the narrow alley we came. Something creaks around us, though I can’t pinpoint where.   “There it is,” Hina says. “A hidden trapdoor.”   The water disappears seconds later, but I’m still wet. Should I dry myself off with some Fire magic? I’m not sure that’s possible without burning the fabric.   “It-it’s co-cold…” Hina mutters. “Gi-give me o-one se-second…”   She continues a moment later, “All better.  Let me get you too.”   She touches me all over with her hands. I guess she needs physical contact to remove the magical water from my clothing. She manages to eliminate the water everywhere except for one place.   “You should be good,” she says.   I smile and respond, “You missed a spot. If you don’t mind. Try not to let your hand slip.”   She blushes and answers, “In your dreams.”   She reaches her hand into my pants for a moment to dry off the last piece of cloth on my body. Then, she walked the spot where the ground creaked. She crouches down and slides her hands across the ground. Seconds later, she grabs onto something and lifts it. I walk over and help her raise the door.  A stairway leading down into the darkness behind it.   “Well, this is it. We’d better back off before goin’ any further,” Hina says.   After coming this far, I don’t want to leave. “Aren’t you curious what’s in here, though?”   “Tread lightly. That’s what we agreed on. This is too dangerous,” she warns. “This passage won’t be goin’ anywhere. Can’t you wait an hour?”   “Ehh…”   She sighs. “It’s always black and white with you. First, you don’t want to investigate. Now, you want to risk everythin’.”   “So, we gonna go in?” I ask.   “You’re probably goin’ to regardless of what I say, right? I’m not goin’ to let you go alone either way.”   “You know me best, Pearl, that’s why I love you,” I say. She rolls her eyes and shakes her head. I take a few steps into the stairway. We should keep our voices down. I whisper, “Close the door.”   Hina slowly steps down while holding onto the door handle from the bottom side. She closes it completely, leaving only small traces of light piercing through the edges of the door.

It’s early afternoon, and we haven’t found anything related to the masked men or snake earring group. We’re back at the table inside the Icy Tavern.   Ada, who was so keen on utilizing the time we have effectively, is silent as the rest of us rejoin her.   Seeing how no one else is saying anything, I interject, “Well, what else have you guys found?”   My question is met with silence. How ironic. Despite Ada making a fuss about wasting time, none of them have found anything else other than our encounter with those men.   “We didn’t find anything, but two of our groups heard something about an auction event somewhere,” Aisha informs. “We’ll have to repeat our scouting process to find out more.”   “I have a better idea,” I say. Since we can’t exactly get access to some of the larger residences in the city, we’ll fall back to our original discovery. “Let’s explore the rest of the underground city. As we mentioned in our story, we think Floyd might know a few things. He’s at the Casino somewhere down there.”   I don’t know if none of them think it’s a good idea or if they’re all too scared to get a pass, but no one answers. I continue, ”Unless you guys have a better idea…hurry up and get a pass. We don’t have all day. Half the day’s already over.”   “Let’s go with that,” Aisha says. “Any objections?”   A moment of silence before Aisha continues, “Great. Do you know where to obtain passes?”   “I don’t know. Just go any Dwarven blacksmith, they’ll probably do it. Try the Dwarven district,” I say, and then my stomach growls. “While you guys do that, I’m gonna grab some grub with Hina. We haven’t had a chance to eat anything since arriving.”   “Right. We’ll be back as soon as possible,” Aisha says and stands up. The rest of her team follow and leave the building.   “Good call, I’m starvin’,” Hina says and walks out the door. I follow.   “Let’s find a Human establishment. I don’t wanna risk having to eat some strange rocks or something at another place. Not saying that it’s all they eat, but you know?”   “No objections here.”   We repeat the process of going into restaurants and looking around a few times. On our third attempt, we find Human servers. It’s a bit crowded, but I’d imagine most places will be considering it’s the Inteiru Expota. Well, except the Dwarven places. There seems to be an overabundance of them in this area. Everyone can enjoy a nice universal meal while only Dwarves can eat those rocks, though it’s only Humans in here as far as I can see.   A man carrying some food walks past us and says, “I’ll be right with you. There are two open tables. Feel free to take the smallest one in the corner.”   We sit down at the empty booth in the corner. Oh, two Dwarven men are sitting at the table next to us. They have their arms crossed and look grumpy. There are a few small rocks on the table. That’s interesting how this place accommodates Dwarves by giving them some rocks. I wish the Icy Tavern had some food for non-Dwarves too.   “So, we have some downtime. Let’s talk about that Aerkin battle,” Hina says and beams with an open mouth. Looks like someone enjoyed themselves.   “What—“   “I take everythin’ back what I said about monsters bein’ dumb,” she continues before I can say anything. “Well, the bear was dumb, but the wolf was amazin’.”   I think back to the moment that I thought was most impressive. “Yeah. He had an ingenious plan to attack only when the bear exhausted its Fire Affinity. If he didn’t, the bear’s Fire magic would have been continuously used and replenished at the same rate allowing him to use it as a defense mechanism as the Earth magic closed in on him. It made me realize that I should be more careful about how I use my magic, considering I have low Fire Affinity.”   Hina smiles smugly and answers, “Well, I don’t have to worry. It’s a shame your talent won’t be of much use when everyone’s Mana manipulation skill catches up to you. You’ll be at a severe disadvantage with your low Mana capacity and Fire Affinity.”   I smile back and respond, “Well, if I cut their throat with my swords before they can use any magic, it won’t be a problem. High Affinity and Mana capacity mean nothing if you make dumb decisions like the bear.”   “Fine, but seriously. What’ll you do when you can’t overpower the enemy? It won’t work if they’re stronger like those masked men. Or when they’re smarter than you? You’ll lose a battle of attrition.”   “Run like hell, what else? I won’t get into those situations. Unfortunately for those Aerkins, they have nowhere to run. It’s life or death,” I answer, though technically my Fire magic is the strongest. Nothing can overpower it.   The server from earlier runs up to us and says, “Sorry, we’re quite busy at the moment. We don’t have a menu for today since we have an overabundance of various monster meats.  Ten silver coins upfront for one plate of an assortment of meats.”   Ten silver coins…? That’s ridiculously expensive for one meal. Is it because it’s overcrowded in the city? People are taking advantage of this to charge way more than the standard. We don’t have time to look for another place that might be the same way. I’m starving too. We have enough money, so it’s not a problem. I drop twenty silver coins on the table and respond, “Sure. Give us two servings. One for each of us.”   “Right away, sir,” he says, picks up the coins, and then walks away.   Considering that these Dwarves next to us haven’t got their food yet, it’ll probably be a while for us, given their grumpy expression.   “Don’t you feel sorry for those Aerkins?” Hina asks. “What if we had to fight to the death?”   “Feeling empathetic for monsters?”   “Not specifically all monsters. Just the ones like Splinter, who's smart and can make decisions like us. They’re no different other than their physical appearances. It’s not fair to bucket them with the generic monster. They deserve a separate name.”   “I call them good monsters. I encountered a turtle in the past after the tournament,” I say, thinking of Rocky. Hina knits her eyebrows. I continue, “Long story. But, some rocks on top trapped him in place. I removed the rocks and then…”   Luna’s face appears in my head. I hesitate and then continue, “Luna said turtles taste great in soup, but I said it would be sad if we saved it only to eat it for lunch, so in the end, we didn’t. I named him Rocky. I didn’t know he was a monster until he used Water magic on Hiro, who had it coming because he was harassing Rocky.”   Hina laughs softly. “I can see that.”   “Well, even though I admit he was quite friendly, I’m not sure if he’s comparable to a person. Would they know right from wrong? Just because Splinter’s battle tactics were amazing, doesn’t mean he’s the same as us. Good monster or not. We’ll never know because we can’t communicate with them.”   “Actions speak louder than words. Rocky didn’t try to kill Hiro, did he? He knew that seriously attackin’ him wasn’t appropriate for the situation. You don’t need to communicate with words. He didn’t have killin’ intent, right?”   “Yeah, but how do I know he isn’t really good at hiding it? If you’re trying to compare it to a person…skilled fighters have no problem concealing their bloodlust.”   “There’s body language and verbal cues too. Did he hiss or look like he was about to attack anyone?”   Hmm… She has a point. Rocky was lounging on the grass, minding his own business, relaxed.  But he could’ve been biding his time. “No, but he could’ve been waiting for the right opportunity when our guards were down. I mean, he clearly didn’t have any bad intentions, but if he did, it would be too late.”   “You’re stubborn. But you realize that everythin’ you said could be true of people too, right? We give them the benefit of the doubt until they show otherwise. Why shouldn’t those good monsters be given the same standard? As they say, innocent until proven guilty.”   “Because a lot of people have fallen to monsters. It’s the whole reason why villages are surrounded by walls. To protect them from the vicious monsters that roam Eiruta.”   “We have killed a lot of our own too. Take the attack on our city.”   I sigh and then concede, “You’re right. I don’t know what else to say. But, society has deemed monsters all hostile for a long time. Probably since the beginning? I don’t think that viewpoint will be easy to change. It doesn’t help that a lot of monsters look scary.”   “We can change. After all, we’re movin’ toward coexistence with the other races.”   “I guess, though I’m not sure how many people you’d be able to convince that there’re good monsters from the bad ones.”   “I don’t like how you call them good monsters. The Aerkins like Splinter. Think about it. There are real criminals among us, right? All people can make decisions, but not all of them are good. I’m sure the same can be said of monsters.”   “Ehh…this is getting too complicated. Now you want to divide the monsters up into three groups? At this point, maybe even four. For all you know, that bear could be capable of making decisions too. Or every monster on the planet. Except that most of them are dumb since you want to compare them to us. “   “Well, we don’t have to give them all names. As long as you know what I’m talkin’ about. Monsters like the bear are like most monsters we encounter. They operate on instinct. They do what they do because they don’t know any better. Then there would be those like Splinter. All I’m sayin’ if we should give those monsters a second chance.”   “Right, so how do you propose we do that? It’s not viable to wait and see if every monster will kill you. We need to hunt them for food and materials too. That’s why we have Adventurers.”   “We have our local slaughterhouses and farms. The animals we breed specifically for our main food supply. We don’t need to hunt all the monsters out there. I don’t know how we’re goin’ to do it, but I’ll make it my mission to see through this.”   “Okay, but those monsters you want to live alongside of have to hunt to stay alive too. What if they have no other choice but to attack Humans, Elves, or whatever?”   “That’s easy. We’ll increase the number of animals we raise and leave some for them. Mass feed them.”   I scoff and then interject, “Okay…”   Hina frowns and asks, “What’s that supposed to mean?”   “I mean…it’s a bit of an unrealistic solution. You want to increase our food output to feed monsters when we have poverty problems with our cities. People that can’t afford food or housing. Instead of fixing that first, you wanna feed the monsters. Hell, even the baseline amount of food the army provides is lacking. That aside, you’re trying to change centuries of behavior with no real benefit to us. And earlier today, we were discussing how the Xog were terrifying because they’re upright monsters who can think. After meeting the Felodians, I’m skeptical whether we’ll ever achieve coexistence with them.   “And you can’t understand the Dwarves either who we can communicate with. But you’re jumping ahead of all of that and want to pick out the good monsters of all the bad somehow and treat them the same as us. Don’t get me started on the other social problems that we discussed, how men belittle women and everyone shunning people like Porters for no good reason. We should resolve that first, don’t you think?”   “That’s true…” she mutters. “But I’m still goin’ to try. It’s not somethin’ I can do on my own, so…will you help?”   “I don’t know how to even begin helping with that. Honestly, I don’t really care. The only thing I want is to kill the one responsible for the attack on our city. That’s all. I hope you haven’t forgotten what’s most important here.”   Hina sighs. “Yeah…about that. As much as I want to find the ones responsible and give them justice…I’m startin’ to realize there are more important things.”   “What’s more important than revenge? Don’t you wanna make them pay? Especially since they killed…you know... Your boyfriend.”   “Yeah…and that’s all I wanted for a while…but I realized. I don’t think I’ll be happy even if I find those responsible. Lucius would want me to be happy. Instead of making life miserable for those who attacked our city, I want to make livin’ more tolerable for those still alive. You should—”   ‘Shut up,” I interrupt. “Don’t push your ideals on me. I told you. I only want revenge. And I’ll do anything to accomplish that goal. So, are you the one thinking about backing out now?”   “No, of course not. I hope you didn’t misunderstand me. I still want to find those responsible. It’s important so that they don’t create another tragedy. It’s a different mindset. What’re you goin’ to do after you achieve your goal? Go back to bein’ an Adventurer?”   “I don’t know. I haven’t thought that far yet. I’ll cross that bridge after I kill that masked man. The one responsible for everything.”   “You should cross that bridge now, so you don’t feel lost after you’ve killed him.”   “Nah. I don’t want it to distract me from doing what I need to do.”   “I’m worried about you. About the things you’ll do to achieve your goal. I only hope that you don’t lose your sense of self. Don’t turn into one of them; a monster.”   “Don’t worry. I won’t stoop to their level. Thanks for your concern. More importantly–”   “Sorry for the long wait. Here are your meals,” the server says and sets down two plates of various cubed meats in front of us. It makes my mouth water. Perhaps ten silver coins doesn’t overrate the quality of this food.   I frown skeptically and look toward the Dwarves who still haven’t gotten anything.   “Enjoy,” the man says and then turns around.   One of the Dwarves picks up a rock and then chucks it at the server before he walks away. He turns around, and one of the Dwarves says, “’Ey, ye fuckin’ Human. We’ve been waitin’ fer owor half an hour. Whaur be our food?”   The server smiles and clasps his hands together. “Please, sirs, don’t throw your food. We’ve provided you a few snacks to munch on while you wait. We’re very busy today.”   “Busy ma fart-box,” one of them says while both stand up. They walk toward the man. “We’ve seen ye serve oder customers arrivin’ later roight in front o’ us. “   “Ye dare serve us deez crummy rocks an’ call it food?  Ye ma fuckin’ racist,” the other Dwarf says.   The server takes a few steps back and points his palms forward. “Please, sit down. We’ll have your food out soon.”   Hina suddenly stands up and says, “Excuse me.”   “Huh?” the Dwarves interject and stare our way.   Hina lifts her plate and continues, “You’re free to take my plate. I know you’ve been waitin’ for a while, and you deserve it.”   She signals me with her eyes.   I sigh and stand up, too, with my plate in hand. “Take mine as well. We don’t mind waiting a little longer.”   “We dank ya, Humans,” they say and take our plates. We all sit back down in our seats.   “Ah. Dis be delicious. It been worff de wait.”   I stare at Hina and frown. “Seriously?”   She smiles and responds, “One small step at a time. If other Humans are mistreatin’ the other races, we can make up for it by bein’ nice. As you said, this is an issue we have to tackle first before thinkin’ about savin’ monsters like Splinter.”   I frown with a skew. I’m not sure if that’s a good idea…   The server comes back with two plates of meat. That was surprisingly fast. Succulent pieces of meat here I come! He sets it in front of us and quietly mutters, “Midget lovers…”   My grin quickly dies as the perfectly cooked meats from earlier are gone. The meats on both of our plates are half burnt and dried out. I eat a piece, and it tastes as good as it looks. Still edible, but not very good. This is also beef, nothing like those mystery pieces of other meats we had previously. All of these pieces are beef, one of the most common pieces of meat. We paid ten silvers for some burnt low-quality common meat.   I stare back at Hina and ask, “So, you were saying…?”   She quietly eats her meal. I don’t blame her. Even I wouldn’t have thought that we would get backlash from our own kind from showing generosity toward Dwarves. We saved his ass and this is how he treats us. It wasn’t even a big deal. We quickly finish eating our meals and then leave the place. We make our way back to the Icy Tavern. The others should be back soon as well.   “This isn’t goin’ to be easy…” Hina says.   “What’s that?” I ask.   “Coexistence.”   “No shit? Because of you, we wasted twenty silver coins on a subpar meal. I was looking forward to that assortment of monster meats…”   “I’m sorry,” she says and then takes out twenty silver coins. “Here.”   I accept it and say, “Thanks. Don’t bother carrying out small acts of kindness next time. It’s not like that’s gonna solve the problem at its core.”   “Yeah. You’re probably right…but I feel like I still need to do it. It doesn’t feel right to stand idle while somethin’ like that happens, though. Couldn’t it turn into an international crisis if those Dwarves reported that restaurant?”   “Who knows. But I doubt that server is the only one who isn’t fond of Dwarves. Or even Elves and Xog. I’m sure the members of the other races feel the same about other races. No matter what you do, nothing’s gonna change. You see how hopeless your mission is?”   “It’s doubtlessly challengin’, but not impossible. I can’t do anythin’ from the bottom of the army. I need to move up.”   “How’s that gonna help?” I ask, thinking of Captain Albius. He doesn’t want to rank up because the higher rank requires more administrative responsibilities. “You’d have to be a Major…or the General.”   “Fine. I’ll aim for the very top. I’ll become a General.”   I laugh.   Hina frowns and says, “There you go again…”   “Sorry, it’s just you’re too optimistic. I don’t think there’re even any female Captains. Now, you wanna overtake General Nero all of a sudden. We don’t even know if that’s possible.”   “I’ll make it possible. It’ll show that women are just as capable of men, accomplishin’ two goals at once.”   “Good luck with—“   Screams resound up ahead and a roar afterward. Is it a monster? An escaped Aerkin?   Hina and I glance at each other before rushing toward the source. At the next turn, there’s a wave of people fleeing the area. But not everyone is fleeing which makes it weird. It could be that the people remaining are confident that they could fend for themselves if need be.   There’s a line of people standing up ahead. Huh? Is that Ruby? The ministers are next to them, but the others aren’t here.   “Ruby!” I exclaim.   “Kai!” Ruby turns around and exclaims with a grin. “I did whatcha asked me ta do.”   “Good job. What’s going on here?”   “A buncha monsters appeared,” Ruby informs.   “No one’s killed them yet?” I ask. Are they escaped Aerkins? Considering the panic, they aren’t good monsters. The others must be handling the situation.   “I’ll kill ‘em now,” Ruby says calmly and turns around.   One of the ministers turns toward us and yells, “No! We’ve told you that you musn’t!”   Ruby continues walking forward. Another minister exclaims, “Sergeant Kai, stop her now!”   I’m not sure exactly what’s going on, but I run forward. “Ruby, wait! Stop!”    I put a hand on her shoulder. It was at this moment the Feloidians are in my sights. A large group of them standing there all with the monster heads. They weren’t escaped Aerkins but something worse. My heartbeat quickens.   “Okay, I’ll stop. But why?” Ruby asks. “They tried ta hurt the ministers…’n’ they’re hurtin’ everyone.”   “Take it off!” one of the Feloidians exclaims with a raspy voice. One of the goons is in front of the feline beast. He takes off his armor and then his shirt despite the cold weather.  Jetia, Luke, and everyone else is in the same situation with a different Feloidian in front of them.   Oh, shit… It’s happening. They’re looking for me. A scar across the chest. This is bad. I can’t be here. I can’t hide my fear. They’ll know. But I can’t leave the ministers here if they get hurt, it’s all for naught. I back away slowly for now.   One of them suddenly turns his head toward me. The moment our eyes meet, I freeze. A cold chill goes down my spine.   “You!” he exclaims and sprints toward me on all four limbs so fast that it leaves a dirt trail behind him. It was the fastest I’ve seen anything run. He stands straight in front of me. His physique is the largest out of all the Feloidians, and his head is that of a lion instead of a tiger. His armor is a deep blue, the same color as those swords we found in that underground place. There’s an emblem of a lion baring its fangs on the center of his chest plate. Similar to Xantho’s symbol, but very different at the same time. It’s much fiercer. A huge scythe rests on his back.   He opens his mouth widely, revealing his fangs and sharp teeth. A stream of mist exits from his mouth. “Ahh…I can practically taste your trepidation. Are you the one?”   Fuck, fuck, fuck… This guy’s no joke. The amount of pressure I’m feeling from him is insane. He’s nothing like Pem. I won’t be able to lie my way out of this one. Running won’t work. He’s too fast. I could slow him down with my strongest Fire magic, but if that doesn’t work, I’m dead. Using Void magic to escape is the only viable option, but I have to keep that hidden. Attacking in any shape or form might start a war too.   “Show me your chest,” he says and then growls.   I’m running out of time. What are my options again? Retaliating in any way would probably result in him attacking me. If that happens, Ruby will be involved, and he’ probably kill her. What if I give myself up…? I don’t know what they want with me yet. That’s the best option, but I’m not sure if Ruby will understand. What if I burn off my entire chest with Fire magic? No, he’d smell the burn. If I reveal myself, it’s all or nothing.   Then, if Ruby goes berserk, it’s all for naught. It would be clear that she attacked first and then best-case scenario, we live, but would be held responsible for trying to instigate a war.   Ruby walks in between him and me. “I won’t let ya be mean ta Kai.”   Ruby… I open my mouth to say something, but I can’t. No words come out. What would I even say? Before I know it, my body begins to quiver. My hands, lips, and everything.   “Human girl, move,” he says.   Ruby doesn’t move an inch. I have to give myself up before it’s too late. I have to. I want to, but I can’t.   “No,” she says.   “MOVE!” he yells at a deafening volume and then growls at an equally intense force with enough strength to blow Ruby’s hair backward. He sends out an enormous amount of killing intent at the same time. The power of his roar splits my ears, leaving only ringing.   Yet, somehow, Ruby still does not move an inch. Not even a tremble. How can she be so fearless in front of this lion beast?   The ringing decreases over time. Now’s not the time for you to be acting like this, Ruby. Please, concede and move out of the way. Anyone would turn tail after that roar. Let me turn myself in. Her shoulders rise as if taking a deep breath. A part of my hearing returns just in time to hear Ruby scream, “No!”   Damn it, Ruby. I prepare my Mana and instructions as a counter-measure. If it comes down to it, I’ll reveal my Void magic and bring us to safety. I don’t care about the consequences.   “That is enough!” a man exclaims from behind me. “Bazaleon, please. Is this any way how a ruler should behave?”   This lion guy is a ruler…? I can’t believe how anyone this violent and scary could be a king. Our king in Drymo is hardly that. I don’t know who’s speaking to this beast right now, but I’m thankful for the additional time it gives me to prepare for the worst-case scenario.   “King Diell…” the lion guy mutters.   I raise my eyebrows. Or maybe not.   The lion beast continues, “A true ruler takes matters into his own hands instead of cowering into their chambers. What are you doing out here?”   “I heard from this red-haired young lady that you are terrorizing my citizens. So, I have come to take matters into my own hands.”   A red-haired young lady? Come to think of it… I didn’t see Marin around here. My body is responding again. I turn around, finding her there with a middle-aged man wearing noble clothing, who must be King Diell. Three armed men donning a full set of armor are behind him — two with Titanium and the other with dark green armor. I can’t get a good read on them right now, but they’re definitely seasoned fighters.   “If that’s actually true, you wouldn’t have come with back-up or required a messenger to inform you. I don’t understand how the other races could ever allow the weak to be in power. Only the strong should rule.”   “We will leave that discussion for another time. I cannot allow you to continue violating the rights of my citizens.”   “Hah! That’s laughable. So, Elves, Dwarves, and Xog don’t count as citizens despite that we’re all living in the same city? It’s fine if your citizens violate the rights of Elves and Dwarves every day.”   “Bazaleon, you are not a resident of the Xog district, so of course, you are not a citizen. I assure you that I am doing all that I can to ensure that coexistence with the other races proceeds smoothly. I cannot keep watch in every corner of the city making sure that everyone is treated justly.”   “There’s a simple solution for that. Create a law that punishes those who show injustice to another race.”   “That only creates fear. At the surface, yes, it may stop people from showing their displeasure, but it does not create a friendly environment, which is what we wish to achieve. Governing through fear is not the answer.”   “Typical Human response.”   “Adjusting to coexistence takes time. I cannot help it if people are not ready for that change.”   “Then why the aggressive push for coexistence? What is it that you want from us? We acquire magic instruction from your institution, but what do you hope to gain?”   “Why must every action be associated with profit? We only want current and future peace.”   “Lies. Are you looking to have more land under Human rule? Or do you want to lay your filthy hands on our defenseless women?”   “Surely, you jest. Your women are more than capable of protecting themselves. What is this really about?”   “A lecherous man forced my star pupil into taking off her clothes, showing him her bare chest.”   Wait… What?! Is he talking about Pem and me? I didn’t force her to do anything! She misunderstood! He’s making up lies, but I can’t say anything. But then it hits me. If he knows about that, Pem must’ve told him. My heartbeat speeds up, and my palms sweat quickly. Do they know it was me? I look at this monstrosity of a body. Does he know it was me all along?   “How did that happen?”   “It happened because your men take advantage of our naïve women who don’t understand what’s proper and what isn’t. They don’t want to retaliate and ignite a war, so they politely comply.”   “So you are forcing these men to strip as revenge? Preposterous.”   “We’re treating you kind to satisfy our objectives.”   “And what objectives are those?”   “To find a Human male with a diagonal scar across his chest,” Bazaleon says. My heart sinks, but I try not to show a strong reaction. “And to find the fiend who violated my pupil.”   His word choice frustrates me despite the urgency of this situation. Forcing someone to strip turns into violating. What the hell did Pem tell him? I recall her last parting words. Could this situation be what she’s sorry for? It doesn’t make sense. She memorized my scent, so it shouldn’t be that hard for her to bring me to him.    “I understand the latter, but what has this other man done to displease you?” King Diell asks.   “I’ve received a tip that he’s committed atrocities against our citizens.”   Again… More lies.   “So you are terrorizing my citizens based on an anonymous tip? How reliable is the information?”   “It’s not an anonymous tip, and I can’t tell you more than that. Know that it comes from a very reliable source.”   “No matter. I order you to cease your activities immediately.”   “Are you sure you want to do that? If you want my vote to pass the upcoming reforms.”   “If it comes down to it, we will not need your vote. You are only one of fourteen. Push this any further, and we will exclude the Feloidians from the reforms.”   “I wouldn’t be so sure of that. The other six Feradian representatives share my perspective. And if you think you’ll be getting the Dociforms’ votes…they are much easily persuaded. What’ll the other races think if you’ve shut us out for a petty reason?”   “Petty? The safety of my citizens?”   “So, you’re only worried about the safety of your citizens?”   “Yes, it looks like you understand.”   “Oh, I understand perfectly…” he says and then looks at me.  At that moment, I knew something wasn’t right. “These two aren’t native to Syrina!”   The second he reached for his weapon, my body moves on its own. I step in front of Ruby and pull out my swords.   “Stop this!” General Nero exclaims behind us before Bazaleon unclips his scythe. “Those are my soldiers. I won’t allow you to harm them.”   Shit. If he’s here, he knows that I disobeyed orders and let the ministers do what they want. Always from one crisis to the next. General Nero should know I have that scar across my chest. I pray that Bazaleon doesn’t mention it again. He would no doubt give me up in a heartbeat.   “Relax, general from Drosera. I only planned to scare them a little,” Bazaleon says and then laughs. “It seems none of you are equipped with Mithril. Only measly Titanium and Tungsten, despite your lavish treatment toward the Dwarves. There are no advantages of using Titanium over Mithril, so it means you don’t have it. Why’s that?  What are you receiving from the Dwarves in exchange? ”   Mithril…the name of that blue metal?   “I do not feel obliged to answer your questions with your level of cooperation,” King Diell says. “Tell us why you are fixated on those two in front of you.”   “It’s the boy,” he says and then tilts his head down to me. I freeze up again despite being able to move earlier. He laughs and then continues, “There it is again. Fear. Most of us Xog can smell it, taste it, and, most of all, sense it. Out of anyone we’ve encountered today, this boy has had the most fear out of anyone. He knows he’s the one we’re looking for. That’s why he’s far more scared than anyone we’ve met.”   “I do not mean to be rude, but anyone would be scared of you. Especially, considering you are one of the most fearsome Feradian Xog known as the Grim Reaper. Take into account that some of us are frightened very easily.”   “Fair enough. Try this. Help us find the two men we’re looking for, and you’ll have my vote. I’d like for all Human kingdoms to assist with the inspection of their respective citizens that are here. No questions asked. I won’t interfere with the decisions of the other representatives either if you do.”   “On one condition,” King Diell answers. “If we find the men responsible for both incidents, we will not hand them over unless you provide us proof that it was undoubtedly them. It should be easy for the second man. Have your pupil come and point out the man responsible.”   “Very well. Currently, I have my pupil hidden away in the Xog district away from Human influence. We’ll arrange for the inspection later. Are you sure the other kingdoms will agree to the terms?”   “I’m sure my king will agree without a doubt,” General Nero says. “They are simple requests, and if they’re as guilty as you claim, we’ll be glad to hand them over to you as a courteous gesture.”   “There you have it. Do we have a deal?” King Diell asks.   “Of course,” Bazaleon says and smiles. “I’ll see you at the meeting tomorrow.”   He then looks down toward me. He bends down with his face only an inch from mine. I don’t dare to break eye contact. He continues, “Don’t think you’re getting away, boy. We’ll know if you’re guilty soon enough.”   He suddenly snarls and lets out a low growl. My head flinches backward. He stands up and gloats. “Yellow-belly.”   He turns around and then walks away, laughing. The other Feloidians in the area quietly follow him. I sheathe my weapons.   “Sergeant Kai,” General Nero says.   I turn around immediately and salute him. “Yes, sir!”   “Tell me. Why have you broken orders?” he asks in a tone reminiscent of that unspeakable day, refreshing my memory fully of the consequences.   I gulp, unable to answer. I’d have to admit that I broke orders fully aware to accomplish my side goals, that he specifically told me to drop.   “General Nero,” one of the ministers speaks up. “Please, don’t blame Sergeant Kai for this. We forced him to play along with us. We told him that we received updated orders from you to accompany us around town.”   “General Nero, may we have a word with you? There are matters we would like to discuss,” King Diell says.   “It would be my pleasure,” General Nero answers before turning back toward me. “You will be off the hook this time, but I order you now. Return to your inn and stay there until the Inteiru Expota tomorrow. That goes for you too, Sergeant Hina. You are not to leave under any circumstance, and my orders will not change. Understood?”   ‘Yes, sir!” we exclaim.   He leaves with King Diell and his men afterward. The random spectators around us take off too. Marin rejoins us.   “Are you guys okay?” she asks.   “Yep!” Ruby exclaims cheerfully without a trace of any fear from a direct encounter with a Felodian beast. The most fearsome one too. The Grim Reaper? It sounds ominous. “I protected Kai from the mean monster. Are ya hurt, Kai?”   “No…” I respond, unable to keep long eye contact with her. Her expression reminds me too much of Luna.   “Ho-how could you stand up to that lion, Bazaleon like it was nothin’?” Hina asks, quivering. At least I wasn’t alone in that regard. “I still feel it now.”   “’Cause nothin’s scarier than losin’ Kai forever.”   I widen my eyes. She did that impossible feat all for me. Maybe I’ve been wrong about her all this time. She’s always watching out for me. Is that proof that there’s a hint of her left somewhere in there?   “I’m sorry to interrupt your moment, but we don’t have much time. We need a favor from you,” one of the ministers says. “It involves breaking orders. However, we’ll make it up to you somehow.”   “Hurry, decide before the others come back. We trust you with this, but not the others,” another says.   “I’ll buy more time,” Hina says and starts walking over to the others. They’re still putting their clothes back on. I’d hate to be them without any clothes throughout that entire scene. “Take your time, but hurry.”   Breaking orders…it shouldn’t be a problem considering that we’re already doing that to discover anything relating to the masked men or snake earring group. We can’t back out of this now. Or Ada and Hina will never never let me live it down.  The ministers don’t know anything about what we’re doing, so we could use this to our advantage. I ask, “What’s the favor?”   “Investigate and find out if there’s dissent from the Xog toward Humans. Anything that could threaten the reforms planned for coexistence. The final decisions will be made two days from now, so that’s your deadline. If you discover anything, let us know immediately. It allows us to address the matter and offer a solution to their disapproval.”   “Well, there’s definitely dissent.”   “We know that. But we don’t know all the details surrounding that. Find them.”   “What if we don’t find anything? We’d be taking the risk for nothing,” I say.   “That’s fine as long as you try. We’ll be glad to do something for you,” one of them says.   “How about we fill you in about the important details of the Inteiru Expota?” another asks.   “They don’t care about those boring details. How about a large sum of money?” the third minister asks.   The large sum of money sounds tantalizing. We don’t have a good source of income otherwise in the army. It would pay for a lot of seminars to learn more about magic. But…information could be useful to us. There could be a clue if we knew more about what’s talked about to know if the masked men or snake earring group will appear. Good information is rare, and the possibilities it gives us are limitless. The only reason we made it this far is because Viessa provided us with some great information. We don’t know what we could discover, so it’s an easy choice.   “Information sounds good,” I answer. I might be reaching too deep, but I continue, “You’ll also answer some questions that we have.”   “Okay, agreed,” one of them says. “What questions do you have right now?”   “How long ago was Syrina built? It seems strange to me how the districts are colored differently, but the other races only started living here three Inteiru Expotas ago.”   They look at me strangely. Wait… Maybe that was supposed to be secret information that I wasn’t supposed to know. Or perhaps wanting to know the answer to the question is strange.  They look at each other silently.   “We don’t know, but we could find out,” one of them says. “Anything else?”   “Nothing for now. I’ll let you know if there’s anything else later,” I say. In truth, I want to ask them about the Dwarves, but I feel like they wouldn’t be able to find out the answer to that. I don’t want to reach too deep.   “Alright. Gather everyone. Let’s head back to the Windmill Inn,” one of the ministers says.   I nod and walk toward the others, who are just about dressed.

The mob disperses some time after the man’s announcement. The other soldiers leave too. “I will handle things from here,” Moria says. “Stay well, Kai, Marin, and Ruby.” Moria walks away. I continue to stand in place while looking at the ground. Marin asks, “Kai, what’s wrong?” “The execution’s been moved up a day…and I don’t know how to save Sofiel,” I answer after a few seconds. “Let’s think about it together while heading back,” Marin suggests. “Right, Ruby?” “Yeah! Who’s Sofiel?” “Don’t you remember? She’s…” I stare into Marin’s eyes and shake my head slightly. “She’s someone important to Kai.” “Really?” Ruby asks while staring into my eyes. “Ye-yeah… She’s acquainted with Emdos. I met her on a few occasions.” “’Kay! Let’s finda way ta get ‘er out!” With that, we head back to the Castle while brainstorming ideas on how to break Sofiel out. We head the mail station. We pass by General Nero and exchange greetings. I unlock my locker, finding three pieces of paper. The one on top is signed by General Nero. Sigma 4 has been chosen to oversee Alios during his public beatings tomorrow. Your tasks are to escort him to the plaza in the Royal District from his cell by 7 AM and keep him alive until his execution. I crumple the paper a little. With this, our current ideas won’t apply…! “Kai, what’s wrong?” Marin asks. I toss the paper away. “I’ll be right back!” I exclaim and go back toward the center. I look in all directions. General Nero is walking in one of the hallways. I run after him. “General Nero, wait!” He stops and turns around. “Oh, it’s you Kai. What is it?” “Can you leave Sofiel in our platoon’s care instead?” “Aren’t you satisfied with overseeing Alios? He’s the most important criminal, so success will bring you closer to the promotion you wanted. Why do you want to change?” “Well… Sitos was a really important friend. I feel like I have a responsibility to see things through with Sofiel.” “That’s right. Sofiel was his fiancée. Very well. I’ll allow it. I’ll drop off an updated mission briefing later,” he says and then walks away. I head back to my locker area. Marin and Ruby are waiting. “Kai where’d you go?” Marin asks while holding our old mission instructions. “What would happen if we lost this piece of paper? Be more careful with it.” “I went after General Nero. I convinced him into leaving Sofiel in our platoon’s care instead of Alios. We still help Sofiel escape.” “Oh, that’s great!” Marin exclaims. She looks at the paper in her hand for a moment before tossing it. I go to my locker and check the other two papers. The first one is the request we put in to leave the Castle to gather our things at the inn. It’s signed by a Lieutenant. The last paper is the order to give the Academy backup. I toss that one away and keep the other one. “We got our request approved. Let’s gather our things at the inn and find a path for Sofiel,” I suggest. We go to the stables outside the castle. I show the guards stationed there our request to rent out a horse and a wagon. We show our ID’s for proof we are Sigma 4. We get in the transport and lead the horse to the entrance of the Castle. “Halt!” one of the guards exclaims and walks up to our wagon. “Do you have permission to leave the premises?” “Yeah,” I say and then show him our ID’s and our approved request. He takes the paper from me and says, “Okay, you are free to pass.” The other guard presses a button on the wall. Something inside the wall rumbles. The gate rises slowly afterward. We leave and head toward our inn. We park the transport outside before gathering our things inside. I neatly stack my clothes in one corner of the wagon. “Hurry!” someone yells. Several guards are running toward us. There’s another man with them. Did they appear?! I stand next to their projected path. As they approach, I say, “Corporal Kai here. What happened? Is it the enemy?” One of them stops and says, “No. The expedition survivor’s condition has deteriorated suddenly. He was found bubbling at the mouth. We’re escorting a healer to him immediately.” He runs after the others. I knit my eyebrows. Bubbling at the mouth…? Didn’t someone from Hina’s group say something similar?   “Kai, what’re you doing? Did you already finish?” Marin asks. She stacks her clothes in another corner of the wagon. I can’t tell Marin about this now… I smile and answer, “No, I thought I saw Emdos, so I zoned out for a bit. Can you tell Ruby to bring our remaining funds along too?” “Okay.” I go back inside and then finish transporting the rest of my stuff. Once everyone has finished packing, we use this opportunity to eat outside the Castle before heading to the Royal District. We spend the next several hours mapping out an escape route for Sofiel. We head back to the Castle. We show the guards outside our ID’s, and then they let us in. We reconfirm the ID’s with the request paper one of the inner guards have. He says, “You’re free to go. Take the back entrance from the left path.” We lead the horses on the left path, past the stables and along the trail on the left side of the Castle. We eventually arrive at the archery range at the back. There’s an open entrance as wide as the front gate on the backside of the castle close to the path we are on. Another two guards are stationed here. I pull the reins back as one of the guards straightens his arm and palm toward me. “What are you carrying?” he asks. “Our belongings from the inn we stayed at. We’re one of the new recruits,” I answer. “I see. You can use the Elevator north of the Crossroads,” he says and then moves out of the way. I signal the horses to move inside and toward the left. There are three more guards stationed at the intersection ahead. Under them is an elevated black platform. A small ramp leads up to it. There’s room to go around it as it doesn’t take up the whole hallway.  “Which level do you want to go to?” one of the three guards asks as I move the transport on top of the platform. “Two,” I answer. Two of the guards move off the black platform. Under the platform is a small amount of open space. On the side closest to the wall, there are four buttons on the floor. The guard still on the platform presses the second button from the left. Moments later, we move up slowly. The empty space under us is filled with stone. The space above us goes very far; presumably up to the fourth level. We stop at the second level. “Bring the transport back here when your business is finished.” I lead the horse to the outside of the entrance of the area marked with the letter ‘B’ above it. I hop off the wagon and then start carrying everything into my room. It takes a few trips. While Marin and Luna finish unpacking, I deposit the remaining of our team funds into my locker leaving only a silver coin on me. I find our new mission briefing inside too. Everything is the same except that we’re in charge of Sofiel instead of Alios. I put the paper back into the locker for now. I meet the other members of our team at the cafeteria. I purchase an additional meal ticket. Disappointingly, I don’t even receive twice the amount as I would with only one ticket. The food type on the tray stays the same. I sit down with my platoon and inform them about our assignment for tomorrow. Marin and Luna join us momentarily. We split off on our own after the meal. I continue my own training with the sword for a little while before retreating to my room. I take a well-deserved shower and then sit on my bed. I continue training Void magic as I did the previous night. I expend nearly all of my Mana. A knock resounds outside my door. I get up and then open it. It’s Marin as expected. She comes inside and closes the door behind her. She spends another night filled with sorrow with me after I give her the news I heard earlier. Morning arrives. We continue the day as normal. After eating breakfast in the cafeteria, I head to my locker to grab our mission briefing paper. I head down to the prison with it in hand. Along the way, I pass by Zeke’s platoon. I think they are escorting Sitos’ older sister. I continue down. There’s already a putrid smell in the air before I fully reach the lower level. Our entire platoon is waiting outside the open door that leads into the prison. There are three guards here instead of the one from yesterday. I give one of the guards our mission briefing. He takes it and puts it on top of other papers stacked on a table nearby. “Wait here,” he says and then goes into an adjacent room. Another guard and Aisha’s group comes from the passage inside with Alios. I avert my eyes from them. The guard we talked to comes back in a few minutes with a key in hand. “Follow me.” We follow him into the foul-smelling, dark passage. He leads us to Sofiel’s cell and then unlocks it. She’s sitting against the wall with her head buried on top of her legs. The guard says, “Hey, get up.” He moves toward her, but I step in front of him. “I’ll get her up. It’s our platoon’s responsibility from here on out.” “Oh, alright,” he answers. Sofiel moves slightly from her position as I approach her. I kneel down next to her. “Stay right where you are and don’t move,” I whisper and then grab her arm. I speak up, “Hey, it’s time to go.” While lightly pulling on her arm repeatedly, I continue in a whisper, “When you see me stretching my arms, the direction my fingers point is where you should run. Take Marin’s knife, stab me with it, and run. Take the first left and then the next right. There’s a spare set of clothes inside the third barrel and some money. Good luck.” “Pull her up already,” Jetia says. I pull more strongly and say, “Come on. Stand up.” Sofiel stands up. The guard holds out handcuffs. Jetia takes them and walks over. “Hold her still. I’ll cuff her.” “Let’s get out of here first,” I suggest. “Don’t wanna stay here longer any more than I have to.” I lead everyone out while holding onto Sofiel’s arm. She stops walking and covers her eyes with her other hand as we arrive on the first level. “Alright, I’ll cuff her now,” Jetia says as he grabs her other arm. “Stop,” I order. Jetia stops. “We don’t have to cuff her. We were only ordered to escort her.” “That’s not a good idea. She’ll escape.” “It’s no way to treat a girl… Besides, she doesn’t look much like a fighter or a runner. We’d easily be able to catch up.” “Tch. You take responsibility for what happens.” I gulp and answer, “Of course.” I lead everyone outside. The outer gates are already open, and the guards let us pass. My heart pounds progressively faster as we approach the point where we execute our plan. Screaming and yelling resound in the distance. “Marin, can you hold her for a second? I need to stretch.” Marin takes hold of her other arm. Sofiel looks my way as I stretch my right arm above my head. I point my fingers toward an alley on our left up ahead. My palms are sweaty. I relax my arms. “I’ll take her back now.” I lightly hold onto her left arm with my right arm. Sofiel takes the skinning knife from Marin’s belt and then stabs me in the right arm with it. I let go of her arm and fall.  “Argh!” I interject. Sofiel runs toward the alley. “Catch her before she gets away!” Marin, Ruby, Jetia and the others chase after her. At this rate, they will catch her. I look toward Ruby and Marin. I stand up while holding onto the knife in my arm. I clench my teeth and my muscles and pull it out. It’s up to you guys now.   Sofiel makes it into the alley. A small gust of wind appears. It blows against the pursuing squad but not strong enough to push them back. I cover my eyes from some dirt particles. Jetia exclaims, “The timing!” The wind stops. Sofiel is gone from our sights. The others run into the alley in an attempt to find her. A few minutes later, they return empty handed. Jetia frowns at me and says, “You stupid monkey… I told you she’d escape. This is on you.” “You’re right. I’ll explain it to General Nero.” “He’s new here. Don’t blame him too much for it, Jetia,” Banni says. “It’s pathetic how the genius let a civilian get the better of him. It’s inexcusable for the leader.” “What’s done is done,” Kama says. “What should we do next, Kai?” “Right… We should go to the plaza and find General Nero,” I answer and give the knife back to Marin. “Kai, is your arm okay?” Marin asks. “Yeah, it’s fine,” I say and then lead the way to the plaza. The roars coming from there increase in volume gradually. We arrive in the plaza. There are 12 lines of people in front of a large crowd in the back. At the very front are groups of eight people. Hina’s group is on the far left. General Nero is on the other side with other guards next to a large layered cage. There’s one person lying on the bottom, and the upper part contains wolves. I head over to him. “Kai, did you receive the new mission briefing?” General Nero asks. “I don’t see Sofiel with you.” I notice Sitos’ body is the one in the cage. His clothes are removed. My eyes quiver. The guards said he would be fed to monsters… I look away and answer, “Well… The truth is… She caught me off guard, and she escaped.” General Nero shifts his eyes toward my injury. “What happened?” “She took Marin’s knife and stabbed me with it. A sudden gust of wind stopped us from chasing her. She was gone by the time it had passed,” I explain, my palms sweaty. “Everything’s my fault. I should have cuffed her, but I wanted her to feel free in the time she had left. I didn’t think she would do that.” “No, you knew she would do that. You let her get away on purpose, didn’t you?” Ada asks. My heart beats faster, and it’s hard to breathe. “What? No…” I respond. I find her walking closer to us. The platoon next to us is overseeing Alios. It’s the rest of Ada’s team. The man in front of the line is pummeling Alios with his fists. “It wouldn’t be strange for someone who’s one of them. I bet you met them when you went off by yourself at the Academy two days ago,” Ada accuses. How’d she know about that? General Nero frowns with narrowed eyebrows, and the atmosphere feels heavy. I gulp. Several seconds pass. He walks closer to me and puts a hand on my left shoulder. He smiles and says, “Don’t worry about it. It could have happened to anyone. We can always look for her later. All the exits to Drymo have been blockaded since the attack. She won’t be able to escape.” What?! A blockade?! I hope Sofiel doesn’t get caught…   He turns toward Ada and says, “Those are some serious accusations you’re alleging about Kai. I suggest you drop it unless you have evidence. Slander isn’t tolerated here.” Ada bows her head and says, “My apologies, General Nero. I was out of line. Excuse me.” With that, she leaves and heads back toward her group. I ask, “Should we search for Sofiel now?” “No, that’s not necessary. I’ll send out a separate team to sweep the entire city for her later. Stay here and witness the last moments of your old employer. You have the front row seats,” he says with a smile. I turn toward Alios lying on his back in front of Aisha’s team. Several people are attacking him at once. Punching, kicking, and stomping. The other prisoners receive similar treatment across the plaza, including the women. After a minute or two, the ones in the front move into the back of the crowd and the line of people move forward. Two hours pass. A horn sounds in the distance from the path we came from. Everyone in the plaza goes silent. The only sounds are the wolves bashing the bars of the cage and their growls. A small convoy led by a horse comes this way. It stops behind us. The driver hops off the front and then opens the door. The king comes out. General Nero kneels and lowers his head. “Your majesty, we are ready to proceed whenever.” Jetia, Banni, and Dano kneel and lower their heads too. The rest of us do the same. The king walks over to General Nero and says, “Yes…let us proceed. You will give Alios a sedative agent as we discussed before his execution.” “Of course,” General Nero says with a smile. “He will not be conscious at all…” He faces the crowd and announces, “It’s time for the main event you’ve been waiting for! Sigma platoons, bring your targets into the cage.” The crowd cheers as the criminals are brought over to the cage. A guard nearby opens the cage. Ada and another guy drag Alios by his arms into the cage next to Sitos. His face is hardly recognizable. His front teeth are broken, his nose is bent, and lower jaw is broken. Bruises and cuts span his entire body, visible to all because his clothes were ripped off. General Nero walks into the cage and squats next to Alios. He puts something in his mouth. He leaves the cage and goes toward the king. The other prisoners in similar conditions are brought into the cage. The Sigma platoons huddle around us and the other side of the cage while the crowd moves a bit closer. A guard closes the cage door and then locks it. My eyes shift to Alios. His eyes are open wide, and his mouth stays open. Drool comes out of his mouth, snot runs down his nostrils, and tears stream out of his eyes. Sitos’ siblings get together and wrap their arms around each other next to Alios. They tremble and cry. My eyes quiver. The older sister’s nipples are now a bloody mess. The younger brother’s eyes are closed with blood streaming out of both of them. Is this how the army does things…? Is this really right? This is no different than… Two guards pull on something out of the cage. The platform separating the top and bottom part of the cage slowly comes apart. Alios’ fingers and toes start twitching. One wolf drops into the cage. The other five following soon after. Sitos’ older sister is the first victim. A wolf pounces on her, separating the other siblings. It feasts on her chest. She flails around her limbs and screams, audible even with the crowd cheering. Sitos’ older brother tries to help her, but it’s futile. I don’t look away. Another wolf joins in and bites on her leg. A crunch resounds, reminding me of that day. I shake. Someone holds onto my hand tightly. They’re shaking harder than me. I turn to find Marin next to me facing forward. Ruby is next to her, but I figure she won’t notice. I turn back to the cage. Alios’ entire body convulses. He urinates and defecates himself, though he hasn’t been attacked yet. But then, two wolves jump onto him. I grit my teeth as a wolf jumps on Sitos’ body. Alios’ eyes point toward him. I knit my eyebrows. I thought he was unconscious?   The king stands with General Nero a bit farther away. He isn’t acting unusual. I turn back to Sitos. My lips shake as I try to smile. A tear drops down my face. Goodbye, Sitos…   The slaughter continues for a good hour, blood splashing everywhere. Eventually, the crowd disperses, and we head back to the Castle. Later, I discover that Sofiel was never caught. I sigh and then smile. I was able to save her. Sorry, but she won’t be joining you yet, friend.

Skywind555 4/8/2019 Only applies if you viewed the version of the magic glossary before this date. I found a fairly big error on the magic glossary the other day. Big apology for some misinformation. The error was in the example Fire magic (B) which has now been fixed. I accidentally combined two concepts into one. The other concept hasn't been formally introduced, so I'll avoid saying what that is here. A bit of it is mentioned next chapter in context of something else. Magic does not need to be activated as soon as leaving the body for a Keyword A few paragraphs next chapter mentions something about that, so needed to clarify the previous error.   I take the clinic entrance from the Crossroads not because it’s closer, but it’s the only entrance for non-emergencies. I haven’t personally seen the back entrance be used since my time here. I imagine that it was used heavily after the attack transported through the back entrance.   “How can I help you today, sir?” a woman at the reception counter asks.   “There should’ve been a girl with blue pigtails that came by not that long ago. What room’s she in?”   “Oh, yes. May I see your ID?”   I hand over my ID. She begins writing the information on a piece of paper. It’s a pain how everywhere you go, you need to show your ID. The army keeps track of all your activity and stores them in the Record Zone. Higher ranks go there and inquire on specific people to see what they’ve been doing. In a way, that’s a good thing. If Captain Citrio finds out that Hina was injured and I didn’t visit her as her boyfriend, it would be questionable.   “Thank you, Sergeant Kai. Here is your card,” the woman says. I store it back into my pocket. “You will find Sergeant Hina on the first floor in room 036. Have a good day.”   “Thanks,” I answer and head down the only hallway. I find the room 036 and go in. Just Hina and Luke inside. Hina is lying on the bed with Luke seated next to her on a chair. “Hey.”   “Hey,”  Hina greets weakly.   “How’s the arm?” I ask while walking in. Hina’s left arm is wrapped in white bandages. The sweater is completely burnt off from that side. It goes all the way toward her upper shoulder.   “Still hurts…a lot,” she says. “I only got spot treatment right now. Doctors with Healin’ magic aren’t in yet. My case isn’t an emergency, so it’ll be a few more hours.”   “Where’s Ruby?” Luke suddenly asks. “What happened after we left?”   “Well, not much. I explained things which calmed her down. Major Galan came to check up on things. Went to see General Nero and we got a warning. We parted ways after that, so I’m not sure what she’s up to.”   “She’s not gonna apologize to Hina? She tried to kill her for no reason! I can’t believe she was off the hook.”   “It was a misunderstanding. It won’t happen again.”   “Misunderstanding or not, she tried to kill her! She didn’t reason things out and wouldn’t stop no matter what we said.”   “Just calm down, Luke. You know how Ruby is.”   “I don’t. She’s a complete nut case from what I saw. So you’ll forgive her because it’s Ruby? What if it happens again?”   “I’ll forgive her because of our history together and that it was a misunderstanding. It won’t happen again, I’m telling you.”   “I’m asking what if it does. Whose side are you gonna be on?”   “Luke, it’s fine. Let it go,” Hina says.   Luke clicks his tongue and stands up. He walks toward me. He puts a hand on my shoulder and then whispers in my ear, “Look, Kai. You’re a cool guy, and Hina’s really into you, so I support your relationship with her. But you’ve got to get your priorities straight. It’s your job to protect and make her happy now. I won’t forgive you if you hurt her in any way. We all know your history with Ruby and why you’ll choose to let this go, but think about what that does to Hina. She still thinks about Lucius too. Don’t give her more reasons to be sad.”   “I’ll give you two some privacy. See ya later, Hina,” he says while leaving the room.   “See ya,” Hina says. I go take the seat he was sitting on. “What’d he say to you?”   “Nothing really that important. So, what exactly happened with Ruby this morning?”   “Well, I was havin’ breakfast with my platoon until she screamed my name. I knew from that moment she found out about us. I stood up and walked toward her tryin’ to explain what was goin’ on. That’s when she suddenly attacked. Didn’t use a keyword so it completely caught me off guard. I protected myself with Water magic before it was too late. Thankfully, she didn’t attack immediately. Otherwise, things could’ve turned out much worse. With other members of my platoon caught in the attack too. Moments later, everyone fled the cafeteria. I did whatever I could to stall her attacks until you arrived to calm her down.”   “I see. I’m sorry.”   “What’re you apologizin’ for? You couldn’t have known that she would return from her mission so early.”   “Yeah but, I should’ve been there. I’m usually there for breakfast on time, but…” I say and look toward the door. I can’t have anyone find out about how things really are.   Hina whispers, “Last night…Marin?”   I nod.   “Did Luke… This mornin’?”   “He doesn’t know, obviously. Managed to fool him. I’m sure Marin’s out of the danger zone now,” I whisper. I continue in an audible voice, “What I’m really interested in is how you managed to make those tables float inside your Water magic.”   Hina smiles and says, “That’s one of my new tricks. Amazin’ isn’t it?”   “Yeah, it’s amazing. How’d you do it? It didn’t look like the Water was moving, but I wasn’t close enough to really see.”   “Not really sure how to explain it. I’ve been messin’ around a lot with my magic tryin’ different things. I wanted to make it possible to put somethin’ inside my Water magic. At first, I tried pushin’ the water with Wind magic but it wasn’t efficient, and it didn’t work. I tried havin’ the Water move in circular motions, but it was sloppy and didn’t keep the object in place. It also won’t work for larger and heavier things. I knew I had to incorporate some sort of internal pressure, so I kept tryin’. Eventually, it worked.”   “That doesn’t make any sense. Heavy objects don’t float like that.”   “How about I show you?” Hina asks. She sits up and lies against the bed frame. “I’ll make that chair float.”   “Sure,” I say and sit up. I move the chair in an open space in front of the bed. This chair usually wouldn’t be able to float since it’s made out of stone. I stand back next to Hina.   She extends out her right arm. A few seconds later, a clump of water appears around the chair. It has the chair completely surrounded in water. The water moves upward off the ground and forms a sphere, taking the chair with it. The weirdest part is that the chair is at the bottom edge of the bubble. It looks like it’s about to fall through, but it isn’t. What the?   “Cool, isn’t it?”   I walk around her magic. The water doesn’t look like it’s moving at all. Why isn’t the chair falling through? No movement in the sphere. It’s just stationary. I ask, “Yeah but…isn’t it weird that the chair isn’t in the middle? You said you incorporated some kinda internal pressure, right?”   “Yeah. Well, I only got this workin’ recently. Haven’t tested it much.”   “Hmm…” I interject. I don’t want to wet my clothes, but I’m curious about how this chair isn’t sinking through the bottom. I extend my arm out to put it in, but something stops me. I knit my eyebrows.   My hand isn’t going through the sphere of water. It doesn’t feel like regular water at all. It’s wet, but it almost feels like I’m pressing into a firm mattress. The water around my palm bends inward and spreads around it. “What the hell? You’re telling me this is normal water?”   No way. Then that means she managed to do what I couldn’t? She did what Ragnar did…and if she did this before I told her about it, she just happened upon it by complete accident? That must have how Ragnar discovered it too… Doesn’t that mean she’s more talented than me…? I really don’t want to admit it.   “That is weird… I never thought to touch the water yet. I was goin’ to test if I could levitate in the sphere of water eventually.”   Floating in the water? I don’t see why that wouldn’t be possible. Water magic really is incredible. If only Hiro could see this now… Maybe Void magic has some special properties as well. Something I can change to make it do something different… I won’t lose to Hina. I’ll make cold fire eventually too. It seems she hasn’t realized that she changed the properties of water, the special property of Water magic. She’d definitely brag about this. The more I mess with this weird water, the more likely she’s going to realize.   I freeze up when she says, “Hey… Doesn’t this mean that I changed the special property of Water magic?”   Damn. She caught on.   She laughs, “I told you I’m more creative than you! I figured it out before you did.”   “Shut up. You didn’t figure out anything. You just got lucky and did it by accident. You don’t even understand what you did. If you figured it out, what exactly did you change about water? Can you make it heavier?”   “You’re just jealous. How cute.”   I frown. I am jealous, but I won’t admit it.   “I’ll figure it out eventually. It doesn’t change that I did it before you.”   I almost feel like spilling the beans about my unique magic. Never to be seen Void magic and Mana. Not even known to the Academy. Although, Moria did leave out a few details. But this is different. We learned all the Mana types and magic categories. There’s no way he would leave out a branch of magic. It would be like only mentioning Scrap Mana and Unrefined Mana. And never mention the existence of Abjuration magic. But is Void magic under Evocation or is it its own branch of magic?   “Are you at a loss for words? Can’t handle the truth?” Hina asks with a smirk.   “Okay, okay. You got me,” I admit. But I know that I’m still ahead in talent. I’ll let her have her glory for now. I’ll keep shut about my secrets. I can’t be telling everyone. I’ve only ever told Marin. It would be a punch in her face if I easily revealed it to someone else.   “Wow. I didn’t think you’d admit it. You’re pretty stubborn, you know.”   “Yeah, well. It’s true I haven’t made cold fire yet. I’m still curious about this water you made though...” I say. “How do I put my hand in the sphere of water?  Maybe I have to rip it open...”   “Who knows. Try forcin’ your way in.”   I put my palm on the outer surface again. I gradually put more force on the water. It’s weird because the sphere doesn’t displace at all. The shape is more distorted the harder I drive my hand into it. The dent created enlarges the harder I press. The water I push inward spreads out around my palms along the outer surface. At some point, my hand finally pierces through the bubble. It was a bit sudden, and I almost lose my balance but maintain my ground.   Inside is the strangest feeling. It’s like something is pulling on my arm near the edge, but inside it’s not really pulling. The water tingles my skin. I move my arm around, feeling like this water is some thick sludge. But it’s not because it felt like ordinary water when I touched the outside. This is mysterious. My hand looks a bit swollen too.   Before I know it, my entire right arm is inside the water. I didn’t think I put my arm that far. I’m going to be drenched entirely at this rate.   “Kai!” Hina suddenly exclaims with an urgent tone. “Loo-look at your arm!”   I look down. The point where I pierced the water is weird. It’s not a dent in the water anymore but the opposite. It’s like a tall hill growing taller with every moment. It’s literally creeping farther into my body. “What the hell?!”   I immediately pull my arm back with all my force. My eyes might deceive me, but the sphere of water displaces toward me instead of staying in place. I place my other hand on the sphere to stop it from moving closer to me as I tug away. It turns out to be a mistake. My other hand pierces the water too. At this rate, I’ll be swallowed wholly.   All the water disappears immediately, and the chair makes a thump on the ground. Hina deactivated her magic. My clothes aren’t wet anymore. I turn to Hina and exclaim, “What the hell was that, Hina?”   “I-I don’t know…”   “It was like that water was alive! What’d you do to make it like that?” I ask, even though she doesn’t know.   “I didn’t know that could happen.”   “So, other than the thing you don’t know you did, you don’t know anything else?”   “Well…it uses more Mana than a regular ball of water of that size would require. That’s what I noticed about utilizin’ it. It’s like the Mana’s more compact or somethin’.”   More Mana? Maybe that’s the trick. I have to find a way to compress the Mana into a smaller space. Then perhaps I’ll be able to make cold fire.   “There’s somethin’ else I didn’t mention.”   “What’s that?”   “The truth is… I could only get it to work less than 50% of the time before the fight with Ruby.”   Less than 50% of the time? I don’t know what she means by that. She’s just doing some weird instructions that she doesn’t understand. So does that mean she’s assigning new directions every time?   She continues, “There’s this feelin’ that’s present every time it worked. Durin’ the fight, I did it purely by feelin’ instead of thinkin’. I don’t know how else to explain it. I haven’t changed anythin’ else.”   “So you’re not writing new instructions every time you try to make it work?”   “I don’t think so. At least not on purpose. I’m not sure, to be honest. I’ll study it more in my free time, and I’ll let you know if I find anythin’ new.”   So it really was fully by accident. She’s not more creative than me.“Yeah, you better.”   Hina grins. “I like the jealous side of you more.  If you ask nicely, I’ll try to explain step by step on how I did it. I feel bad after my new trick almost drowned you.”   I frown. She’s never going to let go of this. I wasn’t planning on showing her this, but I don’t want to give her the satisfaction of besting me at something. “Hmph. Well, I have a trick up my sleeve that you don’t know about either. I’ll show you.”   “Oh, yeah? What kind of trick uses Fire magic? You’re not goin’ to blow up the room, are you?”   “You’ll be practically begging for me to tell you after I show you this,” I say and prepare instructions for my Mana. I check to see if anyone is in the hallways or nearby. No one. Perfect. I shut the door. I can’t have her see any visible part of my magic. I’ll put a one-sided portal facing up under the bed and one in front of me facing me. I’ll have it set so that it automatically deactivates my Void magic after 15 seconds.  I send out my Mana and activate it. A purple portal appears in front of me, blocking my view of Hina. The length of it covers the entire area in front of me leaving no gaps from under. She won’t see me unless she gets up from the bed.   “Oh, I can’t wait.”   “Watch closely. When I snap my fingers, I’ll disappear from this world. Don’t blink, or you’ll miss it,” I say while keeping an internal clock of how long has passed. I’ll time it so that in case she stands up, the magic will have already ended.  I raise an arm in front of me close to the entrance of the portal, pressing my thumb against my middle finger. With only a few seconds left to go, I snap my finger and move my hand into the gate. I don’t use too much force because the underside of her bed is literally in front of my hand.   “What?!” she exclaims.   I quietly take a step or two to my left so that I reappear at a different location. At the moment my magic deactivates, I snap my fingers and do a frontal flip forward. Her jaws are dropped, and eyes widened.   “How’d you do that?! What’d you do? That was amazin’!”   “Like I said. I have my own tricks up my sleeve,” I say with a smirk. Now, I have the upper hand. She’s going to offer to help me make cold fire willingly to find out what I did.   “That’s so cool. I guess we’ll both have our secrets then.”   Huh? That’s not how it was supposed to work…  A bit disappointed, but at least I have something to rub in her face now if she brings up that I can’t make cold fire. Although, I’m not sure it’s the same effect because she can’t replicate it while I can…   ‘By the way, Kai. We’re goin’ to need to start callin’ each other differently with anyone else around. Since we’re doin’ this,” Hina says.   “Oh, sure,” I answer. She did use nicknames with her old boyfriend. Footsteps resound closeby. A lot of them. I quickly move the chair back to its original position but closer to the bed. I sit in it and grab Hina’s hands. The footsteps seem to stop in front of this room. I signal to her what’s happening by looking between her and the door and raising my eyebrows.   She smiles. Oh, no. I know that smile. That’s when she’s probably up to no good. I shake my head. Her smile only stretches farther.   “Darling…not there…” she says. I glare at her. What kind of lousy reputation is she trying to give me? I already gave Luke a negative impression, thinking back on his words. None of it really applies to us because she knew what to expect going in. Even if this relationship is a lie, it might make her feel less alone. We’ll both have to keep up the act regardless. It might also be one of the few things keeping her emotions stable.   “What about here?” I ask. I don’t need Luke to be on my back for not showing enough affection to Hina. Having a bad reputation is better than everyone discovering our lie. She moans. I think back to our moment yesterday. Can’t help but feel excited. I try to stop thinking about it.   It doesn’t look like they’re coming in. Probably better that way. It’ll be harder to leave when there’s a crowd of people in here.   “Yes, right there!” Hina exclaims. She’s crazy. What if they come in and nothing is going on? Then our whole cover could be blown. I’d better be prepared to jump on her if I that door knock turns even a little bit. Which may be a bit painful for Hina considering her arm. But she asked for it.   Instead of the doorknob turning, the footsteps fade away. They must’ve gone back. I sigh. I whisper, “You’re insane.  Who else knows what happened to you? Those were a lot of footsteps.”   Hina smiles and whispers, “No one except for my team. Luke must’ve brought them together. I don’t know if he’s contacted anyone else.”   “Well, I’m gonna get out of here before it’s too late,” I whisper.   “Okay. I’ll see ya at dinner. We’ll still need to discuss in private about how often we’ll meet. Good luck later today,” she whispers and then continues in a normal voice, “See ya later, Darling!”   What does she mean by good luck? She knows about the training session later? I need to think of a nickname for her. Cookie, because she’s sweet?   No. I mean, she’s not really that sweet. She screws with me too much. Then it would have to be something that shows her worth to me. Something that would match her person somehow. Well, she has high Affinity for Water magic. I stand up and say, “See ya, Pearl.”   Couldn’t I have thought of something better? It doesn’t sound very affectionate now that I think about it. She’s definitely going to make fun of me later. I grab onto the doorknob but hesitate. Those people are going to be waiting outside somewhere. Should I leave out the back entrance? No one will probably notice so I won’t get into trouble. It’s still early morning. I open the door and walk into the hallway. I check the reception area from here. Two guys are directly looking at me. Damn. No choice but to go out the front.   I try not to make eye contact with anyone on my way out. Luke, Dennis, and Simon are all here. Presumably, the rest are part of their platoon from the army side. Unfortunately, my eyes meet Luke’s by the entrance of the clinic. He glares at me but doesn’t say anything. No one does. Not even the woman behind the counter. She seems to have read the heavy mood.   Feels like an eternity has passed, but I finally walk out of there. I sigh. I’d better meet up back with Marin. She’d probably be out of my room by now. The cafeteria maybe? But then again, it was just a battlefield. Maybe they canceled breakfast to reorganize the place. I head over there anyway.  It’s literally right across the room.     It’s a bit noisy over there. I walk over to see what’s going on. It’s way past the usual time for breakfast, and there shouldn’t be meal handouts. Most of everyone here is reorganizing the tables to their original general locations. Some people eating on the floor near the place where they hand out the meals. I suppose they made an exception for today since they couldn’t properly hand them out due to the situation.   I expect to see Jetia and the other goons somewhere, but I don’t. They must’ve one of the early birds and finished eating before it happened. Some people are idling around either wandering or sitting. I make sure I don’t miss anyone between the cracks. Not much to do now but check upstairs. There should be additional instructions about the Rising Champions. That must be what Hina was talking about when she made that remark.   I head up to mail station on the third level. Inside is a new piece of paper as I suspected. It’s more information regarding the Rising Champions. Most of it are things I already know from Hina asking those two men. Nothing on it about its real purpose as Captain Albius informed me. There’s a lunch meeting between our matched platoons. Says to bring our equipment. The battle is in two weeks from today, and our opponents are from Xantho. The battleground is to be determined.   I sigh and toss the paper. So there goes my plan to pre-prepare Jetia and the goons before this happened. At least there are two weeks before the battle.  I head down one level and check my room. No one here. I close and lock the door before walking over to Marin’s room. There’s someone nearby, so I don’t stop at her door. I walk to the end of this corridor before turning back. He’s gone, so I head back to Marin’s door and then knock. “Marin, it’s me.”   She opens the door without saying anything and then goes back inside. I look in both directions of the hallway to make sure no one’s looking before walking into her room. Marin is lying on the bed. She must be really down about the fight between Ruby and Hina.   I skip the small talk and say, “So, I don’t know if you went to check the cafeteria…but the battle was pretty serious. Ruby used Rich Mana from what I saw. Hina suffered some pretty bad burns on one of her arms, but she’s fine. She’s staying in the clinic until the doctors with Healing magic come in late morning.”   Marin trembles. I walk over and then lie on the bed next to Marin. I hug her from behind and ask, “What’s wrong?”   “I’m…scared.”   “Why?”   “Of what’s going to happen if Ruby finds out about us. I did go downstairs to check the damage. It was more than I expected. And you told me she used Rich Mana. Ruby was seriously trying to kill Hina, wasn’t she?”   “Yeah, but I cleared up the misunderstanding. Told her everything she needed to hear. That it’s a fake relationship and none of the things she heard was true.”   “What’d she hear exactly?”   “I don’t know,” I answer. Now that I think about it, who did she hear it from? I should’ve asked her when I had the chance. “She won’t find out about us because we’re keeping it a secret. There’s nothing to worry about.”   “If she finds out, do you think she would try to kill me too?”   “If she does…which she won’t but…I don’t think she would.”   “I thought that too but…”   “I mean, you two were so clo—“ I cut myself off. We’ve both only known Ruby for seven months. They’ve gotten along, but wouldn’t say they’re that close in that duration of time.   “I think I was in denial about her. Other than the way she spoke and her appearance… I wanted to believe she was always Luna at heart. But she would never do something like that…”   “Stop thinking that way. I wanted to think that way too, but they’re not the same. They’re similar but Luna’s dead. Don’t forget it.”   She turns around and buries her face on my chest. I let her cry it all out. She just realized that she lost a close friend. I can’t help but feel sad too, and a few tears escape. I tighten my embrace.   Eventually, she calms down and stops crying. She sniffles and looks up to me. “There’s something I have to tell you.”   From the look of her eyes, this seems serious. She continues, “Jetia knows.”   Jetia knows…? It takes a moment to register on what she means by that. No way. Does she mean that Jetia knows about us?!   “He was looking for me when the fight was happening, but I wasn’t answering my door. So, he had no choice but to look for you. That’s when he came banging on your door. I was still inside getting dressed…”   Oh, shit. I didn’t lock my door. Not that I could’ve in the situation that unfolded. “He saw you bare?”   It’s a dumb question that doesn’t need to be answered right now, but I asked without thinking. She explains, “Um, no…but I was in my underwear when he barged in. He closed the door and gave me privacy to put on the rest of my clothes.”   Good. If he didn’t, I’d beat him senseless. She continues. “He wanted an explanation, so I revealed everything. I told him to keep it a secret, but I don’t know what he’s going to do.”   So, that’s the other piece making Marin feel uneasy right now. Knowing how Jetia only out there to screw me over most of the time, I don’t know what he’ll actually do. If Ruby finds out about us from someone else, it definitely won’t be pretty. But what if confront her and confess face to face? Maybe then, it won’t end as violently. I really don’t think we need to take such drastic measures yet. If he turns us in, there’s no way I would fund everyone’s first Mana manipulation seminar.   “He won’t tell anyone. At least not yet. I’m willing to bet that he’s going to leverage this into coursing me into doing whatever he wants. Something like continuing to fund everyone’s magic lessons. But, I’ll stay with you until lunch if it makes you feel safer. Ruby wouldn’t dare try to hurt you if I’m around in her way.”   “Okay…”   “We can’t just stay here the entire time, though. I’m gonna pick up my equipment in my room. We’re probably gonna end up with group training after lunch. I’ll meet you outside the ‘B’ block,” I say and then leave the room. I go into my room to use the bathroom first. After, I put on my armor, clip on my belts and attach my sheaths. I lock my room on my way out and head to the meeting point.   Marin is there waiting. We could go to one of the private training rooms on the second floor of the training area, but then Marin can’t get much training in. The space inside is mostly confined meant for close quarters training. So, we go outside not in the back where the archery range is. In the front. I’ll be the target for Marin. I’ll try to parry from whatever angle she shoots at me.   Several hours pass. It’s almost time for lunch. We head over there before the line is too long. Usually, people are already waiting before it’s exactly noon.   Upon arrival to the cafeteria, man nearby says, “Hey, Sergeant Kai.”   I recognize him. He’s in Captain Albius’ platoon. He continues, “Captain Albius’ waiting at one of the cooking stations. Meet him there when you have your entire platoon gathered. Sigma 3’s already there. Food’s waiting as well, so there’s no need for you to wait in line.”   He walks away, presumably to the cooking station. That means, we just need to wait for everyone to show up. I’m not worried about Jetia and the goons. Ruby’s attendance, on the other hand, doesn’t have a good track record.   “Kai!” Ruby exclaims. “I’m here! Am I late?”   She runs up to us, panting. Her hair is dripping wet. Always rushed as usual.   “You still had some time. Why’s it always look like you got out of the shower?”   “I was trainin’ really hard ‘n’ lost track of time. Didn’t wanna be sweaty, so I hopped in the shower. But I didn’t wanna be late either,” she says, still out of breath with a hand over her stomach. Her legs are wobbly. The same excuse every time. It’s strange how she isn’t used to her routine by now. Is she really training to the brink of exhaustion every time? I know she’s working hard for my sake, so there’s no reason to ask.   “Well, whatever. Sit down over there,” I say pointing to the nearest wall. Can’t have her sit in the middle of the open and block people’s way. “ You look like you’re about to collapse. We still have to wait for Jetia and the others.”   “’Kay…” Ruby says and then limps over to the wall. We follow closely behind. Now is a good time to ask her about the other matter.   “By the way, Ruby, who’d you hear from about the relationship stuff between Hina and me? I was looking for you the previous day, but Captain Albius said you were on a separate mission, so I was gonna tell you first thing in the morning, but…”   She reaches the wall, turns around, and practically falls right on her bottom. “Well, I came back from my mission early… ‘N’ I was hungry, so I went ta the cafeteria. Someone was talkin’ ‘bout how Hina confessed ta ya the day before. ‘N’ she took ya ta ‘er room.”   “So you decided to kill Hina after that…?”   “Yeah, but I’m sorry. I didn’t know ya were pretendin’. Hina’s fine now, right?”   “Yeah, she’s fine. But seriously. Next time, try to talk it out first. Don’t randomly try to kill people, okay? That’s bad.”   “’Kay.”   “How’re you feeling? Seems like you’re always clutching onto your stomach.”   She clutches her stomach tighter and answers, “I’m fine…”   “You don’t look fine…and this isn’t the first time I’ve seen you like this either.”   She looks down. “I’m just…constipated. Been havin’ stomach issues fer a while now. I didn’t wanna bring it up.”   That can’t be the reason. She’s using that as an excuse for something else. I’ll get to the bottom of this right now. “When did that start? You were fine before we joined the army.”   Well, technically I’ve only known her since the day we joined… But who she used to be, never had that issue.   “I don’t know…maybe a month after we joined? It started outta the blue.”   “Did you do anything around that time to trigger it? Anything change in your daily routine?”   “I think it’s the food… Doesn’t make me feel good.”   “The food…?” I question. It’s a plausible reason. The food quality, in general, is much worse than what we ate before. Now it is much worse than we joined too. More the reason I progress to Lieutenant as soon as possible. We’d have access to the cooking stations.  “Well, you don’t have to worry about that for much longer. We’ll soon have permanent access to the cooking stations.  Today, we’ll be under Captain Albius’ care again for lunch.”   “Are ya happy ‘bout that?” she asks. A strange question. Why wouldn’t anyone be happy about that? More importantly, it should resolve her stomach issues.   “Of course. It’ll be better than what we normally have access too. The food’s a lot better so you won’t have issues with your stomach in the future.”   “I see. Then I’m happy too!” she exclaims with a smile.   Sometimes it’s tough to tell what she’s thinking. Other than her random bouts of anger, she’s only trying to help me. It’s a miracle; this was the only time she’s had a real emotional outburst. I’ll keep her closer than how much I’ve been to make sure she’s eating well. “From now on, I want to see you every day at lunch and dinner. No skipping unless we’re assigned to separate missions. This is for the sake of the team too. We’re gonna work together more.”   I think about including breakfast too, but with the complications involving Marin and Hina, it’s best to leave that one out. Most of the time we’re oversleeping anyway. Ruby replies, “’Kay I got it Kai…no more skippin’.”   “Good.”   Jetia shows up with the four other men in our platoon within a few minutes. Jetia is not acting anything out of the usual. I hope he doesn’t plan to bring up what he discovered. We head over to the cooking station area as a group. We find the room Captain Albius is settled in and go in.

Marin and I approach the group of three people chatting outside the residence. “Excuse me,” I say and then hold out the request in front of me. “Does this look familiar to you? “Yes, I put in that request yesterday,” the middle-aged woman responds. “I’m Sergeant Kai, the leader Sigma Platoon 4. I’m gonna take your case.” “Oh, really? You’ll be able to find him?!” the woman exclaims. “Yeah, I pro…” I close my lips and frown.  I think to last week. The consequences. I gulp before continuing, “We’ll do our best to find him. We need you to give us more on what happened before he disappeared.” “Of course. It was last week. My husband came home saying that he joined an Adventurer’s group, even though he doesn’t have a license.” “That’s not possible. Everyone part of an Adventurer’s team needs a license to register it at the Adventurer’s Hub.” “That’s the part that worried me at first. He said that they didn’t have licenses either, but they had a client who would pay them directly.” “What does your husband do? You should’ve stopped him from doing something so reckless. Someone without training wouldn’t be able to fight monsters.” “Oh, no. I’m not worried about that. He attended the Academy, so he knows how to fight. But he dropped out to open his own restaurant. It hasn’t been doing well recently.” “I see. Do you know the details of their mission?” “My husband said it was a simple task. They had to gather supplies in a forest near the base of the mountain.” “When did they leave?” “Last week.” “Okay. I’ll gather my team, and we’ll head out immediately.” “Wait,” the woman says and then turns toward the young couple next to her. “You’re headed to the base of the mountain, right?” the young man asks. “Two of my former teammates joined an Adventurer’s group last week too.” “Former teammates? You were in an Adventurer’s group with them?” “Yeah. Up until the Incident. They wanted to continue, but I didn’t. They’re not so weak to fall to Horned Rabbits.” “Their mission was to hunt them?” “Yeah. And to collect an herb that grows abundantly in a forest outside Beltan. Something must’ve happened.” “I see. We’ll let you know if we find any clues, but we can’t put a priority on it without an official request.” “I submitted a detailed request this morning to the Request Center. Originally, a group separate from the army offered assistance and left looking for them, but I can’t trust them. Please take it before you leave.” I frown. He looks at me with widened eyes filled with hope. I sigh. “Okay, we’ll take it before we leave. We’ll be on our way now.” I bow my head. Marin does the same. We head toward the Castle, eventually arriving in the Request Center. I look through the open requests. My eyes stop on one. My son may have been deceived. He doesn’t have an Adventurer’s license, yet “Adventurers” recruited him into their group. He left to hunt Horned Rabbits near a forest near Beltan last week. Please find him.   I knit my eyebrows.  I hand it to Marin and say, “Take a look at this. It’s another one.” Marin frowns. “You want to take this one too?” “Ye-yeah… It looks like they’re in the same area for sure this time. It won’t be like last time.” “Captain Albius let us off the hook last time. I don’t think he’ll give us a second chance.” “You’re right. But, we can do it this time. We…” I clench my fists. “We learned from our mistakes. It won’t happen again.” “I’m okay with whatever you decide. You’re the leader. What’ll you say to Captain Albius and Jetia?” “I’ll think of something,” I say while shifting through the other requests. I find the request submitted by the man from earlier. I hand it to Marin. I continue looking through the remainder. I read another one that catches my eye. It’s from the village of Beltan. Our daughter is missing. We believe that she’s been kidnapped by the local bandits. Please send help.   “Don’t take it, Kai,” Marin cautions. “We already have too many requests.” “But this is right outside where we’re going. We can successfully complete four requests in one go. It’ll negate our last three failures.” “There’s no way Captain Albius would approve it.” “I’ll try. If he doesn’t sign it, then it can’t be helped,” I say while skimming the last few requests in the stack. None of them relate to the ones I’ve picked out already. Marin hands me the two pieces of paper I gave her. I walk up to one of the receptionists and place the three requests on top along with my ID. “Sergeant Kai from Sigma 4. I need these three requests forwarded to Captain Albius immediately.” He inspects my ID for a moment before replying, “Okay. I will find someone to deliver it immediately.” I pick up my ID and say, “I want to borrow a map of Drosera too.” “Sure thing, one moment,” he answers, picks up the three pieces of paper, and then goes into a room behind him. A minute later, he comes back and puts the map on the counter. “Please return it within a week.” I take the map, and we leave. “Hopefully Captain Albius will respond before lunch. I’ll explain it to everyone then. I’m off to train. See ya later.” “Okay, bye,” Marin says with a smile and waves. I wave and head to the third level. I open my locker, finding my weekly base salary inside; 15 silver coins. There is no bonus this week, but it’s not surprising considering what happened last week. I move the money over to the back corner of my locker separate from our team funds. I’ve earned 60 silver coins over the past month. I leave the first request we accepted and the map inside before closing my locker and then head to the second floor of the training area on the first level. I go to an empty room. I stand still in one of the corners. Let’s try it again today with Scrap Mana. This time, I’ll strengthen my core too.   I move Scrap Mana into my legs, around my leg and foot muscles, instructing my Mana to strengthen them for ten seconds. I allocate it evenly around the muscles, giving larger muscles more Mana.  I do the same to the core of my body. I activate my Mana and then sprint forward. I reach a quicker speed than I’m normally able to achieve with my armor on all while maintaining my balance this time. I smile. I repeat the same process again and again. My efficiency increases a bit every time, and the time it takes to assign instructions decreases too.  I sigh deeply and sit against the wall, closing my eyes. … Screams resound. I open my eyes, finding the scene from last week in front of me. “Help!” a man yells as he is slashed from behind by a bandit. I want to run to help those still alive, but no matter how fast I run, the gap between us does not shrink. “Kai, save me!” Hiro exclaims as he is surrounded by three men. Two of them stab him through the arms. “Hiro!” I scream. The third man raises his sword above his head. “It hurts!” Hiro yells while flailing his limbs. The sword swoops down. His body goes limp. “You can’t save anyone,” a voice calls to me. “Wake up, monkey,” Captain Albius says. I open my eyes, finding him standing in front of me. A chill runs through my body. “Your pea-sized brain still remembers what happened last week, right? Explain to me why you’re takin’ three additional requests. I squeeze my eyes shut for a few seconds and then open them. “Yeah I remember, but this time’s different.” “How?” “The requests are all located around Beltan, and I’ve learned from my previous mistakes.” “What exactly did you learn?” “To not show any mercy to bandits.” “I thought even a monkey would know this. I don’t have any reason to allow you to take on additional requests, but I have a reason to deny it. You failed before. Why should I risk our reputation?” “I understand the risks, but it’s more efficient if we handle them. Other platoons can focus on different requests in separate areas. Better to address an issue sooner than later. Time’s of the essence.” He smiles. “Very well. I’ll sign off these requests for you. You’re free to leave immediately. It’ll be in your mailbox.” Captain Albius walks out. I lean back against the wall and sigh. Now I’ll have to explain it to everyone.   I rest briefly before heading to the cafeteria. It is almost noon. I wait in line, eventually receiving one free meal ticket. A few minutes later, I grab the tray of food and then head toward the designated meeting place. Vicki and Marin are already here. “Hey,” I say and sit down. “Hi,” they greet near simultaneously. “Captain Albius approved all three.” “I see.” “All three what?” “I’ll explain when everyone arrives. Where’s Ruby?” “I’m not sure. I haven’t seen her around much in the past week,” Marin responds. “What about you, Vicki?” “I’m in the same boat.” “Same here. I hope she got the letter I sent everyone yesterday.” “I’m sure she did,” Marin says. “Yeah,” I say and then eat my food. Later, everyone except Ruby sits down. I explain the circumstances without Ruby. “How stupid are you?” Jetia asks. “We’re all going to pay for yer dumb decisions.” “Think of it as an opportunity to advance. We can wipe last week off our slate if we’re successful,” I explain.” “Dependent on if. We’re more likely to receive punishment for failing. You should’ve consulted us first before taking all of us down with you.” “There was no time for a meeting. The longer we wait, the less chance we’ll have at resolving the requests.” “You haven’t forgotten what happened last week, right?” Jetia asks. “What’ll we do if the same thing happens again?” “Then we take them out with everything we’ve got.” “So that’s your master plan? To go head-to-head with them?” “Yeah. Things won’t end like last time if we don’t give them any room to breathe. We’ll charge at them. Does anyone have a better idea?” Kama raises his hand and says, “I don’t have a plan…but I have a concern. Are all of us charging in?” “Yeah, except for Marin and Vicki. Why?” “I don’t think I can handle that level of combat…” “What’re you talking about? You passed the exam, didn’t you? Have more confidence.” “Passing the exam was nothing compared to real combat.” Kama turns his head toward Jetia, Banni, and Dano. “It’s the same for you guys too, right?” I frown in response to everyone else’s frowns. Dano says, “Yeah… This is outside our scope of experience.  I learned my lesson last time.” “What’s wrong with you guys? You left The Reserve because you wanted to resolve requests, right?” “I would like to…but I’m not strong enough,” Banni says. “You won’t get stronger unless you fight. Don’t you improve by sparring each other? That’s how I…” I stop short and widen my eyes.  “We do spar but only see some small improvement,” Dano explains. “I’ll start sparring and training you guys after we complete the requests,” I declare. “You should’ve done that weeks ago. Some leader you are,” Jetia says. I click my tongue. “Well, you never asked. How was I supposed to know you needed help?” “I don’t need help.” Ruby is running toward us, panting. Her run is unusual. She takes many small steps instead of longer strides. “Sorry I’m late!” Her hair is wet.  I ask, “Where were you? You missed the meeting.” She frowns, looks away, and puts a hand on her stomach. “I was trainin’ really hard… I didn’t want ta be sweaty, so I took a shower.” It looks like her legs might topple over any second. I sigh. “Well, we’re ready to go. We can leave as soon as you’re done eating.” “Oh, umm… I’m not feelin’ hungry,” she says and then smiles. “I’m ready if you want ta leave now, Kai!” “Okay, I’ll meet everyone outside the stables. I’m going to the mail station for the signed papers,” I say and then head to the third floor. I find the three pieces of paper signed by Captain Albius on top with another one signed by him on the bottom that I deposited earlier in the day. I take all four with me before closing my locker. I run down the stairs and then go to the stables. Everyone is waiting there. I walk up to one of the guards in front of the stables entrance. I show him our signed requests and then request four horses and two wagons. Marin and I sit in the front of one wagon. Ruby and Vicki rest in the back. The others are in the wagon behind us. The clattering of wagons, chatter, and other noises erupt from the other side of the wall, steadily growing louder. We approach the front gates when suddenly they open. The two guards stationed next to the door inside step aside. Hundreds of soldiers pass through; some on horseback while others on the back of wagons and inside convoys. There are at least two dozen of them with the symbol of Drosera engraved on the front of their armor. One of the soldiers on horseback carries a big flag with the Drosera’s symbol. “Are they the ones who went on that mission in Neomeris everyone talks about?” Marin asks. “Oh, yeah. That’s probably it,” I answer. They head toward the back of the Castle. It takes a few minutes for them to pass. I move my transport over to the front of the gate. I show the guards my requests, and they let us pass. I take another look at the map before handing it to Marin. “I’ll take the reins. You handle the directions.” We head toward the only exit to the city on the south side and then proceed to the route to the village. We pass by a large group of soldiers. One of them carries another big flag with our nation’s symbol. With Marin giving directions, we arrive in about two hours. I show the guards outside the request originating from their village. One of them leads us inside. “Kai, haven’t we been here before?” Marin asks. I look around while knitting my eyebrows. “This place does look familiar.” “Wait here,” the guard says. I pull back the reins. My eyes wander around the village. They stop on a farm. I remember we rested here in the past. “We rested here for a few days after parting with Rocky,” Marin says. “Yeah. I wonder how he’s doing now.” “He’s probably made a lot of friends by now.” “I hope so. It’s not easy being alone.” Marin rests her hand on one of mine. I look around quickly. No one sees it. She smiles and says, ‘You’re not alone Kai.” I reciprocate her smile and answer, “Thanks, Marin. You too.” The guard comes back with a couple in their 50’s. I hop off the wagon and ask, “Are you the ones who put in the request about your daughter being kidnapped?” “Yes,” the man answers. “I’m Sergeant Kai. I took your case,” I say and shake the man’s hand. I’ve seen him before but don’t remember where. “Kai… That sounds familiar. Have we met before?” Marin whispers in my ear, “They’re Ariane’s parents. We stayed at their house, remember?” I raise my eyebrows and answer, “Yeah… I think we have. Ariane’s your daughter, right? We stayed at your place for a few days about one and a half years ago.” “Oh, yes. I remember now. Thank you so much for what you did for us back then.” “So Ariane’s been kidnapped?” I ask. “Are the culprits related to the ones we fought last time?” “We believe so. Follow us to our home. We’ll explain more there,” Ariane’s father says. We let Ruby and Vicki rest for now. Leaving Jetia and the others behind, Marin and I follow Ariane’s parents into their home. A young boy runs up to us. “Big sis’!” he exclaims. He looks at Marin for a moment and then frowns. In a whiny tone, he asks, “When’s big sis’ coming home?” “Derek, I told you. We asked the army to help us,” his mother says and pats his head. “They’re going to bring her back.” “Are you gonna bring my big sis’ home, mister?” I smile and respond, “Yeah. We’ll try our best. We need your parents to give us the details first.” “Right. Make yourselves comfortable,” Ariane’s father says as he points to the adjacent room. There are a couple of couches around a table. I take a seat on the one closest to us. Marin sits beside me. Our clients sit across from us. “Hmm… Where do we begin? It was last week when—“ “Mommy, I’m hungry,” Derek complains. “Oh dear,” Ariane’s mother interjects. “Honey, we forgot about the errand. Sorry, Derek. Can you bear it a while longer?” “But, I’m hungry now!” “What’s wrong?” I ask. “We’re out of wood. I can’t cook without it.” “You don’t have a stove that uses Fire Crystals?” She cocks an eyebrow and then shakes her head. “We don’t have that kind of equipment here.” Marin mutters, “I can help…with my magic, I can—“ “No,” Ariane’s parents respond and shake their heads simultaneously.  “That’s not necessary,” Ariane’s father continues. “Marin has the capability to create wood in physical form. You’ll be able to use it as you would normally,” I explain. “That’s not it. We don’t want anything to do with magic.” “What’s wrong with magic? It makes everything easier.” “Because if you use too much magic, something bad happens!” Ariane’s brother exclaims. “Something bad?” I question. “You turn into a monster!” he exclaims. “What? That’s not true…” I say “It is too! You’ll turn into a monster one day!” He exclaims while pointing at me. “Derek! Don’t be rude!” Ariane’s mother exclaims and then grabs his hand. “We can eat at your favorite place now. We’ll go gather some wood after that.” “’Kay!” Derek exclaims. The two of them walk out the front door. “Sorry about that. It’s a village folklore. It’s one of the reasons why we don’t like magic,” Ariane’s father explains. “I understand, but you’re not the one using magic. You won’t turn into a monster, so what’s the problem?” I ask. “We don’t want to rely on it. Magic has only put this village through distress. This may be hard to believe, but our village embraced magic once upon a time. There were two people who became stars in our village because they learned magic on their own despite the folklore. They brought wealth to the village,” he continues. I feel like I have heard this before. “Of course. Magic’s amazing,” I declare. “The village sent the children eligible to join the Academy around that time too. A decade later, they were all reported dead. The two stars, who were our parents’ close friends met their demise around the same time.” “I think he’s talking about Ragnar’s parents. Remember that story Ariane told us?” Marin asks me quietly. Ragnar and Ariane… I remember now. It almost sounds like what I thought happened to my own parents. I think before speaking up, “The two stars were Ragnar’s parents, right?” “Yes, how do you know about that?” “Ariane told us something similar before.” “I see,” he says and then sighs. “The common link between their deaths is magic. And so the village has outlawed magic usage for the past 25 years.” After a brief silence, he widens his eyes and continues, “Please save Ariane! I’m certain Ragnar took her with him.” I knit my eyebrows and take several seconds to collect my thoughts before responding, “Excuse me for asking this…but was Ariane really kidnapped?” “Of course she was. Why else would she suddenly disappear overnight?” “So she was at home and disappeared overnight?” “That’s right. She was gone without a trace the next day. No clues were left behind to as a clue where she is now.” “Have you thought about the possibility that she left on her own?” “That’s preposterous. Ariane would never do that.” “How else would you explain that she was taken so quietly? If it were against her will, you would’ve awoken to a struggle of some sort.” “I don’t know. Magic was probably involved.” “How connected have you been with your daughter recently? Last time I recall she wasn’t very happy—“ He stands up. “How dare you. Are you implying that it’s our fault she was taken by Ragnar? For all we know, he could’ve used magic to charm her into going with him. That’s no different than kidnapping.” “Sir, I’m not implying anything. We don’t know anything at this point. I’m just wondering what we should do if we find her, and she doesn’t want to return home.” He sighs and sits back down. “Yes… This is what we’re afraid of. Those two have always been together. That girl, she’s infatuated with him. She thinks Ragnar’s the same person she knew growing up. That his intentions are good, but people change.” His last few words echo in my head, and a chill goes down my spine. I get lost in my thoughts for several seconds until I shake my head multiple times. “…he never would’ve taken her with him onto that dangerous path if he truly cared.” I gulp and blindly answer, “Yeah.” “I don’t care how you do it. Just bring Ariane back alive.” “What about Ragnar?” “I don’t care what happens to him, but the bounty for him is still active. I have a copy of it somewhere. I’ll be right back,” he says and then walks away. Marin whispers, “Ariane’s at least eight years older than us. Shouldn’t we tell him that she’s old enough to make decisions by herself?” “I don’t think he’s willing to listen,” I whisper. “I think we should be compliant for now and figure it out when we meet her. Ariane’s father returns with a worn-looking paper in his hand. He places it on the table in front of me. A rough sketch of his face is drawn on the front. Capturing him dead or alive yields a reward of a gold coin. “This is over a year old, but we’ve recently updated the bounty. The reward is now five gold coins.” I take the piece of paper and then hand it to Marin. She puts it away in her backpack. I stand up and ask, “Before we go, do you know where his hideout is?” “If we knew that, we would’ve taken action long ago.” “Okay. The sooner we leave the better. We’ll do our best to recover your daughter,” I say while heading out back to the others. Marin follows. Vicki and Ruby are still fast asleep while the others are chatting away. “Attention!” I exclaim between our two transports. Ruby and Vicki groan a few times as they get up, rubbing their eyes. “Kai, are we startin’?” Ruby asks. “Yeah. I need everyone to be alert from this point forward,” I say while making a hand gesture toward Marin. She takes out the bounty on Ragnar and then hands it to me.  I hold it in front of me, giving everyone a good look. “This is who they think’s responsible for the kidnapping. If you see him, alert everyone and be cautious. He’s skilled in magic.” “I can’t see it from here,” Kama says. I hand the bounty to him.  He looks closely at it for several seconds before passing it to someone else. “So, where’re we headed to, leader?” Jetia asks. “Where’s his hideout?” “I don’t know. We’ll have to—“ “How’re we going to find him if we don’t know where that is? You should’ve asked.” “I did ask, they don’t know.” Jetia chuckles before answering, “Great. Now we have four requests with no leads on any of them. What’s the worst that can happen?” I frown. “We do have a few leads. Three of our requests point to the forests outside of here.” “And the others?” Jetia asks. I don’t answer. “So that’s it? We blindly search through all the forests around here? We’re not going to have enough time for that.” “Not while we’re wasting time now talking about it. It won’t be blind once we go look and find evidence of recent battle. We’re moving out,” I say and hop on the front of the wagon. I pull on the reins toward my left to turn back toward the entrance we came from. The guards raise the gates for us, and we leave. The forests on our left and right are a couple of minutes away. We ride until we are a few hundred meters in from the beginning of the right forest. I park the transport off to the side of the trail. Jetia and the others leave their wagon a few meters behind ours. “Everyone line up like last time. We’re going to gradually move back into our formation for searching,” I order. “Ruby, Marin, and Vicki are in the center with the five of us spread out around them.” Kama trembles. He stands in the initial positions and asks, “So, ar-are we do-doing the same thing as last time?” “Yeah, it’s the best way we have,” I answer. “I’m still a bit skeptical…” “What’s wrong with it? You’ll cover one of the back edges like last time. We move as a group and if you see something send a signal.” “N-no… I mean what’s going to happen if I run into someone…or if a monster attacks?” I sigh. “Monsters around here don’t attack unless they’re provoked. You’ll be fine. Nothing will happen, and we’re all close enough to regroup if you sense danger. If it makes you feel safer, we can pivot our formation every time we change directions, so I’m always at the front.” “Wh-what’s going to happen whe-when we find someone looking for trouble? Do you want me to fight back?” “Of course. That’s what you’re here for. If someone attacks, fight back. If we have a hostage situation like last time, we’ll charge in immediately. You’re thinking too much about it. Live combat isn’t that big of a deal. You get used to it.” “I can’t see that happening.” “It comes with experience.” “I understand…but we’re going to have to…ki-kill people this time, right? Will I get used to that too?” “Well…ideally, we don’t—“ “Oh, stop it already, leader. Kama’s right. That’s what yer telling us when you told us the plan was to charge in.  Kill them before they can make any moves, right?” Jetia asks. I frown. “Yeah. If that’s what we have to do to get the job done, we will. It’s either you or them.” Kama looks down and mutters, “I can’t…” I sigh deeply and then ask, “What made you decide to join the army?” “I’m not sure anymore.” “You were there with us in front of the Castle a month ago. You know completely why you joined.” Kama pauses for several seconds before answering, “It’s not much, really. A good friend of mine served in the army for over two decades. We were training together to join the army back then, but I didn’t make it and gave up. He went on to pursue his dream, but that ended during the attack.” “Exactly. Don’t you want revenge?” “I did, but not anymore. Don’t get me wrong. I understand completely your motivations and everyone who lost someone in the attack, but I don’t feel that way. I knew the risks of joining the army. It’s a part of the job.” I knit my eyebrows. I can’t comprehend his words. If it weren’t for them, his friend would still be alive. Part of his job or not, it was completely out of his control…   He continues, “I just felt a need to pursue his dream in place of him.” I shake my head and stop trying to figure out why he doesn’t want revenge, but I can’t think of anything else to say. “Wh-what was your friend like?” Marin asks. Kama lifts his head and smiles. “He was everything I wish I was. Confident, talented, righteous.” “I see,” Marin says and smiles. I smile too. Thanks, Marin.   “What would your friend do right now if he were in your shoes?” I ask and then pause for several seconds. “Do you have your answer?” “Yes, thank you Kai. I’m ready.” “Anyone else have any concerns before we move in?” I ask. Jetia snickers. “What is it, Jetia?” “It’s nothing. I’m ready whenever you are, leader.” I grind my teeth as a few puffs of hot air escape me. I try to ignore Jetia and his remark. “Right, then we’ll move out immediately. Kama, you can switch sides with Dano since the right side is probably safer here. I’ll head in first. Remember to stay in formation.” I head into the forest about a minute in before stopping. I check my surroundings to verify our formation is correct. Banni is diagonal to my left behind me about the same distance as Jetia is diagonal to my right. Marin, Ruby, and Vicki are grouped up behind me a bit farther than those two.  The remaining two are out of my sight as they should be. I face forward again and continue straight ahead.

It’s the day before the battle.  We begin packing for our journey west past Elbar, to Xantho. Out of the four away teams going to other kingdoms for their Rising Champions battle, our group travels the farthest. One of our transports carries our food supply during the journey. Supposedly, it has enough provisions to feed Sigma 3, 4, and Omega 7 during our round-trip to Xantho.   I wish we weren’t the lucky group. There’s nothing to do on the wagon on our way there. And I thought the route to Aramore was long.  This journey will take over a day of travel according to Captain Albius because of the snow. That’s two to three days on the road including the way back. We’ll spend only a fraction of that time fighting the battle.   We often traveled during our short adventuring days, but we never left Drosera. The atmosphere was different. We were hanging out with our friends. But here, I’m shoved on the back of one transportation with Jetia, Garen, Laud, and four members of Sigma 3. Of course, Ada is one of them. Since none of Captain Albius’ members are riding with us, I can’t hold any exchange between us against her.   She hasn’t bothered me, yet. It’s not entirely surprising. She didn’t win a single duel against me over the last two weeks. They were close during the first few days, but I adapted to her fighting style rapidly. I’d give her an ‘A’ for effort. I know that she takes training very seriously, which I respect, unlike those in my platoon. She has an intense desire to win. I’m sure for the main event today too. I could irritate her right now to throw her off her game.   Crushing her pride and self-confidence isn’t enough, not after what she did. I’ll rub more salt in the wound. I smile and ask, “So, I guess you never ended up winning a duel, huh?”   She doesn’t answer, staying completely still. Is she asleep? Her eyes blink now and then, so clearly not. I wave my hand in front of her face and try again. “Hello?”   She turns her head toward me, still expressionless. “Shut up. I’m saving my energy.”   “Well, I’m bored outta my mind. Just trying to have some conversation. I’ll fall asleep otherwise in this silence.”   She goes back to her previous position, staring at the ground. I poke the side of her face. I push her head back slightly and wait for it to drop back into place before repeating.   “I think that’s enough, Kai,” Aisha says. “I understand Ada hasn’t treated you all that well, but don’t you already see you’ve trampled her spirit already? Normally she’s very energetic and competitive. Be mature and take the high road. Otherwise, you’re not allowing the rest of us to obtain any rest either.”   She doesn’t understand what Ada’s done to me. If she’d knew she’d understand. I can’t ever bring it into the light so that she won’t understand. I can’t push it any farther than this. I’m starting to look like the bad guy here. I sigh and answer, “Fine.”   “Thank you,” Aisha says with a smile.   Whatever. Normally I like nap time whenever the chance arises, but this is a bit much. We’re not allowed to stop and stretch until the designated break times every six hours. Allows us to eat and relieve ourselves. Even if there’s a monster attack, we’re supposed to let Captain Albius’ platoon take care of it because we have to conserve our energy and Mana for the upcoming fight. Understandable, but no fun.   Eventually, we arrive at our location in Xantho. A group of 16 people is waiting near the edge of the cliff. This can’t be the exact place the fight takes place because it’s just on the top of a cliff. Captain Albius informs us that he’ll be discussing with the other overseer before leaving to meet them.   The battleground has been decided previously and is beyond the cliff.   I walk over to the edge cliff and widen my eyes. There’s a distinct geographic region amid a withered white forest. Completely different than any mountain or forest I’ve seen.  It’s a hilly area that covers an enormous amount of space. Way too spacious for just one battle between 32 people.   There are many overgrown trees in the area; they have a thickness ranging from a small house to a large building. The setting here looks almost unnatural of the presence of elevated landscape and those ancient looking trees. Some of the hilltops are plateaus with few trees. All the trees are still lush with greenery despite the season because the snowfall covers only the top of gigantic trees that umbrella the area. Inside the abnormal growth remains clear of snow.   This battle will be interesting. I’ve never fought in a setting like this before. We don’t know the rules of the battle yet either. According to Captain Albius, there can be several different rulesets. He’s going to try to lead the conversation to a ruleset that favors the main strategy we’ve prepared.   This battleground is a bit unsettling. I can’t help but have an ominous feeling. Monster hazards are normal during the Rising Champions every year. From Captain Albius’ experience, usually, the place of battle is somewhere with a low density of monsters or ones that are not as dangerous. This region, however, spells danger. Something tingles throughout my body. I think a part of me wants one of those monsters to appear.   I remember the red eyes. The ones that send shivers and fear down my spine. Not those. But something formidable. Marin walks over and asks, “Isn’t it beautiful?”   Her eyes sparkle with interest as she breathes out a mist of breath.   “I wouldn’t exactly call this beautiful. There’s no color variety other than different shades of green and brown.”   “You’re not amazed?”   “I am, but…I don’t know. It’ll be exciting to see the match unfold in this place.”   “It’s always about fighting for you… “   “Well, we are about to fight in a large-scale battle for the first time. A bit change of pace from what we were trained to do in the old days.”   “Is that what excited you back then? Fighting monsters?”   “Well…yeah. Exploring the world and hunting monsters...alongside friends. Honestly, I still want to do that, but… Well, what about you? That doesn’t excite you?”   “You’re weird… Witnessing beautiful sights like these is part of exploring the world. I wanted to see grand views like this. Well, I still do,” Marin says with a smile. “When my parents visited, they would often tell me stories of these grandiose views they observed throughout their journey. I wanted to experience it for myself when I became an adventurer.”   “Is that what inspired you to take up archery? Because you can see things from far away?” I ask.   “No, of course not… What kind of stupid reason’s that?”   It was stupid. She continues, “I wanted to feel closer to my mom…because she was an Archer too. I thought I would feel connected to her more.”   Her expression darkens. A mistake on my part. I shouldn’t have shifted the conversation this way. But she smiles again and asks, “What about you, Kai? You could’ve chosen anything, but you went with Light. Did someone inspire you?”   I smile skeptically. “Well, I guess you could say that…”   “Was it Emdos?”   “No…” I answer, still unsure if I should make something up. Marin wanted to feel closer to her mom, but my reason was petty. We decided we wouldn’t keep secrets from each other. I’ll tell the truth. “It was Sitos. I hated the way he was acting toward me on our first day. I knew that picking the same role as him would piss him off the most.”   “Oh…” Marin answers with little energy. She’s probably disappointed. “So, that’s why you took on the same weapon choice as Sitos.”   “No, not exactly. I stumbled upon someone dueling with two swords against someone with only one. The way he chained one attack with another was like an art. It was a sight to behold. That’s what truly convinced me to take on dual-wielding.”   “That’s romantic. I wonder what everyone else was thinking when they signed up to be an Adventurer and chose their role.”   “Well, I bet Hiro just thought it would be fun and Drugo followed whatever he chose to do. Hiro obviously determined that the Heavy role would be the center of attention. His weapon literally goes boom when he smashes the ground. Drugo wanted to cover everyones’ backs and protect. Sitos probably was pressured into it by his dad and chose Light because that’s what his trainer specialized in. Luna… I have no idea, and we’ll never find out.”   “Whatcha talkin’ ‘bout?” Ruby asks abruptly from between Marin and I. It almost makes me lose my balance. A bit dangerous while overlooking the edge of a cliff. That reminds me, Ada could push me down to my death if I’m not careful. That’s the real reason she looks defeated. Just to get me off my guard. I look around, but she’s not lurking behind me. What a relief. “Did I scare ya?”   “Yeah, don’t jump outta nowhere like that. Especially not while we’re by the edge.”   “I’m sorry, Kai. I hope yer not mad.”   “I’m not mad.”   “’Kay, that’s good.”   “Ruby, we were talking about why we wanted to be Adventurers and how we decided our roles at the Academy. Did you go to the Academy before joining the army?”   I glare at Marin with narrowed eyes.   Ruby answers, “Yeah I went ta the Academy. I wanted ta be an Adventurer ‘cause I love cookin’. I’d be able ta discover all kinds of ingredients fer cookin’ while completin’ requests… The white-masked people killed everyone on my team. We went on so many adventures together fer over a year after graduatin’ the Academy too. I wanna get revenge, so I joined the army. It’s the same fer ya guys, right?”   “Yeah…except we only went on adventures for less than three months. We lost everyone but each other…” Marin answers.   It’s good that Ruby didn’t mention age. Otherwise, there would be a discrepancy in her story because older people could enroll in the same year. Because she went on adventures for at least a year, it means that she enrolled at the Academy as an Adventurer a year before us. She’s our senior by a year. That means she’s at least seventeen years old. I nod my head multiple times.   “Attention!” Captain Albius exclaims as he regroups with us. “We’ve finished our discussion regardin’ how the Rising Champions match will be played.”   “You’ll be fightin’ in the Panoramic Grove over yonder,” he informs while pointing toward the overgrown garden. “The location was non-negotiable. It looks like they’re set on battlin’ in there. They’re goin’ to have something planned in that case. But we’ll have an attacker’s advantage. The enemy’s platoon’s stationed near the entrance in one spot. They aren’t allowed to move or attack until you’ve determined their location. Not much of an advantage, but you won’t have to risk an ambush. You’d be able to execute our main strategy without issue if you’re able to locate them without them noticin’.   “The rest’s pretty standard. No killin’ if someone surrenders and blah, blah, blah... Any questions?”   “Will there be monsters in there?” Garen asks.   “Probably. But remember, they’re as hazardous to our opponents as they’re to you. We’re stronger, so don’t worry. That’s probably why they’re insistent on fightin’ in there. Stick to the plan, and you’ll be fine. You’ve got ex-adventurers with you. We’ll be watchin’ from afar. Probably on the apex of one of the hills over there. If things turn for the worst, we’ll intervene. Anyone else?”   “Will we get inta trouble if we kill someone befer they surrender?” Ruby asks. I’m curious about that too, considering our game plan. The battle could end without as much of a fight if they’re on the level of our typical Soldier.   “You’re free to go all out without consequence. They should’ve prepared something already since they knew of our capabilities before settin’ up their team. Anyone else?”   I’m tempted to ask if he knows if the other team is comprised of ex-adventurers as well. That would be something that would change everything. And explain why they chose a dangerous setting that could be filled with hostile monsters. But at the same time, if they are, it could break our team morale. Especially the lesser skilled ones. I’ll stay quiet about that. But there’s one thing that worries me. I ask, “What happens if a monster kills someone?”   “No consequence to either kingdom, unless a direct action from someone causes a monster to kill someone.”   “What about Conjuration magic? We won’t know if a monster’s summoned by someone or not.”   “That’s something we report if someone has that capability. There weren’t any reports, so if you suspect anything, make sure to let me know. I’ll take the proper next steps.”   “I’ll keep you updated.”   “Anyone else?” Captain Albius asks. Silence follows for five seconds. “If that’s it, we’ll start headin’ down to the base of the location.”   Everyone makes their way back to the wagon. Ruby, Marin, and I linger a bit. Ruby exclaims, “Good luck, Kai! I’m gonna do my job properly, so ya don’t hafta worry. Marin’s there too.”   “I’m not worried. You have the support of the entire team. I’m sure you’ll be able to separate them, so that it’ll be easy for Ada and me to pick them off,” I say. “How do you think you’ll do, Marin? Have you gotten more used to Aisha and the others Archer’s combat style?”   “A little bit. But my role’s slightly different than theirs after the initial strategy.  I’ll be primarily supporting unless they need me on offense.”   “I see, that’s more suited toward your strengths. Well, I might be a bit paranoid, but stay wary. Our opponents might be ex-adventurers too. I didn’t wanna bring it up because it could’ve damaged our morale, but be careful.”   Marin nods.   “’Kay! I won’t hold back.”   I’m not sure what she means by that, exactly. All I know is, she and Aisha are responsible for our initial attack on our opponents. Their role is to hit them with a head-on attack in the middle that forces them to separate left or right. It takes time to prepare, so the rest of the team turtles and create an opening for their Mana to be able to materialize and activate.   “Well, we’d better get going. Good luck,” I say and then jog back to the same wagon I was on previously. We leave shortly afterward.   Eventually, we arrive outside the Panoramic Grove. The other overseer platoon is waiting. There’s a symbol on the front of his armor. It’s hard to see from here, but it looks like a lion baring its fangs. Is their leader a Captain too? Although, I’m not too sure of their military structure. Captain Albius mentioned they had multiple generals. We only have one, so it can’t be all that the same.   Captain Albius meets with them for a few minutes before they split. The enemy overseer group walks into the Panoramic Grove while our overseer platoon returns to us.   “The battle’s goin’ to start soon. Xantho’s overseer platoon will go into the Panoramic Grove to inform their combatants that the battle starts as soon as you’re ready. I have the utmost faith that you’ll come out on top of this clash. Remember the strategy and your role. We’ll be observin’ from afar. Good luck,” Captain Albius says and then goes into the battlegrounds with his men.   Aisha hops off the wagon and announces, “With that said, I hope everyone remembers their roles in this battle.”   I don’t like how she assumed the role of the leader for the entire team. Probably thinks that she’s above me considering that she won against me during the mock battle. Then again, I’m part of a two-man unit with Ada that operates separately from the rest of the team. I wouldn’t be able to lead anyone as part of the battle, so whatever.    “Once we’ve located the enemy, Ruby and I will make our preparations based on the terrain. Each member of the defense team will create barriers of Mana serving as our first line of defense. Kai and Ada will standby until Ruby, and I have released our attack. Everyone else will put everything into assault, forcing the other team to stay together as a group. Ruby and I will unleash our attack to separate them into two. The offensive team will continue to focus on separating the enemy platoon.   “In the confusion, Kai and Ada will into one side of their split forces to distract them until backup arrives. The rest of us will stay in a group and utilize our numbers advantage to focus on the other half. I’ll take command in case things don’t go our way mid-battle. Now, are you ready to show them what we’re made of?”   “Yeah!” everyone cheers with hands and weapons raised in the air. I stay silent, though. I can’t be the only one.   “Show the results of our training!”   “Yeah!” The cheers grow louder. Even Jetia, Laud, Garen, and the other two goons are playing along.   “Let’s do this!”   “Yeah!”   “Defense team, forward!”   “Yeah!” everyone cheers one last time.   The defensive team marches forward while the rest of us follow in formation. I can’t help but think to what Hina keeps telling me that I need to inspire everyone as the leader. It makes me feel like I’ve lost in that aspect. But what good would come of inspiring the goons? It’s only artificial. It won’t take much to shatter it. I haven’t witnessed it, but they’ve trained seriously for one week at most. If I hadn’t funded the initial Mana training seminar for them, they wouldn’t have much of a role in the battle.   We step into the Panoramic Grove, walking in a straight path toward the center. This place looks empty, devoid of any life other than these various plants and trees. It’s a big place so that the monsters could be deeper inside. The bigger question is if those monsters are docile or hostile. In a place like this, I would find it strange if there weren’t dangerous monsters ranked ‘C’ or higher roaming about in a place like this. They could be hibernating because it’s winter.   We’re a few minutes deep in here, but still no signs of the enemy or anything. It also feels warmer, like it’s spring, but it’s clearly winter. Are these trees giving off heat? I hope the temperature doesn’t increase much more than this. Otherwise, I’ll be a bit uncomfortable with these armor warmers installed. My joints will be less stiff, though, in this warmer weather. Should be easier to move around in these conditions.   Hopefully, Xantho’s team isn’t too far into this jungle. Captain Albius mentioned they would be near the entrance. He didn’t mention where, but it has to be in an open area. They aren’t going to station on the middle of an upward-slant. If we’re supposed to find them fairly easily, there has to be some kind of landmark.   The top of this hill up ahead seems like a strong contender. This hill looks larger compared to a previous one we passed. It extends in the distance from the left and right of our view. If the bottom of the slope is the ground, the top has to be at least the third or fourth floor. From down here, it doesn’t look like the area is secluded by smaller trees either. Just the massive ones that curve and twist above us.   The best thing to do would be to play it cautiously from here and use this terrain to our advantage. Aisha and Ruby could prepare their magic ahead of time and wait to activate it. Don’t make too much noise and try to glimpse what’s on top of this hill, minimizing movements. I don’t want to bring it up since the enemies could hear me. If anything, it would be Aisha’s job to call it out. No one seems to say anything as the defense team starts their climb up the hill.   It would be too confusing to bring up the matter, anyway. Everyone’s already had the strategy drilled into their brain. A new one would confuse them. I’m thinking too hard because our opponents might not be pushovers, but it should be fine either way.   I reach the top of the hill shortly after our frontline. A complete flat area from what it appears. Looks like a round mound. The grass goes up to my waist, so it’s hard to tell. There are a few small stray trees around, but isn’t a major obstacle. The enemy is positioned right across as I thought. They’re grouped up closely together. It’s hard to tell how many there are since they’re far as well, but there should be 16. Captain Albius mentioned all of them had to be there.   “Everyone, it’s showtime!” Aisha exclaims. Everyone rushes forward to move into their positions. Ada and I don’t have much of a role to play now. Jetia, the four goons charge forward releasing a short stream of Scrap Mana from their palms in front of them. A bit of a waste in my eyes, but it’s not like they know how to use magic. The only purpose is to stop them from moving any inactive Mana in the area in front of them. We all follow them because we want to settle down in a better position.   They stop and create several vertical walls of Scrap Mana. It’s to protect Aisha and Ruby from a direct line of sight attack by the enemy. If anything strong breaks through, Ada and I are backup. But, they should’ve moved farther in before barricading there. Otherwise, they’ll have a longer time to react to Aisha and Ruby’s big attack. Amateurs.   Everyone besides Aisha, Ruby, Ada, and I continue dashing forward. The enemy hasn’t moved much, thankfully. There are a few things they can do that would be problematic for us. Running away is an issue, but it’s also dishonorable at the start of the battle since it doesn’t count as a tactical retreat at that point, so that’s out. Splitting up right from the start and charging at us in a full-on assault would be the worst case scenario. If they’re smart, they would go around the bottom of the hill instead of right across. Otherwise, even if they split up, Ruby and Aisha’s magic would still be largely effective.   That’s why everyone charges in from the start. To stop our opponents from splitting up if they do. Their attacks aren’t meant to do any damage to them. Going all-out isn’t the goal either. Because that might alter the landscape and create conditions unfavorable for us, they only need to distract them for a moment as it won’t take long for Aisha and Ruby to prepare, especially in a flat area like this.   The enemy lines up in an arrow-shaped formation and charges at us. Strange that they decide to do this now. Maybe they came up with a strategy on the spot. Unrefined Mana appears around them, cloaking them inside. It’s like a smooth wave of slow-moving Mana moving toward us. That settles it. They must be ex-adventurers. Or at least have several members responsible for creating that. All of them are running fairly fast while in sync too. Faster than Jetia and the goons run.   They’re going full-force down the middle. The enemy can’t possibly know about our plan, so I don’t see why they would think we can’t stop them. We can’t stare and do nothing since Aisha and Ruby won’t be ready in time. Several from Aisha’s group could easily deter them from this strategy. The enemy must think little of us if they thought otherwise.  Unless we collide with them head-on, they’ll end up a bit separated.   The sledgehammer user from Aisha’s team aligns himself with their charge and jumps into the air. He slams the ground in front of him. The enemy team is still a way’s off. I suspect the only purpose is to send Mana into the ground. He’ll use a trigger word to activate the magic when the time is right. They can’t defend from an attack from under with their current strategy.   Four of our Archers shoot arrows at them. That’s one thing they can’t defend against with their Mana barrier. The Mana surrounding the enemy disappear, and their frontline blocks the projectiles with their shield. Their backline must have alerted them about the incoming attack.  It doesn’t slow them down. They slow down suddenly, coming to a stop. It must be Deniz’ Wind magic; the grass around them shift away from us. The two army recruits from Aisha’s team shoot magic at the enemy too. Balls of fire and water. With the combined assault of our attacks, they can’t defend against both physical and magical attacks at once.   A stone wall seems to extend from their shields at the front of their formation. Or so, they can defend against both. Since the grass is in the way, it’s hard to tell if the shields cover their lower half, but their upper body is covered. I would assume they would cover any gaps with Unrefined Mana. They continue their charge forward but slightly slower than before. I’m sure the weight of the stone wall slows them down.   Aisha’s team could attack more aggressively by going around their blindspot, but they would have to travel farther out. Since they’ll have to fallback eventually, it’s not a good idea. A stone platform rises from under the enemy quickly. It launches them into the air. It was wide enough to include over half of their members. The stone wall disappears shortly afterward.   Two of our archers shoot one arrow each right under them. A puddle of water appears from under them. The second arrow adds Lightning magic to the mix. Dropping from that height would already be problematic, but now they have to deal with the trap too. A dirt cube appears right underneath them that falls a short distance down. A thump resounds as it hits the ground.  It effectively neutralizes the trap and reduces their fall time. To have written instructions for that on the spot is impressive.   Everyone on our team on the frontlines falls back. The enemy seems to stop their advance forward and drop from behind the cube. A dirt bridge appears over the puddle next to the cube. They cross it and then charge down the middle with the same formation. That’s good for us since we don’t have to expend energy to force them to regroup. At this point, Ruby and Aisha should be ready before they reach us.   “Are the preparations done?”  one of the Archers asks as she rejoins us.   “Just about. Defense, fall back!” Aisha exclaims. Jetia and the four goons run back to us. Their Scrap Mana barrier disappears soon after. The enemy Is still a bit far from us, but that’s what we want. Somewhere not too close and not too far. I’m surprised our plan has worked so well. They haven’t tried attacking us at all. That would’ve challenged our strategy a lot if they focused on attacking instead of closing the gap. “Are you ready, Ruby?”   “Yep!” Ruby exclaims.   “Everyone, stand back!” Aisha warns. A giant mist of her Dark magic appears in front of her. It forms a large square-wall shape that extends forward. The mist travels quickly toward the enemy who stops their charge and puts up a wall of Unrefined Mana. That won’t work. From what I heard, Aisha has Runic magic too, the same as Marin. She most likely converted the mist into a physical object so that it would easily bypass the wall of Mana. As a physical object, it also won’t weaken Ruby’s attack.   Ruby walks farther up and points both of her palms forward.   “Everyone, get ready for stage two of our strategy!” Aisha exclaims. The mist has almost reached our opponents who are standing ducks out there barricaded. They haven’t realized that the Dark magic isn’t a magical object.   “Infernal rush!” Ruby exclaims. The sheer size of her attack catches me off guard. It covers a greater area than Aisha’s attack, and it’s not over yet. I gape as this monstrosity of an attack rushes forward quickly toward our unsuspecting opponents. All of this is Rich Mana too. I’ve used my Rich Mana fireball enough times to know.   The fire from her magic seems to interact with Aisha’s Dark magic too. It ignites the mist causing small explosions. At this point, I can’t see our enemies anymore. Ruby’s Fire magic is too massive. And it’s still coming out. She mentioned she wasn’t going to hold back. Does that mean she means on using all of her Fire Affinity with entirely Rich Mana? This is on the level of Hina’s ridiculous amount of Water Affinity. If she used this attack in the cafeteria… I’m sure Hina wouldn’t be here right now.   Holy shit… At this point, I’m not sure if Ada and I will have a role to play here. Our enemies might be completely toasted at this point. Dead. They’re completely dead. No wonder Ruby asked that question earlier. No one moves or says a word.   Fire finally stops appearing in front of Ruby. No sight of our enemies on the right side of this attack. It either means, they’re inside or on the left side.   “Not yet…” Ruby says. Two seconds later, Ruby exclaims, “Explode!”   The smooth, giant stream of fire expands almost twice in size instantly, covering almost half of the length of the mound. A gust of wind erupts from it that blows outward. The flames continue to expand outward from every direction except behind toward us. The stream of fire breaks apart quickly into parts forming smaller waves of fire that shoot outward in every direction except toward us. The flames ignite all the grass and trees on fire. Ruby laughs manically, her magic still active, wreaking havoc in front of us. Some of her magic is still present in the middle, so the enemy is nowhere to be seen.   “Firewall!” she exclaims and then continues laughing. The flames that spread outward return to the original location forming a wall of fire in the middle. She turns to me and smiles. “I did good, right Kai? It’s yer turn now!”   My turn? I don’t have a turn. That was complete overkill. The grass has already burned away. I charge forward, not knowing if Ada is following me. I’m not following the plan anymore. I want to know if there are any survivors, though I know the answer. I’m expecting Captain Albius and the other overseer group to appear at any moment now. There isn’t a match if everyone is dead.   But they’re ex-adventurer, right? I’m not sure myself what I would’ve done in their shoes if I got caught in the middle of that. I would end up using my Mana to surround myself. In their case, they would need to surround themselves in a lot of Rich and Unrefined Mana to survive.   I reach the point next to the fire where we last saw our opponents. I don’t see anything. Even if they were dead, there should be some armor left behind. They’ve got to be smart enough to avoid staying too long in the middle. If the fire burned them, naturally, the response is to run from it. Unless they’re still in there protecting themselves with Mana.   “Where do you think you’re going?” Ada asks. She came with me after all.   “Following the plan,” I answer. “Stage two, remember?”   “It’s obvious we don’t need to follow the plan anymore.”   Several on our side yell in the distance behind us. Too far to hear them. Our team is shuffling about. The enemy must still be alive. Are they all on the other side?   “You were saying?” I ask and turn around. “There’s nothing here, so let’s regroup.”   “Don’t tell me what to do.”   Before I have a chance to run back, something erupts from the ground in front of us. A man dual-wielding two short swords surfaces. He smiles and says, “Surprise.”   Damn! Were they underneath Ruby’s magic this entire time? He doesn’t appear to be hurt at all. I unsheathe both of my swords immediately. A strong gust of wind knocks Ada and me back.   This is bad. We’re flying farther away from the team. Worst of all, Our trajectory is away from the mound. It’s going to hurt if we hit the ground from this distance. The man from earlier runs toward us. There doesn’t look like there’s anyone else. There could be more inside the mound that hasn’t come out yet.   I’ll hit a tree before hitting the ground. I turn around and reverse the grip on my swords. I impale the trunk of the tree with both of my weapons. I climb down slowly taking one sword at a time while putting another one in until it’s completely safe to free fall.   “Took you long enough,” Ada says. Easy for her to say.   “Shut up. I don’t have Wind magic like you do.” There doesn’t appear to be any other enemies coming out. I lost track of the other guy. This place we’re at is not an ideal place to fight: trees, big boulders, and tall bushes. There are too many obstacles in the way. The ground isn’t even either. “Where’d that guy go?”   “I’m right here,” he says behind me. I jump forward and turn around. He’s not there. “Just kidding.”   Again, his voice came from behind me. But he’s not there. I say, “Cover my back, and I’ll cover yours, Ada. We’re gonna need to work together on this one.”   “Don’t have to remind me,” she answers and places her back to me.   “Hope you’ll entertain me,” his voice echoes around us.   Since I don’t know where he is, there’s not much I can do in preparation. Blindly running in isn’t a good idea either. There could be an ambush set up.   This guy needs to attack us already if he’s going to. Or is his plan only distraction? Once he shows himself, I won’t lose track of him.   A spinning blade glides through the air from my right and another one from my left. They curve toward my path, but I easily parry both of them. What’s he planning? He threw both of his weapons away. Adding a bit of Wind magic on them isn’t going to make them exceptionally hard to avoid. Metal clangs resound behind me. I take a quick look.  Ada parries these small star-shaped blades.   More of those small star-shaped blades are speeding toward us from every direction. They’re not much of a problem to deal with. I don’t need to put pressure into my swings. I move my blade in its path which knocks them away with their own momentum. He’ll run out of stuff to throw eventually.   One after another. It’s been at least a dozen of them. A branch rustles above me. The man falls toward me with his two weapons raised above him. I’m tired of all this running. I’ll challenge him head-on.  I raise my swords above me to meet his attack. His descent quickens suddenly. Our blades clash.   He’s strong. Lightning magic appears on both of his blades. He presses harder into me. I grit my teeth, and he slowly pushes my blades back. It won’t be good if he breaks my guard and hits me with his magic.   I move Scrap Mana to my arms and exclaim, “Strength!”   I push back but not too hard. Ada is moving behind him, and this position will do just fine. Suddenly, his push is getting stronger. How is he so strong?   I can’t make this a contest of power. I angle my blades toward my left and step to the right. His weapons slide off mine toward the ground. I strike him with a follow-up attack. He jumps back. Ada isn’t close enough to catch him. She throws two daggers toward him while he’s still in the air, not slowing her charge. She exclaims, “Light cone!”   A cone of light that projects forward appears around both of her thrown daggers. She grabs another pair of weapons from her belt. I dash forward too. Best not give him too much breathing room.   He closes his eyes and parries both of the daggers toward me. Oh, shit.   “Ah!” I exclaim as the light blinds me. I close them immediately, but it wasn’t fast enough. I won’t be able to see well for a few seconds I stop running and jump to my left to avoid the daggers. “Damn it, Ada!”   Fighting with a Light user on your side is annoying. It might work well with her team since most of them are Archers, but to fight together in close-combat is difficult. It was easier to fight against her.   I open my eyes, my vision blurry. Pain radiates from both of them. I try to focus my vision, despite it. Metal clangs quick succession in front. A burst of wind knocks me back. I reverse the grip of my weapons and dig them into the ground before getting knocked too far. Four swords are flying toward my direction. I have double vision, so that’s probably two.   I pull my weapons from the ground, switch my grip to normal, and then jump over to the left. That should be good enough to avoid his swords. They suddenly change trajectory toward me. Wind magic?   Fine. I parry both of them. It’s not that hard to figure out their general location even though my vision is not perfect. I move Scrap Mana into my legs and exclaim, “Haste!”   I dash back to where I was. His decision to throw his weapons away is questionable. It only buys him a few more seconds. How many swords does he have?   My eyes are back to normal. I sheath my left sword and move Rich Mana into my left palm. I can’t leave Ada alone for too long without help. She won’t have a chance against his strength. I was able to exploit that during our duels, but this guy is stronger than I am. She can’t handle a head-on battle with him.   I follow the sounds of metal clashing. Ada strikes with one attack after another. Left dagger, right, dagger, left foot, right foot. The enemy effortlessly blocks every attack with his Lightning covered blades. Those look like the last of his blades, so he can’t throw any more of them away. He could easily overpower her if he wanted to. Why isn’t he?   I don’t think about it too much and point my left palm toward him. “Fireball!”   A ball of fire comes out of my palm and flies toward him. He and Ada jump backward. The enemy jumps on a tree trunk and jumps to another tree. I keep my eyes on him.   “Hey! Watch it!” Ada exclaims.   I regroup with her. “That wasn’t anywhere close to you. At least he can’t redirect my magic toward you unlike someone’s…”   “You should’ve knocked them back at him. Not my fault you didn’t react fast enough.”   “Listen, there was no time. He was precise with his strike and it perfectly aligned with my sight.”   “Okay. Next time. You’ll reflect it back.”   “I’d prefer it if you didn’t do stupid things like throw weapons with Light magic on them that he can easily turn in his favor.”   “What do you want me to do then? If I’m in your way, you can fight him alone.”   “No, I can’t take him alone. He’s strong. He hasn’t gotten the slightest bit serious yet. Knocking us around with Wind magic is the only magic he’s used so far.   The enemy jumps around from tree to tree like a monkey. He’s agile like a monkey. But what’s his purpose? He doesn’t have any remaining weapons left to throw. At this point, it might be better to leave him and regroup with the others. Hope they’re fine.   He throws both of his weapons at us while continuing to jump around. I don’t know if I’ve overestimated this guy, but they completely miss their mark. They go right over our heads. He doesn’t have anything left. But the first two weapons he threw earlier is near him. He’s planning to pick those up. I won’t let him.   I dash toward those weapons. At best, he’d be able to pick one weapon up but not the other. I’ll use that to my advantage and continuously attack him, so he doesn’t have time to pick up the other one. He’ll regret playing around with us.   He jumps to a branch that collapses immediately. He falls. Unlucky for him. I’ll be taking this chance. Ada is right behind me. I cover myself with a layer of Unrefined Mana so that he can’t knock me back with Wind magic anymore. We surround him before he has a chance to run.   “Wa-wait! I give up!” he exclaims with his hands raised above him.   I sigh. This was way too easy. This guy is just an idiot. He might be strong, but his strategy is awful.   We need to regroup with the others. I look around. Hmm. Which way did we come from? I walk forward a bit in the direction I think the mound is in, but it’s not there.   Something roars in the distance. I turn toward the direction. Oh, shit…   A monster. From the sounds of it, it could be a lion. I’m not sure if that’s in the direction we came from. Why did I hope for a monster to appear? One really did. Ruby’s attack might have attracted it here. We shouldn’t waste too much time here and regroup.   “Kai, stop wasting time and come on,” Ada says, turned toward another direction.   Well, at least she’s good for something. I turn toward her but notice something strange. The enemy has Lightning magic surrounding his both of his hands. He smiles as he gets on his feet, still crouched down. What’s he doing when he’s already given up? There are no monsters nearby.   He lunges forward toward Ada.   “Ada, watch out behind you!” I warn and dash toward them. What’s that guy thinking? Doesn’t he know that he can’t fight after giving up?   I won’t get there in time. Ada starts to turn around. She won’t realize in time. The man grabs the back of her neck with his left hand and puts his palm on the back of her armor with the other. Ada screams as she’s shocked by his magic and falls. She lets go of her daggers.   The man takes one of Ada’s daggers. He covers it in Lightning magic and stabs her through the shoulder. She screams. She’s still conscious but probably paralyzed.   “What the hell are you doing?!” I exclaim. This could disqualify their whole team. “Hey, Captain Albius! Do you see this?!”   The man laughs. “There isn’t anyone here. Just us. Rule number one of fighting. Never let down your guard.”   I knew something was off about this guy. He made himself look stupid by throwing his weapons at inopportune times. There’s no way he didn’t recover from that branch breaking. Or was he the one who broke the branch? He must’ve planned to pretend to give up and use a cheap trick to take out Ada from the start. He could’ve done it without cheating if he wanted. But he chose this underhanded method. Where the hell is Captain Albius or anyone from the overseer team?   He jumps away from as I rejoin with Ada. Attacking him feels wrong despite what he did. I can’t kill him. We’d probably get into trouble for that. But maybe, if we explain what happened, it would be fine. At least injure him enough so that he can’t move, but he won’t die. That would be best. But I can’t leave Ada. Who knows what else he’s going to pull.   I could get my revenge against her now by leaving her, but if she dies, I’m sure they would end up blaming me for it.   “C’mon, let’s dance!” the man exclaims. I don’t move from my position. I’ll wait for Ada to recover from the Lightning magic. “Leave the girl. No one’s watching.”   Several seconds pass. He smiles and then says, “Suit yourself. Rise! Activate!”   He runs off somewhere. Were those trigger words?   “Kai, over here!” Ada exclaims.   I turn around, finding all the initial weapons he threw in the air flying toward us. They’re each covered in Lightning magic. There must be Wind magic too for them to be flying toward us. I’ll stop the source of their power first. I form a thick wall of Unrefined Mana in between us and the incoming small star-shaped blades and the two short swords. It won’t stop the Wind magic from coming out or the momentum of the weapons, but the Wind magic will stop propelling the weapons. The blades will fall and miss their mark.   The weapons appear past my wall of Unrefined Mana, but the trajectory and speed didn’t change at all. What?!   Putting aside what just happened, I’ll have to stop them manually. I stand in front of Ada with my blades ready.

"How long are we gonna fall?! We're gonna die!"  Hiro exclaims in the darkness. I use all the force in my limbs to push the couch further down.   I point my right elbow down and shout, "Fireball!"   The familiar flaming ball of fire comes out and then lights the couch on fire.   "Everyone hold hands! I'll use Wind magic before we hit the ground!" Luna exclaims. I join hands with Luna on my right. Hiro's still holding onto his weapon on my left.   "Hiro, let go of that stupid hammer already!" I exclaim.   "But—"   "Do you wanna die?!" He frowns and lets go of his hammer. I join hands with him. Luna and Drugo are on the ends with an open hand. We line ourselves up so that we are equidistant to the ground below us. I gulp as I stare at the burning couch about ten feet below us.   The narrow walls around us expand into a large open area. The burning couch illuminates the surrounding area. Hiro loosens his grip on my hand and exclaims, "Look! There's water below us!"   "Don't let go, Hiro! We don't know how deep that water is!" I exclaim.   "Everyone, get ready!" Luna exclaims. The couch falls into the water, and a loud splash resounds. The water seems deep. Luna points her right palm below us and releases Wind magic. I tightly grasp both of my hands as the force of her magic forcibly pushes Luna above us while Drugo swings to the bottom. Our descent slows down a little. Drugo falls into the water first while the rest follows in order. I let go of Luna's and Hiro's hand as I dive into the water.   There are luminescent florae on the floor of this body of water along with various types of fish. The couch and Hiro's new weapon sink into the depths of a cliff. I note the location of the cliff and then swim back to the surface. The cave is pitch black with no signs of light other than underneath the water. Everyone else surfaces too. A waterfall resounds nearby.   "Well, looks like we're still alive," I say.   "But my hammer… Maybe I can still get it back."   "Don't bother, Hiro. What's more important? Your life or that hammer?" I ask. Hiro gawks down into the water.   "Where're we?" Marin asks.   "I think we're in a cavern," Luna says.   "Let's talk after we find some dry land," I suggest, recalling the direction of the cliff. I release some Fire magic out of my forehead, focusing on volume instead of burning intensity. It lights the area around me. I swim toward the dry land nearby. The others follow and do the same. I turn back. The waterfall I heard is actually water dripping down from a hole in the wall.   "It's cold down here. I'm freezin'!" Hiro exclaims while shivering. I shiver a little too.   "I'll make us some wood," Marin says.   "That's so useful, Marin!" Luna exclaims. "We can always count on you!"   We sit in a miniature circle as we wait for her to make us some wood. I blush and avert my eyes from Marin and Luna. After about 15 seconds, several short, thick pieces of wood appear in the middle. "Hurry up and heat it up, Kai!"   "Not yet, Hiro. Look, Marin's still concentrating," I say. Marin still has her palms focusing on the wood.   "What's the holdup…?" I sigh and then look at Drugo. He smiles and chuckles.   "Right now that wood's in a magical form. If Kai tries to heat it up now with his magic, both of them would collide against each other. After Marin converts it into a physical form, Fire magic will be able to light it on fire," Drugo explains.   "Did you really not notice when she used it during our first 'Eliminate the King' game?" I ask.   "Nope."   "It's ready," Marin informs. I let out a small stream of fire out of my right palm using Scrap Mana. I keep it going until the wood catches on fire. A wave of heat radiates the front of my body with warmth.   "This sucks… First I lose my hammer, and now we're stuck here…" he says and then sighs. I frown and shake my head.   "I don't wanna hear anything about that shit hammer again. We wouldn't be down here if you didn't trip and break the floor. And then there's that. All of you jumping on me without thinking about the consequences…"   "We're sorry," they say in unison. I sigh.   "Well, don't be so upset, Kaister. There might be some upside to this."   "This place might finally cure your boredom," Sitos says.   "We might find some new things to cook too!" Luna exclaims.   "Yeah! Explorin' the unknown…! Like adventurers would! Let's go explore this cave!" Hiro exclaims as he stands up. He shivers and then says, "It's cold…"   He immediately sits back down near the fire. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested in exploring this cave…but we also don't have any of our weapons. If we do run into some monsters who knows if we can even survive… Even if we do kill them, we don't have any of our cooking supplies so it won't taste good."   "Sorry…" they say in unison as they look down. I sigh.   "Well, what's done is done. We'll probably be fine because I can use my Rich Mana for anything vicious that comes at us," I say with a smile.   "Wow, you're so reliable, Kai!" Luna exclaims.   "Yes, I feel safe with you around," Sitos says.   "We won't have to be afraid of anything with you around!" Luna exclaims.   "Nah I'm not that strong…" I say and then grin.   "So you'll forgive us?" Luna asks.   "Huh? Yeah, sure," I say while still grinning. Praise me more… Huh…?   No one is paying attention to me. "Marin, I think we can make the cooking work if you make us a pot with your magic. We can use my magic as the stove, and you can make everyone bowls and eating utensils!"   "Yes, and some makeshift weapons too to kill anything that wants to screw with us."   "Make me a hammer and I'll kill everything!"   "I'll be glad to. It will take a while, though."   "You don't have to worry about that, since we'll be drying our clothes for a while." My grin turns into a frown as I realize what just happened. "Don't just sit there gawking, Kai! We all share an equal amount of responsibility in this."   "Yeah, Kai! Ya can't laze around doing nothin' like ya usually do!" Hiro exclaims. My lip twitches.   "As the mighty protector of all of you guys… I'm gonna rest up my strength for when we need it," I say and then lie down and close my eyes.   "I think that was too much…" Luna whispers.   "He will forget all about it when he wakes up. Let him nap."   I'm not gonna forget this, Sitos… Ah, whatever.   …   "Kai, we're all ready!" Luna exclaims. I open my eyes slowly and then get up. Everyone is standing up holding onto something. I rub my eyes. Hiro's holding onto a weapon shaped like his usual sledgehammer while Sitos and Drugo hold onto a single edged long blade made out of only stone.   "I made one…for you too," Marin informs as she holds out the weapon in her palms. I stand up and then grab it with my right hand. I swing it a couple of times in front of me. "It might be a little heavy…to stay durable…"   "It's fine, Marin. This will work," I say with a smile.   "Hiro, you cannot swing that hammer around like you usually do. It will break."   "I know Sitos!"   "Friends, let's go explore and find the way out before it gets too late," Drugo says.   "I'll lead the way," Luna says as she lights a flame like torch in the palm of her hand. She walks toward the darkness in front of us. We follow. I look around. The ceiling is much shorter in this passage than the ceiling above the body of water. The walls, ground, and ceiling are very uniform with no unevenness whatsoever. The dimensions of the passage seem to be like a perfect square with sides measuring at least 30 feet. There are no rocks or plant growth anywhere.   "Hey, friends, wait," Drugo says and stops following Luna. He walks over to the wall on the left. He puts his hand on the wall. "This is strange…the walls aren't made out of stone. They're made out of dirt…"   "Have you noticed how fucking even these walls are? It looks like something dug out this tunnel."   "I saw. I haven't seen any living creature besides some bugs," I add.   "Uhh… I don't know how I feel 'bout explorin' this cave anymore… Can we just dig our way back up…?" Hiro asks.   "Don't be a wuss, Hiro. You were so excited just a moment ago. I'm pretty sure the tunnel might collapse on us if we do any unnecessary digging," I say.   "Kaister's right. Let's follow the path," Drugo suggests as he rejoins us. We continue forward.   "I think I see something on the ground," Luna says as she quickens her pace. She stops in front of something and doesn't say anything. I cock an eyebrow and then catch up to the others. I widen my eyes. Skeletal remains lie on the ground clad in armor. A strangely designed sword lies beside it.   "Is it… Human?" Hiro asks. Sitos sets down his weapon and then turns over the remains on its back. A tail is revealed along with a thin horn that curves upward on the back side of the skull. I figure the other horn broke off somewhere. "Do-do you think this is one of the Xogs…?"   "What the hell else can it be?" Sitos asks while still crouched down. He picks up his weapon as he stands back up. We continue forward, discovering more of these skeletons along the way. We come to a new area. There's an abundance of bedrock along the walls. Carts are knocked down next to them.   I say, "Hey, this is really starting to look like…"   "An ancient civilization. There has got to be treasure here somewhere," Sitos says with a small grin. We walk the rest of the way without saying a word as we observe our surroundings. After about five more minutes, we discover a broken down looking entrance. Several skeletons lie near the entrance surrounded by various types of weapons and armor. There are pillars knocked down and broken. The doors are around fifteen feet tall, and the structure seems to be built inside the dirt.   "Have you guys noticed that there weren’t any other types of skeletons? They were all of the same type wearing the same armor… So either it was a civil war or…" I say and then gulp as we make our way inside. The building appears to be made out of stone.   "We do not have to worry about that. It has been at least a thousand years since anyone has inhabited this place," Sitos says. We make it inside and find ourselves in a straight hallway with the ceiling as tall as the door. We find a room on the left and right with normal-sized doors. "Let us split up. Drugo and Marin, you two go with Kai. Hiro and I will go with Luna and explore the room on the right."   "Sounds good," I say as I light a flame out of my forehead with Scrap Mana as I did earlier. I move toward the door, immediately finding some strange writing on the door. I ignore it, open the door, and then go in. There are dozens of swords lined up along the walls. I drop the weapon Marin made and then pick up one of the swords. There are cobwebs all over it, and it looks rusted, but it's lighter. I swing it several times in front of me and then strike the weapon Marin made. The sword doesn’t break, but Marin's weapon does. "Oops… Sorry, I broke the weapon you tried your best to make."   "It's okay… It just means that sword is better," she responds with a smile. I set down the sword I picked up just now and then try picking up a few other swords. I try a variety of swords, but the lightest was the one from before. I find an identical sword to take with me. Drugo takes one of the heavier ones I tried. "Kai, there's another room over here. Can you come here?"   "Yeah, sure," I reply as I walk over to Marin. There's another room with no door attached. There are dozens of boxes and an anvil in the middle of the room. There are various types of ore inside the boxes. "Wow… There're a lot of different types of metal here that I've never seen…"   "I think there're more swords over here," Marin says. I walk over to her. There's a barrel full of swords next to her.   "Hmm… I think I'll just keep the two I have, but Sitos might wanna check some of these out."   "Kai! Did you find anything?" Sitos asks.   "Yeah! I found a ton of cool weapons! Come check it out!" I exclaim.   Sitos and the others find their way to us. I show him the weapons I found and the barrel full of more swords. After some digging around, he finds two more swords made of the same metal, but they are longer than mine.   "No fair! Where's my weapon?" Hiro asks.   "You will find it soon enough," Sitos says.   "How can you be so sure, Sitos?"   "Have you not noticed, moron? The room that we were in had only armor. Now this room has only swords. These rooms are where they manufacture various weapons and armor."   "Oh! Let's go find some more rooms then! Luna, follow me!"   "Okay!"   Shouldn’t it be the other way around…? I sigh and then follow them.   "Hey! What gives?!" Hiro yells before I reach the hallway. Hiro and Luna are just a little bit ahead. A pile of rubble covers the entrance of both doors on the sides. "These stupid rocks are blocking the way to these rooms!"   "Just keep moving forward. There are bound to be more rooms," I say as I toss both of my weapons over the rubble. I jump up, climb over it, and then pick up my swords again. Apparently the rubble covers the entire length of the hallway from what I see at this spot. Hiro's hammer falls near my foot.   I turn around and shout, "Hey! Watch where you're throwing that!"   Hiro and the girls climb over. Drugo and Sitos hand their weapons over to Marin and Luna while they climb over. Hiro exclaims, "Kai, point the light over here!"   I face forward, showing Hiro the cruelty of what reality is. I gather some Scrap Mana around my left elbow and point my elbow forward. After binding some Fire Affinity to it, I let it out. A ball of fire speeds down the hallway. The rubble continues for a long distance. It ends far down the line. "Sitos… You said I'll find my weapon, right…? Right?"   "Let us move forward. Forward!" Sitos exclaims and continues forward without looking at Hiro.   "Cheer up, Hiro. You still have the weapon Marin made for you," I say before following the others.   "I guess…" As we travel across, we find more remains scattered about. We make it to the end of the rubble and then find two more rooms. There is only some strange clothing in both of them. We continue forward and then find stairs that lead down. The ceiling reduces to ten feet as we reach the new floor, but the hallway is still plenty wide. We find ourselves at a crossroads with two possible ways to go.   "I suppose I'll go left again with Drugo and Marin. Yell if you find anything."   "Sure," Sitos says.   "Be careful," Luna cautions.   "You too, Luna." With that, I lead my group into the left hallway and then go toward the first door on the left. As I open the door, random dust particles get scattered on my face. Some of it gets into my throat, and I cough several times before going in. The room is very cramped with dimensions probably half the size of our old bedrooms. "Is this a bed…?"   I kneel over to the strange rectangular shaped material on the ground and then sit on it; it's hard and bouncy. Marin and Drugo examine the table next to the bed.   "There's a book here, but I can't read it," Marin says.   "It doesn't look like there's anything else here," Drugo adds.   "Let's move on then." I get up and then go back into the hallway. We discover similar rooms down the hallway and don't bother exploring them fully past opening the door. Eventually, we come across three different paths, and I pick the one on the right. There isn't anything different in the rooms we find here, but sometimes the rooms are slightly bigger. The hallways and rooms seem to be in better shape than the floor above us. We haven't found any skeletal remains either. Marin suddenly screams and grabs onto my back.   I turn around and exclaim, "What's wrong?!"   She lets go of me and then blushes. "Sorry… There was a rat…"   "Oh…" I sigh and keep going forward. Girls will be girls I guess… Oh, I see something!   I quicken my pace and then come across a room with no door. I go inside. As I look around, I say, "Wow, this room is huge! It reminds me of the Arena."   There are seats in the stands too. Marin exclaims, "Ka-Kai! Look in the middle…"   "Hmm?" I widen my eyes as I look toward the middle. Skeletal remains are in my entire field of vision. I point my left elbow forward and then shoot out a ball of fire using Scrap Mana as before. It reveals that the skeletal remains continue for hundreds of feet. There's a statue-like thing in the center of the room. I walk toward it.   "Kaister, look at the orientation of these remains… They're all facing the center," Drugo says. I stop walking as something resounds behind me. I turn around and listen carefully.   "Kai! Where're you?!" Hiro exclaims.   "It's Hiro. Let's go back for now. The others might've found something!" I exclaim as I run back the way we came from. I see something move in the stands and then stop as I focus my attention there. I squint my eyes and wait. Was it my imagination…?  I thought I saw something blue over there…   "Kaister, what's wrong?" Drugo asks.   "Nothing… I thought I saw something, but it was probably my imagination. Let's go." I resume running back to where we came from toward Hiro's voice. Eventually, we regroup. "Hey, what did you guys find?"   "We found where they stored the books! It's just down these stairs," Luna informs.   "Books…? How does that help us if we can't read them?" I ask.   "That is not the only thing. There were some strange murals on the walls and pictures in some of the books. It will take forever to go through them on our own. What did you find?" Sitos asks.   "There was this huge room like the Arena with hundreds of skeletal remains! They were all pointed toward the center where there was a statue-like thing. Before we got close enough to examine it you guys called us over," I explain.   "Statue-like thing? Well, whatever. We will head over there eventually," Sitos says as he heads down the stairs with the others. We follow. There are more steps in this staircase than the previous.   "This place is so dark. Did people really live here?" I ask.   "Whoever did probably adapted night vision. We didn't see any candles, lanterns, or anything for a light source in the rooms we checked," Luna says.   Eventually, we reach the bottom, arriving in a large, tall room. There are numerous columns of bookshelves. Some parts of the room have random heaps of rubble along with broken bookshelves. Books and random pieces of paper are randomly scattered on the floor throughout.   "Follow me. There is something interesting over here," Sitos says. I follow him. He leads us to an open space on the other side of the room. There are several tables paired with chairs, but there's only one table with a book on top of it. Along the walls are the murals Sitos was talking about. There's an upright beast with two thin horns coming out of the back of its head. It has a tail that has a triangular-shaped bone at the end of it. The arms, legs, hands, and feet look identical to humans.   "I brought over some random books from over there," Hiro says as he sets a pile of books on an empty table. He picks the book on top and then flips through it. "I can't understand any of this."   He tosses away the book and then repeats the process with the next book. I ask, "Well, it's interesting to see what these people looked like, but this can't be everything you wanted to show us."   "Take a look at this book. We figured it was some kind of diary based on the headings… By we, I mean Luna and I," Sitos says. I let the book rest on the table as I flip through the book.   "I see, so that's why you thought it was some kinda diary… The dots mean '0,' the circle means '1,' the line means '2,' the triangle means '3,' and the rest of the shapes represent the rest of the number system. How archaic…" I say while flipping through the book. I reach the last page of written content. "It ends on day 20…"   "You think this is worth taking back with us?" Sitos asks.   "Yeah, we can discover what language this is at the Academy!" I exclaim.   "Put this shit in your backpack and let us move on," Sitos says. My joints turn stiff, and I hold my breath. "What are you waiting for?"   "Uh, yeah, but let's grab it later."   "Huh…? What the hell are you saying? We do not know if we are coming back to this place."   "Look! It looks like there's more to this room over there!" I exclaim while pointing toward a direction I haven't explored. I run there. Oh! I'm in luck… There's a hallway! Hmm?   I stop for a moment and then turn my head to the right. I think something was moving here just a second ago. I search the area, finding nothing. Was it really just my imagination again…?   "Kai, what the hell are you doing now?" Sitos asks.   "Nothing… I'm coming!" I rejoin with the group and head down the hallway. "Did you guys see a blue creature or anything?"   "Huh? Blue creature…?" Sitos cocks an eyebrow.   "Yeah like something blue moving in the shadows…"   "I have not seen anything like that. Nothing other than rats and bugs would still be living down here. Has anyone else seen it?" Sitos asks as he turns his head toward the others. Everyone shakes their heads. "What did it look like?"   "I'm not sure. I just saw something blue move for a moment, that's all I saw."   "Was it some kind of bug?" Luna asks.   "Maybe…"   "There's somethin' up ahead!" Hiro exclaims. Luna and I light the way, revealing a giant pile of rocks blocking the way. The ceiling caved in. "Damn, so boring… Why're there so many piles of rocks?"   "Probably damages from the battle they had," I answer as we turn back to where we came from. "This adventure turned out to be a disappointment. I was kinda hoping we would find some kinda huge monster to defeat…"   I sigh.   "We didn't find any new creatures to eat either…" Luna says and then sighs.   "We discovered this place and these weapons, though. I bet the Academy will reward us generously for it," Sitos says.   "Yeah, I gu—I see the blue thing!" I exclaim as I sprint toward several blue things in the distance. They're in the area where the tables were. I knit my eyebrows and stop moving as I reach them. The books Hiro threw on the ground and the book on the table are glowing blue.   "What the fuck is going on here? Kai, is this the blue thing you were talking about?" Sitos asks.   "I don't think so…" I answer, feeling an eerie feeling creep down my back. The blue glow feels familiar to me.   "Wow, I've never seen a blue as bright as this!" Luna exclaims. I raise my eyebrows.   This blue… Is it the same color as my Mana?   "Friends, look! For some reason, this diary is readable now!" Drugo exclaims.   "What?!" several of us shout in unison. I pick up one of the books Hiro had thrown on the ground earlier. I widen my eyes. The blue glow forms letters in the Human language on top of the unknown language.

"…she…burned…use…cuffs…" Nausea encompasses my entire body. I open my eyes a little, but I see double, and everything is blurry. I can't move my body. I close my eyes. "…tie…too…magic…cell…" My arms are brought to my back, and something hooks them together. I'm dragged across the floor somewhere. My consciousness fades again. … I open my eyes. The feeling of weakness, drowsiness, and nausea is gone. I'm lying on a cold, stone ground. There's a sound of a water current nearby. The sound of metal clicking resounds as I try to move my arms. I remember the brief moment of consciousness I experienced. I flip my body over. I'm inside some kind of prison cell. There are vertical metal bars with gaps in between blocking me from leaving. Everywhere else is a stone wall. There's only one other cell across from me. Sitos is lying there. His hands are handcuffed behind his back. There's a small chain that connects the circular metal part around the hands. I raise my eyebrows. "Hey, Sitos… Are you awake?" I say quietly. There's no answer. I gulp. I stand up and move backward toward one of the corners in the back. I stretch out my arms so that the chain between the cuffs is straight. I prepare the instructions for my magic and then activate it. I create a thin stream of fire aimed at the middle of the chain. It's a little off, so I move my arms to adjust. I pull my arms apart using all my strength. The chain breaks after five seconds. My heart pounds rapidly, and my palms are sweaty. Sitos still hasn't moved. I prepare instructions for my magic again and then activate it. A dark-purple portal appears in front of me just in front of the bars of the cell and another one outside of it. The shapes of both of them are three feet squares. I dive through the one in front of me and then appear in the hallway. Sitos still hasn't moved. I sigh. There're voices in the distance I can't make out. They progressively increase in volume. "Bring that kid over to the location we discussed. We're going to meet Alios right now." Oh, shit! Footsteps resound louder progressively. I turn back around and dive back into the portal. I appear back in my cell. The purple portals are still there. Maybe I should just go back out there and stop them before they come into the room but Sitos might wake up from the noise or they might still see it or maybe I can just get rid of these portals. Grasping at straws, I gulp as I prepare my Mana. I instruct them to inactivate the magic I casted. I send it out toward both of the purple portals. They disperse into nothing without activating the Mana. I widen my eyes. A door bursts open. My hands are free, and the footsteps increase in volume. I lie on my back, put my hands under them, and then close my eyes. I don't move a muscle. Something clicks and then squeaks. A man exclaims, "Hey, get up! Hurry up!" I inch my eyes open. There's a guard crouched down next to Sitos. Sitos doesn't move. The man clicks his tongue. He slumps Sitos over one of his shoulders. I close my eyes.  Footsteps resound away, and the door closes. I open my eyes and sigh. That guy…was he one of the four guards who came with us? They knew Sitos' father's name… I prepare the instructions for my Mana like before, with some adjustments. I send it out and then activate it. The same sized portals appear. I dive through the one in front of me and then appear in the hallway. I turn around. The two portals both disperse into nothing after several more seconds pass. I smile and then turn back to the door. I put my ear on the door. There are no apparent sounds other than my breathing. Should I go outside? What if there's someone waiting…? I bite my lower lip. I hope everyone else is okay. I can't get caught while I don't know where everyone else is. Waiting here's pointless. I slowly turn the door knock and then open it. Luckily, there is no creaking sound. I peek my head out. There isn't anyone in sight. I go out and then close the door quietly. There are several more doors on the left side of the hallway, but it's a dead end. I inch open the door next to me on the left. There's no one standing in the hallway. I go in and then close the door behind me.  This room is identical to the one I was just in. Drugo and Hiro are in the cells, apparently still unconscious. I contemplate whether or not I should free them, but I refrain; too many suspicious questions would arise. I go back into the hallway, closing the door behind me. Luna and Marin should be next door… I repeat the same process and go into the next room, but there's no one here. I do the same for the remaining doors on the left. I find no one. I go back into the hallway and then check the room furthest down the other direction. It's the last door in this hallway. I check it and find nothing. I knit my eyebrows. Luna and Marin aren't here… I recall what Drugo said on the way here. I shake my head and avoid thinking about the possibilities. I go back into the hallway and follow the only passage out. There are several ramps that lead up. I sneak along the wall toward the opening that leads to another room. There are voices ahead. I scoot up into the corner with my back against the wall. "These brats had some high-quality weapons. These must be made out of Cobalt," someone says. "That girl had an Edgelax bow too. We could sell these for a lot," another man says. "You moron, do you remember why we're doing this in the first place?" a man asks. "Yeah, yeah… I know. It's tempting, though." "We'll get part of the cut when Alios takes his son back. Even while divided among everyone, it should support you for a while." "I'd hope so. We're risking a lot for this. Are we really going to turn a blind eye on those two?" "You'd best ignore it. You don't want to make an enemy out of them. They're working with them. We're not supposed to talk about this, so don't bring it up again." "What do you think will happen to the other three?" "They weren’t the targets so they'll probably release them after they get the money." I raise my eyebrows. My eyes quiver. "Give me the keys. I'm going to gather them up, so we can be ready for when that happens. I want this to be over with." The clattering of the keys resounds. Footsteps approach me. I gulp as I tuck myself further into the corner. I hold my breath. A guard walks through without noticing me.  What should I do? Follow him…or go out and take out those two? The answer is clear. I opt to follow the man heading down the passage. I sneak along the wall after him as he disappears from my view. I peek my head out around the last corner. He skips the room I was in and goes toward Drugo and Hiro's room. I bite my lower lip. This is bad… If he takes any of those with him, I won't be able to explain how I escaped… I raise my eyebrows and then tiptoe behind him. I wrap an arm around his neck and then squeeze it. He makes choking noises and grabs my arm with his. He stops struggling after about five seconds pass. I let him go on the ground. I take the keys from his hands. He doesn't have anything else in his pockets. I open the door to the room I was in and then drag his body along the ground. I lay him down in Sitos' cell. I take his weapon and then close the cell door. I go back into the hallway, closing the door behind me. I sneak into Hiro and Drugo's room all the way in front of the cells. Luckily, they're still asleep.  I insert keys into Hiro's cell until one of them successfully unlocks it. I open it very slowly. Every time it creaks, I stop. My heart pounds rapidly as I look between Hiro and Drugo. They don't show any signs of moving. I leave the cell slightly open and then slide in the sheathed sword. I leave the room after closing the door behind me again. I walk up the passage quietly and go back into the corner. Several minutes pass. "Hey, he's taking forever. What's he doing?" "Who knows." "I'm going to go check it out." "Right." One of them heads this way. Eventually, he passes without noticing me. I sneak along the wall and follow him like before. My heartbeat quickens as his hand reaches for the doorknob of the room I was in. He opens it but closes it afterward. He moves along toward the next room. I sigh. He opens the door to Hiro and Drugo's room and then goes inside. I follow after him without making a sound. "Hey, what're you doing in there?" I close the door quietly and then tiptoe behind him as he walks further into the room. I wrap my arm around his neck when he stops moving. Choking noises resound as he grabs my arm with his. It takes around seven seconds for him to stop moving. I let him down and then check his pockets. I find nothing. Apparently Drugo's awake. He asks, "Kaister, how'd you get out?" I insert several different into Drugo's cell before a clicking noise resounds. I open his cell door and then respond, "I tricked one of the guards to open my cell, and I knocked him out. These cuffs were rusty, so I was able to break it. I got the keys from him." "I see. It's strange how Hiroster's cell door was open, though." I laugh lightly and then say, "Maybe he heard the noise I was making and decided to check it out. He probably forgot to close the door. Let me see if one of these keys will take those off of you." I try all the keys, but none of them fit. Hiro's still asleep on the ground. I wake him up before I explain my knowledge of the situation.  "So the recon mission was a trap?" Drugo asks. "I think so. It seems like their target was Sitos all along. I don't know why they took Luna and Marin…" I answer as I drag the second guard into a cell.  I take his weapon and then shut the door. I leave the weapon on the ground. "We'll have to ask the guy upstairs." "Let's run at 'im together." "Let's not. We don't know if there're more people in another room nearby. There's still the issue with that thing they used on us too," I respond. "I'm gonna head upstairs and go into my spot again. After about a minute, start making some noise to make him come." "Got it. I'm the best there is at makin' noise." I nod and then head up the passage. The guard is standing against the wall on the right side. My weapons are on the ground in the middle of the room. Boxes are scattered across the room. I rear my head back and then tuck myself into the corner as the full minute passes. "I don't wanna! Lemme go!" Hiro exclaims. Footsteps resound closer to me. "What's going on down there?" "What're ya doin'?! No! It hurts!" "Hey, stop messing around!" the guard exclaims. Silence follows his words. He clicks his tongue and then goes through the opening. I tiptoe behind him as he heads deeper down into the passage. As he approaches the final hallway, I wrap my arm around his neck. "Now!" I exclaim. Drugo and Hiro burst out of a nearby door. Drugo turns around and takes his weapon away. Hiro kicks him between the legs.  "Don't make any loud sounds." I loosen my grip on him and then ask, "Are there more of your comrades here?" "N-no… We…we're the only three people here right now," he says and then lets out a quiet grunt. "How many more of you are there in total?" "I don't know. More than two dozen." "Where'd you take the two girls who were with us?" I tighten my arm around him after several seconds of silence. He taps my arm with his hand. I loosen my grip again. "Th-they're probably in the sewers… I don't know more than that." "Who're you working with? Who are they?" "How do you—" I tighten my grip on him again, stopping when he taps my arm. "I can't tell you. It's the same as a death sentence." I tighten my grip on him until his arm goes limp. We drag him into a cell before continuing upstairs. "How'd I do?" Hiro asks with a grin. I ignore it as I pick up my weapons. I clip my sheaths back onto my belt. "Now's not the time to celebrate. We need to rescue the girls," I say as I take out a sword. "Turn around. I'll cut those off of you." I put the sharp edge of my blade pointed toward the chain behind Drugo's back. He pulls forward as I pull back with a cutting motion. The chain is cut almost instantaneously. I'm about to do the same thing to Hiro, when suddenly, footsteps and voices resound rapidly closer. A door bursts open. "Quick! Inside before they catch up!" a man shouts. Subsequently, four armed men rush into the room. They notice us immediately. "What the?!" "Those idiots! They must have diverged off the plan. Get them, but don't hurt them!" I cock an eyebrow as they run at us. "Kai, the chains!" Hiro exclaims.  "Too late! Just go distract one of them!"  "Whatever!" Hiro runs in toward one of the men charging at us. That man stops and pulls back his spear, but he doesn't lunge forward. Hiro tackles him with his head. I block the strike of one of them from the one. Another one is circling around me. I push forward while jumping backward, pointing my right elbow toward the guy in front. "Fireball!" A ball of fire with a diameter of a foot shoots out of my elbow. It hits the man in front and knocks him down. "Shit!" the man that was circling around me stops and then exclaims. "We'll have to rough them up a little." He tightly grips his sword with both hands. Hiro is pushed onto his back. I grit my teeth. I've gotta hurry! I charge at my opponent who stands still. I slash my right sword at him. He blocks it. I attack him on his vulnerable side with my other weapon. He's pushing through my right side with brute force. I draw back my other arm to defend. My right arm is thrown back, and then his weapon hits my left. I jump backward while pointing my right elbow toward him. "Fireball!" The usual flaming ball comes out. The man doesn't move. "Soak!" Water envelops around his weapon. I gulp as he blocks my Fire magic with his sword. Some steam rises from his sword. I look over to the others. There's a man repeatedly hitting Hiro with the back end of his spear. Drugo's on the defensive against the other man. I prepare new instructions utilizing Rich Mana instead of Unrefined Mana. The man in front of me ricochets my magic toward the ceiling. It scatters into nothing. I point my right elbow at him again. I activate my magic immediately without a keyword. The same sized fireball comes out and speeds toward the man. "The same attack won't work! Soak!" The man blocks it with his weapon again. I charge forward and then strike his weapon with both of my blades, opposing his force. The water around his weapon rapidly turns into steam. "What?! Soak!" I put more strength into my attack. His guard breaks, and his eyes widen. "Water armor!" A layer of water appears around his body at the last moment before my magic hits him. The force knocks him against the wall. A large quantity of steam rises from his body. He doesn't move. I charge toward the spear-user attacking Hiro. He blocks my attack. Hiro stands up and then tackles him again. He head butts him in the head with his forehead. A thud resounds. The man lets go of his spear and holds onto his forehead, letting out a cry of pain. His body squirms around.  Hiro stands up, completely unaffected. He says, "Kai, get these off me." I twist one side of my lips. I feel sorry for that guy. I learned the hard way too. I cut off the chain between Hiro's handcuffs. The man on the ground stops moving. My eyes wander around the room as Hiro assists Drugo. There's a hole in the corner with a ladder attached to the side. The sound of running water is clear here.  I turn back around, the last guy now unconscious. Hiro asks, "Hey Kai, should we throw these guys in the cell too?" "No, that would take too much time. We need to hurry. Looks like the sewer is in that over back there," I respond as I point a thumb behind me.  "I found something," Drugo says as his hands are rummaging through one of the men's pockets. He pulls out a small key. Something clicks as he inserts it into one of the cuffs. He does the same to the other cuff and then tosses it to Hiro. Hiro unlocks his cuffs. "Oh! It works for mine too!" Hiro exclaims as he takes off his cuffs. He tosses it over to me and then I do the same. "Let's hurry," I say as I put the key into my pocket. Suddenly, more footsteps resound from outside. A guard appears. He knits his eyebrows. "Are you the—"  "Yahh!" Hiro exclaims as he rushes toward the guard. He swings his hammer horizontally. It lands on the side of the guard's torso which flings him into a nearby wall. A loud noise resounds, and his motionless body falls onto the floor. "Don't worry. I got 'im." I shake my head and then sigh. "Let's go then. Follow me." I sheathe my swords and then climb the ladder down into the sewers.

"Woo!" I interject as I force my eyes open despite the water in my eyes and wind blowing against me.   "Fuck, get that away from me!" Sitos exclaims. My sword is next to Sitos' face. I rotate the direction of the blade away from him. I grin while staring at his face.   It's almost four years late but… I squeeze my right hand into a fist. There are only a few seconds left before we will land in the water. I punch him on the left side of his face, hold my breath, and then close my eyes.   "Kai, what the—" A splash resounds as we all dive into the water. The current pushes me downstream. My body inverts upside down and faces the cliff. I open my eyes, finding rocks along the cliff falling to the floor of the river. More fish than I can count swim in random directions, including against the flow of the river. I invert myself again and then swim toward where the others are heading. I dig my sword into the ground next to the stream and then pull myself up. I lie down on the grassy surface and sigh.   "Kai, ya bastard!" Hiro shouts with narrowed eyebrows and a frown. I grin and laugh.   "You alright, Sitoster?" Drugo asks as Sitos coughs out traces of water.   "You don't have to be so mad… We had to make it down one way or another," I say.   "Yeah, but… I wasn't prepared!"   "Don't worry. That feeling's nothing compared to how I felt when I thought I was gonna die because of something completely outta my control…"   I say with a smile while releasing murderous intent. Hiro doesn't talk back and only makes a small sound as he looks down. Sitos finally stops coughing. "Kai, why the hell did you punch me…?"   "Oh… I thought I might've hit you… My hand slipped. Sorry," I say with no remorse.   "I do not think your hand—"   "So, we never got around taking a second look at that statue," I mention as I stand up and then pull my sword out of the ground. I jump up and then cut off a small branch off a nearby tree. I pick it up and then bring it back to the others. "But we probably don't need to. I bet that was the 'Harbinger of Death.'"   "Sounds reasonable. Could it be that those blue slimes wiped the remaining Leps out?" Drugo asks as he cuts the branch into smaller pieces.   "I think not. We were able to outrun those things on multiple occasions," Sitos says as he gathers the small pieces of wood in a pile.   "Yeah, the Leps would've had plenty of time to write something down in the library if those things appeared," Luna says as she herself in a circle around the wood. Sitos sighs as the rest of us do the same.   "It does not matter how they fucked up and died. What is important is why those glowing blue books were the same color as the slime."   My limbs go stiff. Luna ignites the wood with her magic. I gulp as I stare down into the emerging fire.   "Yeh! It was like those things used magic or somethin'."   "Marin, did you figure something out?" Luna asks.   "Yeah…no I was just thinking about something… So I thought…those things that caused the glowing blue… Like…they understand both the Lep and Human language…but they don't talk. So I was thinking they used Runic magic on the books…or something...while we weren’t looking… I don't know."   "That sounds like a stretch. How is it possible to translate a language without any knowledge of it? Kai, you have been quiet… What do you think?" Sitos asks. I look up, finding everyone's eyes on me.   "Uh…maybe there exists magic that we don't know about that can transmit knowledge to anyone? Maybe the glowing blue would appear differently depending on who was looking at it," I respond.   "Ugh!" Hiro interjects. "I don't wanna talk 'bout this anymore. We're just 4th year Academy students… Let's tell a teacher about everythin' and be done with it. I just wanna go home."   "Yes, enough of this nonsense. We need to figure out how to get home. Kai, I assume you got a good view of everything when you pushed everyone over?" Sitos asks with piercing eyes. I smile.   I'm not that absentminded like someone I know…   "Well, I tried looking, but the trees were really tall. Thickets surround this entire place. I didn't see an end to them…but how hard can it be? We simply have to follow along this cliff until we get back," I say while pointing to the direction of the cliff. "We know we fell several times from somewhere up there.   "Kaister's right. Following that general direction while going higher in elevation will get us home," Drugo adds. My stomach growls loudly. Everyone stares at me.   "I guess we should eat first!" Luna exclaims.    Marin giggles. With a smile, she says, "I'll start preparing while everyone collects ingredients."   My eyes linger on Marin. Luna asks, "Some fish from the river would be great!"   "Leave that to us," Sitos says.   "Ehh…but why do all of us have to do that?" Hiro asks.   "If you prefer to have your guts mauled out by some passing monster in the forest, feel free to explore."   "We have Kai! He can take out anythin' with his magic! I'm not scared of anythin' with him around! We can eat somethin' new for a change. Right, Kai…? Kai?   I turn my head toward Hiro.   "Huh? Yeah, I'm gonna look for something over there," I say as I point and walk toward the cliff. I shake my head and then gulp. My heart is racing. Shit, why's this happening to me now?   "I'm goin' too!"   "Stay here, Hiroster," Drugo says. "You can help us catch different fish and other creatures from this river."   "But I wanna go monster huntin'…"   "Basically, you are scared that I will catch more fish than you." Sitos says and then chuckles. "I understand."   Two splashes resound behind me. "What?! I can catch way more than you! Just watch!"   Another splash resounds.   "Kai! I'm coming with you!" Luna exclaims, running by my side with a smile. I smile back, feeling like I shouldn't evade her for now.   "Sure."   "Where're we going?"   "I don't know, somewhere over there I guess," I say while pointing to a direction and then turn toward her. My eyes linger around her chest. Specifically her bra that's visible. I face forward as she turns her head toward me. She makes a small noise and says nothing else. Several seconds pass.   "I don't mind if you see, Kai…" she says quietly with a sweet smile that makes my heart skip a beat. It takes me several seconds to process what she said. I blush and look away.   "I-I see…but I'm not gonna look…"   I cock an eyebrow. There's something at the bottom of the cliff next to the stream. I walk toward it, quickening my pace as it becomes visible. A turtle is struggling to break free from rocks atop it. I drop my sword, kneel down, lift up the rocks, and then move them aside, eventually freeing the creature.   Its shell measures about a foot from its tail to the head and has a complex pattern consisting of various shades of blue. The skin has tints consisting of two shades of dark green. There are multi-colored stripes consisting of red, orange, and yellow along each side of his head.  It keeps its left eye closed as blood leaks out of it while its right eye stares at me with a green glimmer. "Wow, you found something amazing! I heard turtles are great in soup!"   My mouth waters as I imagine the dish in my mind. The turtle retracts its head and limbs into his shell as Luna approaches it. It hisses. "Luna, wait."   "Hmm?"   "Maybe we shouldn't eat it… I mean…it probably thought he was gonna die slowly under those rocks, and then I saved him. It would be cruel if we took him back and ate him…" The turtle comes out of its shell and then crawls closer to me. It extends its head to my hand and then blows air on it.   "That tickles!" I exclaim and then pat it lightly on the head.   "Hmm…maybe it is kinda cute…" she says as she reaches out her hand. The turtle retracts its body parts again and hisses.   "Don't worry; she won't hurt you now!" The turtle comes out of its shell. Luna pets him on the head.   "That's amazing, Kai! It understands what you're saying. You should name it. Is it a boy or a girl?"   "Hmm… If I were to guess… I would say it's a boy. Guys don't forget their debts to people."   She narrows her eyebrows and asks, "What's that supposed to mean? Are you saying girls can't be grateful too?"   "No, I didn't say that…"   "Well, okay… What're you gonna name him?"   I sigh and then say, "Hmm… How about Rocky? I found him under some rocks, after all…"   I laugh. "You should put more thought into it!"   Rocky rubs his head against my leg. "Well… I guess he likes it. What're you gonna do with him? Take him back with us?"   "I'm not sure… I suppose we'll keep him company for now," I say as I get up. I pick up my sword. "Follow us, Rocky."   We lead him to the campfire, where Marin has completed her preparations. There are several fish in a pool of blood in a large pot next to the fire. I presume it goes on top of the stone pillars surrounding the fire. Marin cocks an eyebrow and asks, "You two are back already? What's that behind you?"   "Marin, let me introduce you! This is Rocky, a turtle Kai rescued," Luna says as she strokes the top of his shell.   "Oh, it's so cute! But his eye's injured…" Marin pets him on the head, avoiding the injury. Something splashes in the stream next to us. Hiro's holding onto something that's not a fish.   Is that an otter…?   Drugo and Sitos resurface soon afterward. They're holding onto bloody swords with several fish pierced through it. They swim onto land and then deposit into the large pot. Hiro exclaims, "This doesn't mean that I couldn't catch more fish than ya, just so ya know! Catchin' fish was too easy."   "Is that a fucking turtle?" Sitos asks.   "His name's Rocky. I decided not to eat him and be his friend instead," I say with a hand on top of his shell. He lounges on the grass with his limbs fully extended.   "What're ya guys makin' a fuss about over there?"   "Kai's new friend. His name's Rocky!" Luna exclaims.   "So I bring back this amazin' creature we've never eaten before, and Kai brings back this turtle we can't eat…" Hiro says as he prods Rocky in the head several times with his foot.   "What the hell is your point? It is impressive Kai has managed to tame a wild creature so quickly," Sitos says.   "Well, this otter that I just caught can be tame too!" Hiro exclaims as the otter continues to struggle in his grasp.   "Make him lie still on the ground like Rocky, and then I will believe it."   "Done!" Hiro exclaims. He bends slightly over and then slowly drops the otter to the ground. It continues to struggle. "Otter, stop moving for a second!"   It breaks free for a moment and runs away. Hiro catches it again with his back facing us. A crackle resounds. "Okay, otter, sit!"   Hiro turns around and drops the otter to the ground. It doesn't move. "See? He's tame."   "Great, now tell him to run to me."   "Otter, run to Sitos!" The otter doesn't move as expected. "I give up. So what! I bet Kai couldn't make that turtle run to me either!"   "Well, Kai?"   "Let me try. Rocky, run over to Hiro over there," I say and point to Hiro. Rocky stands up and then slowly makes his way to Hiro. "Good job!"   Hiro frowns, bends down, and then repeatedly pokes Rocky in the head. "Hey, Rocky… Run over to Sitos and bite him in the leg,"   Rocky hisses but Hiro keeps poking him. He opens his mouth and then bites his finger.    "Ow!" Hiro interjects and then tries to pull his arm back. Rocky opens his mouth. "Damn turtle!"   I laugh and then exclaim, "Good job, Rocky!"   Rocky makes his way back to me. I lie down, spreading my limbs across like Rocky while waiting for our meal. Murderous intent seeps out of Hiro. I warn, "Hiro, just leave him alone. Don't you dare do anything to him."   "Don't worry I won't hurt 'im…" Hiro says as he suddenly picks up Rocky. "But I'm gonna get 'im back for bitin' my finger."   "It barely left a mark anyway. If he really wanted to bite you, he probably could've tasted your blood."   "Come on, Rocky! What're ya gonna do 'bout this?" Hiro asks as he violently shakes him back and forth in the air with a dumb grin on his face. Rocky spits a ball of water at Hiro. I widen my eyes as it splashes on his face. He drops Rocky.   "Drugo, did you see that?" Sitos asks as Hiro coughs.   "Yup, that was quite something."   "My eyes! They're burning!" Hiro yells as he covers his eyes with his hands.   "Get a grip, Hiro. It's just water," I say.   "This ain't just water! Shit!" Hiro shouts and then dives into the river. Rocky makes himself comfortable next to me again.   "What happened to Hiro?" Luna asks.   "He was bullying Rocky when suddenly Rocky spewed Water magic in his face," I explain.   "Rocky did that?"   "Yeah, isn't he amazing?"    Hiro resurfaces and climbs back onto land. He exclaims, "Did ya see what that turtle did to me?! He's a monster! Kill 'im!"   "Calm down, Hiro. He's not a monster. I mean, look how harmless he is," I say as I turn to him, who is simply lounging on the grass.   "Even I remember a simple fact like this. Only monsters and people can use magic! He's not a person, so he's a monster!"   "It's true that we learned that, but we also learned that all living things have Mana. He could be one of the few creatures who don't follow that rule," Luna deduces. "Rocky's pretty amazing! By the way, someone needs to help us cut some of this since we don't have our usual supplies."   "I will do it," Sitos says immediately.   "I'll help too," I say, stand up, and then grab my sword. Hmm… This guy might be hungry too…   "Hey guys, you mind if Rocky takes one of those fish?"   "What?! You're gonna let that thing eat our food too? My hard work…"   "Shut up Hiro. You did not catch any fish. Go ahead and take one, Kai."   "Thanks," I say and then skewer one of the fishes.    "Kai, take this too!" Marin exclaims as she hands me an extra large bowl. "It's just temporary, though."   I take it and then put the fish inside. I run my sword through the fish on each side, filleting it. I toss out the leftover skeleton and leave the flesh inside the bowl. I cut the two fillets into smaller bite-size pieces and then set the bowl in front of Rocky. "Here you go."   He stares at the bowl for several seconds while staying completely still. He opens his mouth and then water spills into the bowl. He chows down the pieces of fish in a matter of seconds. I wonder if that's enough to fill him up.   The others finish preparing the remaining fish and the otter Hiro caught. The girls decide to throw all the fish into the giant pot and then move it over the fire. When it's ready, each of us gets a bowl of soup along with a whole fish. As we enjoy it, pieces of the otter are cooked dry over the campfire. We spend nearly an hour eating and regaining our energy.   "It is starting to get dark. We need to get moving," Sitos says as he gets up.   "Kai, what're you gonna do about Rocky?" Luna asks.   "I've been thinking about it, and I think it's better if we leave him here. He should probably stay in his habitat," I say as I stand up and pick up my sword.   "Ya hear that Rocky? Kai's abandonin' you! I'm glad we can finally be rid of this thing," Hiro says with a smile. Rocky charges toward Hiro's legs and then knocks him over. "Ah!"   We laugh. He stands back up and says, "Damn, this turtle bullyin' me until the very end…"   "I think that's his way of saying goodbye," Marin says.   "I should show him my way of expressin' goodbye…" Hiro says with murderous intent creeping out of his glare.   "Forget him and let us go," Sitos says as he walks toward the side of the cliff. The others follow.   "Well, this is it, Rocky. Go back to where you came from and enjoy the rest of your life," I say and then follow behind everyone else. I stop and turn around as his footsteps follow me. I plunge my blade into the dirt between us. "You can't follow me, Rocky. Seriously, go back to where you came from."   He doesn't move for several seconds. I sigh. He stares at me motionless with his green eye. I pick him up and then walk toward the river. He exhales small bursts of air on my face. I drop him into the river. He resurfaces, swimming in place with his head fully extended toward me. Hiro exclaims, "Hurry up, Kai!"    "Yeah, coming! Well. This is goodbye, Rocky. I hope you find some friends, so you don't have to be lonely," I say, turn back, grab my sword, and then run to where the others are waiting. I glance back briefly, finding that he's still in the same position. I catch up with the others and then look back. He's gone. I smile.   "You liked him, huh?" Luna asks as she walks by my side.   "Yeah, I guess."   "You should be more enthusiastic! I know you liked him a lot."   "Wha-why do you say that?"   "Why? Well, that's obvious."   "It is the first time you have been passionate about something since our second year," Sitos answers. I knit my eyebrows.   Hmm… Now that I think about it, they're right. We travel along the cliff for nearly two hours with no end in sight to the thicket. Luckily, we don't encounter any monsters along the way. It gets completely dark, though, so we stop. While the others are gathering some wood, I rest on the ground.    Suddenly, it feels like I forgot something. I raise my eyebrows as I remember I'm still wearing the backpack, but it's light. A very cold shiver goes down my spine. No… Please, no…   I take off my backpack while no one is looking. I keep my eyes widened as I gulp and then look inside. My mind becomes blank as I find a large hole on the bottom. Traces of the thread holding the backpack together is broken. Did it fall out when we fell the first time…? No, I definitely still had the book when we were reading those books…   I gape as I think where the book might be. Luna asks, "Kai, what's wrong?"   I turn around, finding Luna looking over my shoulder. I twitch my body once and then reply, "No-nothing…"   "That doesn't look like nothing! That's a big hole… Did you lose something?" I look down and grit my teeth.   "Yeah, something like that…but don't worry it wasn't anything important!" Her facial expressions tell me that she has more to say, but she doesn't say anything. Eventually, everyone retires for the night and falls asleep. I stay wide awake, still thinking about the book. Something rustles near me. Luna's walking away from the campfire. I stand up and then follow her. Where's she going…?   She stops behind a tree. I quietly say, "Hey Luna…"   She's crouching with her shorts down by her feet. I stiffly still and blush. I turn back around and say, "Sorry."   "Wait, you don't have to leave. You can't sleep, right?"   "Yeah…" I respond as I walk backward carefully, resting my back against the other side of the tree Luna's against.   "Were you thinking about the thing you lost?" I don't say anything. My heart beats faster. "Are you trying to keep a secret? I won't tell anyone."   I gulp and then answer, "Yeah… Emdos entrusted me with something important, and I lost it."   "We all can look for it together… If you tell us what it is."   "Even if you knew… I don't think we can find it. I'm sure I lost it back at that Lep village."   "I see…but when we tell the teachers about this, they'll send people down there. Then, they can look for whatever you lost."   "Maybe…" I say with doubt, knowing that I shouldn't take that risk. My heart skips a beat when Luna jumps out in front of me.   "All done."   "I-I see… So are you going back to sleep now?"   "Nope. I couldn't sleep either. I have nights like this a lot… I stay awake while thinking about stuff."   "Stuff?" I ask and cock an eyebrow. She has a strange smile. It's a smile I saw once before two years ago as she made the punishment soup for Sitos.   "All kinds of stuff, like…why do bad people exist? Why do people do bad things? Maybe monsters are the same as us… Some are bad, and some are good, like Rocky," she explains as she rests her back against another tree trunk in front of me.   "Maybe some of those bad people aren't really bad… They might have a reason where they have no other option except do bad things."   "What about the people that are actually bad? Should you feel sad if they die? I know bad people kill good people and don't feel guilty…but what if a good person kills a bad person? Does the good person become a bad person? Should that person feel sad or guilty after killing a bad person?" I think about her questions in silence. I can't come up with an answer. Nearly half a minute passes.   "I don't know… Bad people wouldn't hesitate to kill a person or do bad things to people. I think good people shouldn't have to stoop down to their level. They don't have to kill the bad person… They could throw them behind bars instead. I'm sure there are other ways to solve a problem other than killing a person. But if they don't have any other choice other than to kill the bad person, I don't think they should feel guilty or sad. To begin with, they had to kill them because they were bad…"   The strange smile on her face melts into a grin. "I understand now! Thanks, Kai!"   "Sure," I say with a smile. I'm not sure how I helped her, but I'm happy to see her smile. "By the way, what—"   Something rustles nearby in more than one direction. It closes in on us. Two boars appear from afar, charging toward us. I yell, "Run!"   I run back to the camp. "Everyone, get up! Monsters!"   I pick up my sword from the ground. As everyone else gets up, I point my right palm forward toward the boars charging at us. Their skin is red, and their husks are shaped differently than the boars we fought at the Academy. "Fireball! Fireball!"   I shoot a ball of fire at each of them. They explode into flames directly on its face, but they don't stop charging. It only leaves behind a minor burn mark. What?!   "Kai, dodge!" Sitos warns. I snap back to reality and jump off to the side to dodge the boar's charge.   They're faster too! They turn around and then charge back toward us. Hiro stands in front of them.   "All right, my turn! Water ball!" A globe of water appears from his palm and heads toward them. The boars dodge it. "Water ball! Water ball! Water ball!"   Hiro shoots more balls of water at them, but none of them land. The second boar turns to another direction as the first one continues forward. "Damn it! Ya can't dodge it at this range! Water ball!"   Hiro shoots another ball of water from his palm ten feet away from the first charging boar. Something red sparkles from its mouth. I raise my eyebrows. A breath of fire comes out of the boar's mouth. The ball of water goes through, extinguishing some of the flames and drenches the front of the boar. More flames come out of the boar's mouth forward by five feet and increasing. Hiro jumps to the side at the last second. "Argh!"   A small part of the center of Hiro's shirt is burnt away. Sitos moves in on this boar with his left palm out and shouts, "Lightning!"   A yellow bolt of lightning comes out of Sitos' left palm toward the first boar. Electricity sparks on the surface of the boar's skin as it stops its charge. I knit my eyebrows as I look closer on the drops of water falling from the boar. They fall perpendicular to the sides of the boar instead of dripping down to its legs. I raise my eyebrows. Wait a minute… That's not skin…that's fur!   "Sitos, run!" I warn, but Sitos is already charging in. The second boar appears out from wherever it went and then flanks Sitos on the side. Luna blows it off course with a burst of Wind magic. Drugo runs alongside Sitos, blocking one of its tusks while Sitos blocks the other. I charge toward the side of the boar they're fighting now that it's still. I prepare to attack, but before I land the blow, the boar suddenly tilts his head up with a jump. It pushes Sitos and Drugo away. I stop my charge and then jump back.   "Everyone! Come up here! I don't think they can get to us that way!" Marin exclaims from above me. I raise my eyebrows.   There was that option too! Okay… I run to the tree Luna's climbing and drop my weapon on the ground. I climb at least 15 feet where the two girls are, and the others follow right behind me. Tremors vibrate the entire tree as the boars repeatedly bump into the tree.   "Hey, ain't stayin’ up here actually bad? They're gonna use that breath of fire again. Here it comes!" Hiro exclaims as both boars use their breaths of fire aimed up the tree. It only reaches about half the distance up. The tree doesn't burn.   "We're fine. The tree has some Mana to protect itself from the effects of the fire," Drugo says.   "So, we're just gonna wait up here until those things go away…?" Hiro asks.   "Probably until the sun comes up again…" I say while yawning. "It's not so bad up here. We can lean against the trunk of the tree to get a resting position for sleep. We just need to climb onto different branches for it to work."   "What happens if I lose my balance and fall?" Hiro asks.   "Is it not obvious? You are fucked," Sitos says.   "Someone needs to keep watch for any new complications to our situation too. I don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna stay up and keep watch," I say.   "We're both gonna stay up too, right Marin?"   "Sure."   "It cannot be helped… I will stay up too."   "Friends, we'll endure it together."   "Count me out! I'm gonna sleep here, good night!" Hiro exclaims as he puts his back against the trunk of the tree and then closes his eyes. Everyone silently watches the boars continuing to bang their heads against the base of the tree.   "How about we play a game to pass the time?" Marin asks. "Sheila taught me this word game a long time ago, and we played it all the time!"   "Who's Sheila? The maid who's like your second mom?" Luna asks.   "Yep, that's her. Basically, we take turns in order saying words. The next person has to say a word or name that starts with the letter of the last word without ever repeating the same word. You only have five seconds to answer or you lose."   "Sounds interesting!" Luna exclaims. "I guess you start, Marin."   "Okay… Hmm…Tree."   "Eleven," Luna says.   "Night," I say.   "Trunk," Sitos says.   "Kitchen," Drugo says. We continue playing our game for about five minutes, and Hiro makes a fuss about leaving him out. In the end, he doesn't sleep and joins us. Eventually, the two boars leave, but we keep still, only playing our game to pass the time. Around 10 hours pass.   "Fireball…" I say weakly. Luna doesn't say anything as her head bobs forward. My eyes widen as she tilts further forward. "Hey, Luna!"   I move my arm in front of her, stopping her from falling. "Oh, sorry…umm… I guess you win that one. Marin, start us with a new word… Marin?"   "Huh?" Marin interjects.   "House!"   "Luna, I don't think that was her word…" I say and then yawn. I rub my eyes and suggest, "I think we can get off this tree and continue our way back to the Academy. It's bright enough now."   My eyes feel sore, and they're hard to keep open. My entire body aches and my joints are stiff. It takes a while for us to climb down the tree with our joints stiffened up. It takes ten minutes for everyone to get down.    I pick up my weapons before we continue our travels. We wander aimlessly along the cliffs for what feels like hours, but we find our way out of the thicket. If by some miracle, we don't encounter any monsters along the way.    We go in the direction that leads farther along the edge of the cliff we followed the entire time. We find ourselves in a big open area with few trees in sight. There are numerous amounts of hills and lush florae atop the grassland. Several different types of creatures are in sight, but they don't appear to be hostile. We ignore them and continue along the trail.   "Hey! There're some people up ahead!" Hiro shouts and quickens his pace ahead of the group.   "Hiro, slow down!" I shout as I try to catch up with him. Hiro stops running and stands still. As I get close enough to the people, I stop too and gape. Two people in armor lie on the ground in a pool of blood. There's an unarmed middle-aged couple surrounded by three shady-looking men who have both armor and weapons equipped. One of the three men turns toward us. I gulp.   "Hey! It looks like we've got company! It's a group of kids. One of you, come with me to take care of 'em!" Two of them charge toward us wielding only a sword.

“Hmm… It’s a shame about Lieutenant Petrus,” Major Gaius says. “Corporal Kai, why’d you choose to go into the passage by yourself?” “It would take too long, sir. The masked man would’ve been gone by then.” “I’ll commend your bravery. Keep up the good work. Lieutenant Elinnore, drop a full report in my office by the end of the day.” “Yes, sir.” “Let’s get going to the Crossroads,” Major Gaius suggests as he walks into the Castle. We follow and take the right path toward the entrance. “They’ve probably already finished the opening speech. All of you except for Corporal Kai’s team will need to follow me. I’ve left the documents from the recruitment inside my office. You’ll also need to get the instructions from the orientation. It’s a pain to explain everything, so I’ll leave that to you Lieutenant Elinnore.” “Yes, sir.” We arrive at the entrance on the furthest right of the structure. The outer castle wall is next to the entrance. It’s smaller than what I expected; bigger than the average double door, but not large enough to fit a wagon. Inside, there’s a very long hallway in front of me and on the left. We proceed straight. I feel like I’ve been here before. We turn left into another long spacious hallway about halfway into the first one and proceed straight. I raise my eyebrows. This was the hallway we were in after we came out of the sewers last year!   We pass by the sewer entrance about halfway through. At the end of the hallway, we find ourselves in a roomy square-shaped area. There are a considerable amount of stone steps leading up in a spiral. It looks like there are some going down too on the other side. Major Gaius says, “Welcome to the Crossroads. Here you’ll be able to access the clinic, training area, cafeteria, and request center.”  “Kai, Ruby!” Marin exclaims as she runs over to us. “Where’ve you been? Kama said you went on a mission.” “I’ll leave it to your friend to explain what you missed, Corporal Kai,” Lieutenant Elinnore says and then continues with the group following Major Gaius toward the staircase leading up. I smile and wave. “We were at the Academy.” “The Academy? What for?” I look away and hesitate for a moment before answering, “Moria needed reinforcements. They suspected remnants from the attack were down there.” “Why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve gone too.” “There wasn’t any time.” “You’re always doing dangerous things by yourself,” she says with a frown. “I promise I won’t leave without everyone next time. Besides, Ruby was there too.” “Yep! I kept Kai safe.” “You have to tell me what happened over there later. For now…take this,” Marin says and then hands me a key. She gives one to Ruby too. ‘B350’ is engraved on my key. “It’s your assigned room key. We’re all in the B sector.” “Next is your locker key,” Marin says and then hands me a key. She gives one to Ruby too. “Kai you have locker 773, Ruby has 782, and I have 780.” “Why’re they spread out like that?” I ask and then put both keys in my pocket. “Beats me. Oh and…we still need to get our ID cards. They said they would take longer to make and would be dropped into our lockers by tomorrow morning. We have to use the ID to access most of the facilities in the Castle.  And…there’s still the general rules: we can’t leave the premises without permission, we have to check our lockers frequently for new orders, and respect and obey superior officers.” “We need permission to leave…? What’s with that?” I ask. “Yeah… If we want to do something, we have to go to the request center over there for permission,” Marin explains as she points to the entryway under the stone steps leading up. It’s to the right of the northern hallway entrance from this room. “We need our ID’s to do that too. Oh and…meals are served for free three times a day in the cafeteria at 6 AM, noon, and 6 PM.” “We need our ID’s to do that too, right?” “Yeah.” “We can’t eat, and we can’t leave… This is terrible,” I say with a frown and then sigh. Marin takes out something from her pocket. “We have these for today.” She hands me and Ruby a small red square-shaped piece of paper. “It’s a meal ticket.” “Ohh, this is great. I’m starving. Which way’s the cafeteria?” “We have to meet up with our full platoon first on the second level outside the D sector. I think it’s almost the meeting time,” Marin says and then heads for the stairs leading up. We follow. “Full platoon meeting… So there’s gonna be three more besides Kama and Vicki,” I say and then sigh. We go up the steps which seem like never ends. We arrive in another square-shaped room. Aisha and her group are waiting next to an entryway on top of the staircase. Ada glares at me and then turns away. I try to not look at them as we head to the south side of this room. There are other groups of people standing around in the other entryways and corners of the room. It appears there is only one hallway on the east side on this level. Vicki and Kama are standing next to an entryway on the left side of the south wall. There’s a large ‘D’ engraved above it. They wave as we approach them. “Hey guys,” I greet. “Hello,” Kama greets. “Good evening,” Vicki greets. “I think I’ve got the hang of the technique you showed me, Kai. I’m ready to learn more!” “That’s good to hear. We can continue after dinner.” No one says anything for several seconds, and only other chatter around the room resounds. Marin suddenly asks, “Vicki, how’s your training going?” “Well, in the fifteen minutes you left me alone, I was finally able to shoot an arrow!” “That’s…good to hear,” Marin says a forced smile. My eyes bounce between everyone’s expressions. I force a smile too, feeling out of place. There’s a silence again for several seconds. Footsteps resound behind me. “Is this Sigma 4?” a man behind me asks. He has black hair tied into a top knot. “Yes,” Kama answers. The top knot guy walks over to Kama. “It’s nice to meet you, Kai. I’m Jetia,” Jetia says with his hand out in front of him. “Umm…Kai’s over there,” Kama says while pointing at me. Jetia looks over to me and then frowns. “Are you kidding me? This kid’s the leader of our platoon?” I knit my eyebrows and frown. “Kai’s very capable. He fought the masked men at the Academy and came back alive,” Kama says with confidence. Where’d he hear that? I think to myself before speaking up, “Actually—“ “This kid? Hah. I wouldn’t believe it for a second.” “Jetia!” a man exclaims as he and another guy walk toward us. They are more or less the same age as Jetia which is a few years older than us. They both have buzzcuts. It’s hard to tell the difference between the two. “Dano, Banni!” Jetia exclaims with a smile. “It’s good to see you two. How long has it been?” “A few months I think. We were in the Alpha Platoon 3 stationed at Runswick,” one of the two men answers. “Right, right. I remember now. Those pesky wolves didn’t come back after their first failed attack. It’ll be good working together again.” “We’re gonna be unstoppable with the addition of these former Adventurers,” the other man adds while looking our way. Jetia’s smile drops into a frown. “Are you serious? We have to accept this kid as our leader just because he was an Adventurer? We’ve been here for over five years, and we’re stuck as Soldiers. This kid waltzes in and now suddenly he’s a Corporal.” “Well, they’re Academy graduates after all. They’re in a higher class than us.” “He’s not a higher class; he’s a kid. Look at him. He looks like he graduated yesterday. It doesn’t sit well with me.” “Actually, we graduated three months ago…” I say, smiling lightly. “So, yer a kid is what yer telling me. Do you think yer special or something?” I stare at him. What should I say…? My position as a leader would be questioned if I let him step on me…but I can’t be too harsh either…  “I do, Jetia. Teacher Moria said I’m one of the most talented students to graduate from the Academy.” He only stares at me for several seconds before finally interjecting, “Hmph. Better not let us down.” A few groups around us start heading out. The inside of my mouth salivates. “Now that we’re all here, how about we introduce ourselves? You guys know me, Kai.” Everyone introduces themselves, and then we head to the cafeteria on the first level. There are two people sitting behind a table near the start of the line. There’s a sheet of paper, a stack of meal tickets and a pouch of coins on the table. “They said we don’t have to check in today. I think we can wait over there,” Marin says while pointing at the back of the line. All of us except Jetia, Banni, and Dano move to the back of the line. The three of them check in and collect a meal ticket at the table before joining us. There are over a hundred people ahead of us, but the line moves fast. Eventually, it’s our turn to get our food. I smile while handing over my meal ticket. A woman hands me a tray of food. I frown and stare at the food on it. There’s one piece of bread, a hard-boiled egg, a few pieces of mystery meat, a few pieces of carrots, and a cup of water. “Yer in the way. Move,” Jetia says behind me. I take the tray of food and then look for a place to sit. I lay the tray on top of an empty table and sit down. The seven others follow. I continue to stare at the food in front of me for a while before finally picking up the fork on the tray. I start with the meat, finding that it’s nothing like anything I have ever tasted. “Is the food always so…bland…? And lacking?” Jetia gives me a weird look. Banni picks up his bread and says, “Give it a few weeks. You’ll get used to it.” “If you feel like spending, you can purchase additional meal tickets at one silver coin each,” Dano informs. “One silver coin?! That’s the cost of staying at an inn for a night!” I exclaim. “I could eat two full meals with that amount of money! It wouldn’t be worth it even if they gave me three trays of this... Unless they serve soup…it could be worth it.” “I’ve been here for seven years, and I can tell you they don’t serve soup,” Dano says. “Whoever’s in charge of making the meals has poor taste. They don’t make soup…and instead they give us carrots and bland pieces of meat and bread.” “Yer a spoiled brat,” Jetia says while giving me a look of disgust. “Not everyone has the luxury of being pampered at the Academy.” He’s getting on my nerves… I grit my teeth before asking, “Anyone can sign up to attend the Academy, right? Everyone has that option.” “Not only yer spoiled but also ignorant.” “Well, everyone has their own circumstances,” Banni adds. “14 is the oldest age you can be to attend Drosera’s Academy. I was too late.” “Really? I didn’t know that. I’ve always wondered why some of my other classmates looked older.” “I’ll still be able to learn magic, though.” “How? You can’t go to the Academy anymore.” “There are seminars offered here at the Castle from time to time that you can attend if you pay the fee.” “Oh, that’s convenient. How much does it cost?” “It varies depending on the content in the seminar. The one I’m going to costs a gold coin.” “Everything’s so expensive here…” I grab the bread and then eat it. Only the carrots remain. It took him seven years to save up for a gold coin?  That’s how much we made in a week last year…   “Kai, I’ll trade you my egg for those carrots,” Marin offers. “I won’t refuse your offer,” I say with a smile and then exchange the food. “Ya can have my egg fer free, Kai!” Ruby exclaims and hands me her egg. “Thanks, Ruby.” “Can you tell me what happened at the Academy today?” Marin asks. “’Kay! We went ta the Underground area with Teacher Moria and found lumps of meat. ‘N’ then we found bigger lumps of meat. ‘N’ then we found kids still alive and helped ‘em. ‘N’ then a guy with a mask showed up, ‘n’ Kai attacked ‘im once ‘n’ got knocked back. He used a girl behind ‘im so we couldn’t do anythin’. He let her go but then… Boom!” Ruby exclaims with her arms raised up. “A wall of water protected us, but the girl turned into burnt meat. I chased ‘im with Kai, but they were too fast fer me. I told everyone ‘bout a suspicious rock I found ‘n’ gathered everyone. ‘N’ then the rock moved out, and Kai came outta the hole! That was it.” Marin looks at me with a cocked eyebrow. I add, “I found the same rock before Ruby and went in immediately. It led to the sewers. I didn’t see any traces of the masked man, so I went back.” “Is that really all that happened?” Marin asks. A rowdy group of people sits at a table behind us. “Well…Lieutenant Petrus was killed, and we don’t know who did it. The girl he was escorting out was gone too.” “I knew you didn’t really fight them off, fraud,” Jetia says. “I never said I did.” “It’s my fault,” Kama apologizes. “I went to the front of the gates to see what was going on. Everyone said a group of people from there went to the Academy to battle remnants from the attack.” “He didn’t correct you, so it’s the same.” “Well, I’m sorry for this misunderstanding,” I say. Even though it’s really not my fault… One of the people behind us says, “With all the funds stolen from the vault at the Adventurer’s Hub, the idiots that left for the Cursed Expedition got nothin’ left to show when they come back.” “They’re not coming back. They’re dead, remember?” “Right!” a man exclaims. The group bursts out in laughter. Marin stops eating and frowns. “Just ignore them. They don’t know what they’re talking about,” I say. “You’re wrong ‘bout that though. One of them came back alive.” “Oh, I forgot about him. Maybe he can finally tell us what all the fuss about the Cursed Territory is.” “Whatever it is, it wasn’t worth havin’ our capital demolished for it. Idiots, all of them. Our city would still be whole if they didn’t embark on that pointless request. What the fuck were they thinkin’?” “Don’t question the average intelligence of an Adventurer,” someone says, and then the group bursts out laughing again. Marin’s eyes tear up. I clench my fists, stand up, and then turn toward them. “Hey, all of you guys, shut up. You’re upsetting my friend.” “Who the hell are you?” one of them asks. “He’s probably one of the new recruits,” a man wearing armor deduces. It doesn’t look damaged at all. An eagle with its wings spread out is engraved on the front of his armor. There’s a weapon on his back. “Look at his armor; it’s broken. He was clearly an Adventurer. He’s only joinin’ because he was too weak to fight against the invaders.” I grit my teeth before asking, “What the hell were you doing when they attacked? Sitting here and nibbling on bread?” He laughs. Another man asks, “Weren’t you ever taught to respect your superiors?” “What do you expect from an Adventurer? No smarter than a monkey. I’ll have to thank the invaders later for exterminatin’ some of the apes in our city.” The back of my throat burns. “Shut up!” “Did I hit a soft spot? I’ll say it again. I’m glad the bandits came and claimed the lives of your former companions.” “Take that back, or I’ll make you regret it!” I exclaim while gripping onto one of my scabbards. “Are you threatening me?” the man asks as he walks closer to me. “Me, Captain Albius?” I widen my eyes. My joints stiffen up. He smiles and then continues, “Sure, I’ll take it back and give you and your friend the most heartfelt apology and whatever else you want me to do…but only if, you duel me and win. Or you can apologize to me right now for disrespect. I’ll let you off the hook since you’re a greenhorn.” I can’t let him go for spitting on Drugo’s, Sitos’, and everyone that died in the attack. I can’t…but… Marin sniffles and then says, “Kai, apologize. I’m okay. Don’t forget what Hina said.” Yeah… I shouldn’t be picking fights especially with someone higher ranked… I need to worry about ranking up to find them instead of picking fights here. I take a deep breath and then look at Captain Albius. “I—“ “Take her advice. Don’t challenge him. He’s too much for you to handle,” Jetia warns. I bite my lip and clench my fists. “Fine… I’ll duel you.” Captain Albius smiles and says, “Great. Follow me to the training grounds. Someone get me that. Make sure to bring them too.” Captain Albius leads us out of the cafeteria. We follow after his group of men. The weapon on his back is a massive hammer. I gulp. What’d I get myself into…?   “Kai…did you say that because of me?” Marin asks. “Yeah but… I can’t forgive him for saying that everyone’s better off dead.” “In other words, you couldn’t keep yer emotions in check. Like a child having a tantrum. And you call yer self our leader? Pathetic.” “Shut up. I just have to win.” “I doubt it. He’s a Captain. Less than 20 people hold that rank or higher in the whole military. “I’m planning to climb to that rank as fast as possible. I’ll prove myself by winning.” We arrive in a large room with many white circles on the ground throughout it. The circle is about 30 meters in diameter. Dozens of other people are fighting each other in pairs. Captain Albius drops his weapon on the ground and then takes off his armor. We’re doing this without armor?   Before I take off my armor, Captain Albius says, “Keep your armor on for your safety. I wouldn’t want to injure a new recruit.” I frown. He’s underestimating me…   “I’ve brought it, Captain!” one of his men exclaims and then hands him a long wooden sword. I knit my eyebrows. “What the hell are you doing?” “This weapon’s all I need to teach a monkey a lesson.” “You’ll regret that,” I say while drawing both of my swords. “The rules are so simple a monkey can understand. We start on opposite ends of this circle. You’re out if you get knocked out or leave the circle. Magic’s allowed.” I smile. Magic’s allowed? This’ll be a cinch. My fireball keyword will shoot out of my right palm made of Rich Mana. I can’t use my fire bolt… I’ll be in trouble if I kill him…and there’s still my promise with Emdos.   I look around as a crowd gathers around us. Someone from the crowd asks, “What is going on? Who is Captain Albius fighting?” “I’m not going to be held accountable if you get hurt, right?” I ask. “I’m also worried about everyone around us…” “You won’t be able to touch me,” Captain Albius says as he walks to the end of one side of the circles. I move to the opposite side of him. “We’ve brought them, Captain!” one of his men exclaims. There are four of them carrying some kind of device. It looks like the ones responsible for the Mana barrier in the tournament. They place them a few feet from the circle forming a square. “And you won’t have to worry about our spectators. Any magic you’re capable of won’t break the barrier.” I’ll teach him a lesson for underestimating me… I sheathe my right blade. It’ll be over once I destroy his weapon or graze him with my Fire magic. He’s probably thinks I can’t utilize Rich Mana... I’ll show him.   “Give us the countdown,” Captain Albius orders. He’s holding his weapon with just his right hand. One of his men nods. I gulp while clenching my weapon. “Three…two…one…go!” I charge forward while pointing my right palm toward Captain Albius. “Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!” He’s fast! He charges toward me in a straight line moving into my magic. Rich Mana suddenly envelops his entire weapon. He slashes my fireballs vertically. I widen my eyes as my magic is split in half. The halves go off course as if they have been reflected. Fine! I’ll cut off his flimsy sword instead. There’s nothing he can do to me up close.   I unsheathe my other weapon. He’s in my range. I launch a flurry of slashes at him. He dodges them all simply by weaving his body around. He smiles and says, “It’s time to end this.” His speed increases as he moves in from my right. He throws his sword into his left hand. He bends it toward his body. It’s a feint. He’s gonna toss over to his right hand and then attack from my left.   He quickly moves toward my left and throws his weapon into his right hand. I smile and move my weapons over to my left side. I’ve won!   Huh? Before I notice, he’s already back on my right side. His speed has increased by almost twofold. Both of his hands are on his weapon. I jump back and attempt to block, but it’s too late. He’s too fast. Shit!   A loud clank resounds as a strong force knocks me back. I crash into the ground and then slide on my back across the room. I lie there and stare at the ceiling. Captain Albius walks over to me with a smile. Marin, Ruby, Jetia, Kama, Vicki, Banni, Dano, and the crowd are behind him. “I’m waitin’.” I lower my head and sigh. “I’m sorry for disrespecting you, Captain Albius.” “That’s not goin’ to cut it now. You had the gall to challenge me, and you lost. Put your hands on the ground and beg for my forgiveness. Things won’t end well for you if General Nero finds out about this incident.” I bite my lip. I sheathe my weapons. I lean forward on my knees and put my palms on the ground with my head nearly touching the ground. I scowl. “I’m deeply sorry, Captain Albius. Please forgive me.” Suddenly, my forehead hits the ground. Captain Albius presses his heel into one of my pressure points. I grimace. He twists and turns it while pressing deeper into my body. “You’re too cocky for someone who hasn’t learned the first thing about Enhancement magic.” “What’re you—“ “Shut up, monkey. Repeat after me. Say, ‘I’m a stupid monkey.’” I clench my fists and grit my teeth. “I’m a stupid monkey.” “Good,” he says and then removes his foot from my neck. “Stay like that and repeat that line ten times, and we’ll put everythin’ behind us.” “I’m a stupid monkey. I’m a stupid monkey. I’m a stupid monkey. I’m a stupid monkey. I’m a stupid monkey. I’m a stupid monkey. I’m a stupid monkey. I’m a stupid monkey. I’m a—“ “Stupid, pathetic, and disgraceful monkey,” Jetia says. I look up, finding that Captain Albius has already walked away. He’s putting on his armor. The crowd has dispersed. My platoon stands around me. I sit back with my head lowered. “One of the most talented students to graduate from the Academy, you say? I’m ashamed to be a part of this platoon.” “I have no excuses,” I say with little energy. “Kai, are you okay?” Marin asks. “I’m fine,” I say and then sigh. I stand up. “That’s amazing. He broke his weapon in half with that blow, but you’re not hurt,” Kama says. I smile and say, “That’s what armor’s good for.” I look around. My heart skips a beat, and I stop breathing for a moment. Ruby is not here. “Captain Albius, watch out!” someone exclaims. A large ball of fire flies toward Captain Albius’ back. I run towards him. He turns around and puts his palm in front of the magic. He releases a circular wall of Rich Mana the size of the incoming fireball. The fireball crashes into the wall and disappears. “Ya bully! Don’t be mean ta Kai!” Ruby exclaims. A dozen men form a line in front of Captain Albius. I reach her and push her behind me. “Stop it, Ruby. Don’t fight him.” “Kai?” “I’m sorry about this. It was my fault. I didn’t keep an eye on her. I’m just a stupid monkey,” I say quickly with my head lowered. Captain Albius laughs and then says, “It’s fine. I sensed killing intent directed towards me, so I was able to prepare.” I raise my head. Captain Albius walks over to us. “So you’re Kai? Who’s she?” “Yes, sir… She’s Ruby.” He smiles. “She’s cute…for a monkey. I’ll let her off the hook.” He turns around and then says, “Let’s go.” His men leave with him. I sigh and then turn back toward Ruby. She’s pouting. Marin and the others are behind her. “Why’d ya stop me, Kai?” “Listen, Ruby. We don’t want to fight with anyone in the army. They’re not our enemy. This fight was my fault… I shouldn’t have challenged him. From now on, we need to respect our superiors and follow our orders. It’s the fastest way to progress to a higher rank.” “Ya wanna be a higher rank?” “Yeah. It’s the only way we can look for them. The masked attackers.” Ruby smiles. “’Kay! I understand now!” ‘Well. Now that we’re here, let’s split off and train,” I suggest. “Vicki, do you want to go back to the archery range?” Marin asks. “Yes, that would be good,” Vicki answers. The two of them leave. Ruby goes off on her own. “Can we continue with my training?” Kama asks. “I asked a man earlier. He informed me that there are three floors to this training area. There’re rooms on the second floor with practice weapons.” “Right. Let’s go there then,” I say and then turn toward Jetia and the other two. “You guys go train or something.” “We’ve been told to help with the training for the new recruits. We’ve completed basic training. A stupid monkey isn’t fit for training others,” Jetia says. “Is that so… Well, you guys can take care of Kama. If you have questions come find me,” I say and then walk off. I head to a secluded area of the current room. They head in the opposite direction. I have to get stronger. Much stronger. I train on my own for about two hours and then head to the second level. I go into the area with the letter ‘B’ embedded into the top of the entrance. I look for my room, B350. After some wandering, I realize that this floor only goes up to 200. I head up the stairs, eventually finding room 350. I insert the key and then head inside, closing the door behind me. I frown. This room is smaller than the first room I lived in back at the Academy. I turn on the lantern. There is a bed, a dresser, and a clock on the wall. I take off all my armor and lay it on the ground. I search the drawer. There is nothing inside. I sigh and then undress. The bathroom is smaller too. I take a shower and then put the same dirty clothes on. I rest on the bed while practicing Mana control and Void magic. I practice configuring the gates in various ways without the use of keywords for a while. Someone knocks on the door. “Kai, are you there?” Marin asks. I get up and then open the door. “Can I come in?” “Sure.” I move aside for her to come in and then close the door. Suddenly, she hugs me. A few seconds later, I interject, “Uhh…sorry if I smell bad. I changed into the same clothes.” “Yeah,” she replies with little energy. “It’s a shame how these rooms are smaller than the ones at the Academy. We’ve downgraded.” “Yeah.” “So… We’ve gotta go to the request center for permission to leave right? We need to get our belongings from the inn…” “Yeah.” I sigh. I push her slightly away from me. Her watery eyes draw me in. I kiss her and then push her onto the bed.

"This isn't over," my opponent says as he gets up from the ground. He points at me and continues, "We'll settle this for real during the finals. Don't lose until then."   He walks away. I step off the platform and then rejoin my group. People make a path for me allowing me to walk through easily. I reciprocate the grins and smiles of my friends with my own.   "Ahem," Moria clears his throat. "Congratulations to all those who have qualified for the tournament that will begin tomorrow. I will explain the general rules now, so pay close attention. Since you will be allowed to use the weapons you have been using for the past year for hunting, your safety is not completely guaranteed. Your team is always welcome to forfeit if you do not wish to take that risk. At the same time, many referees will be present to observe the players. Do not attack your classmates with the intent to kill. If the referees catch you with this dangerous behavior, your entire team will automatically lose. This is common sense, but I should also mention that sexual harassment is not tolerated.   "You will be given new leather garments at the beginning of each new game. You may receive it more often in some games.  If it runs out of magic power or you are unable to fight anymore, you are not allowed to fight or help complete objectives. When this happens, you must take off your leather garments to help distinguish who is left in the game. Attacking someone without the leather armor on is not allowed.   "There are additional rules depending on what game you are playing. You will receive information about the game you will play prior to starting your match tomorrow. You must win two games in order to move to the second round.   "Based on the rankings of the preliminaries, team three fights team five, team seventeen fights team twelve, team fourteen fights team one, and team two fights team twenty. There will be three different settings, so three of the four teams can fight at once. That brings me to my next point. Team three, who has won the preliminaries can decide whether they want to fight first or after the three other teams have completed the first round."   Moria turns toward us. I turn between Moria and the rest of my group, finding everyone's staring at me. I sigh as I shrug my shoulders. I answer, "We'll go first."   "Very well. Normally you have to draw a lot to decide the setting of the first game, but I will allow your team to make the first selection. Forest, Arena, and Underground are your options. All of these are closed settings where no one can observe, so do not worry."   "Underground," I say without thought.   "Excellent. Your team and team five will meet at the front entrance of the Academy tomorrow at 8 AM. Those two teams are dismissed for today. Rest up for tomorrow. Oh, and I almost forgot. Team three, expect someone to be visiting you later today for your reward for your performance in the preliminaries. The rest of you will select lots for the setting you will play."   We make our way out of the Arena except for Marin, who stays behind. We find at least a dozen people standing in the hallway that leads down to the second floor. We stand there for a moment while looking at them, when suddenly, they rush over to us. "Hey, all of you! Would you like to work for me during your fifth year? I'll pay ten silver coins a week!"   "I'll double that! 20 silver coins if you work with us!"   "25 silver coins!" Numerous individuals shout in our faces one after another with no signs of stopping. My mind can hardly keep track on who's speaking since it's all mashed together.   "I'll offer 30 silver coins a week and a generous signing bonus of five gold pieces!"   "In that case, I'll offer—"   "Fools!" someone from behind the crowd exclaims. The people in front of us stop talking and then move aside. I raise my eyebrows. One of the three people Sitos was staring at earlier walks toward us. "None of you realize this boy's true value!"   He stops in front of me. There's a majestic aura emanating from his body. The other two men stand behind him. Our eyes meet. They make me feel uneasy. He asks, "What is your name?"   "Kai, sir."   "Kai, your skills would put some of my men to shame! I can see it. You have an enormous amount of potential. If you work with my clients, I guarantee a payment of at least one gold coin per week. What do you say?" he asks while holding a hand in front of him. I gulp as I widen my eyes.   A gold coin! Each week?! I smile, grab his hand, and respond, "Yeah, that sounds great!"   He tightens his hand on mine and shakes it before letting go. "Excellent. We will make it official when the time comes."   He turns around and says, "Let us go."   I knit my eyebrows as the three men walk away. Are they not gonna catch up with Sitos?   I turn toward Sitos, finding that he's looking away. Someone mutters, "Damn the Castalia family… They always take the best candidates…"   "We can't compete with their offers."   "What about us?" a girl asks from behind us. I turn around. Our opponents for tomorrow stand there; a team with four girls and two guys.   "Oh, you're that team who barely made it into the tournament. I don't have any business with you."   "Don't say that!" one of the girls runs forward, grabbing onto a man's arms. The three other girls follow, grabbing various parts of his body. Sitos walks off by himself. I exchange a few looks with the rest of the group before we follow in pursuit. "Come on… We can do more than just be probationary adventurers… Please?"   As we walk past them, the man smiles lewdly. I shake my head and then face forward. We're not gonna lose to a team like that…   Less than ten seconds pass, when suddenly, the crowd behind is becomes rowdy again. "15 silver!"   "No, 20 silver!"   "30 silver!"   I cock an eyebrow. Seriously? Those adults offered the same amount of payment to us…   The rowdiness of that hallway can't be heard anymore as we reach the second floor. Everyone is still silent, not saying a word while following Sitos. I gulp and quicken my pace to catch up with him. "Hey, Sitos. What was that about earlier?"   "What are you referring to?" he asks.   "You know…how your dad, brother, and personal trainer…ignored you."   "Oh, that… Yes, that is normal for me. Do not look too much into it," he replies without a hint of sadness.   "Normal for you…? No matter how I look at it, that's not normal. I mean…not even a greeting or acknowledgment you exist?"   "They just do not think of me as family is all. On top of that, my brother has more talent…" he mentions in an angry tone. I refrain from poking into his matters deeper. He furrows his eyebrows and says, "I will make them acknowledge me one day."   "I'm sure you can do it! You're strong," I say.   "Yeh, Sitos! We'll show them by winnin' the tournament! Our first opponents are goin' to be a cinch!" Hiro exclaims. "Over half of 'em are girls."   "That's rude," Luna rebuts angrily. "Or are you implying that Marin and I are holding you back?"   "Well, no… Forget what I said…"   "Lunaster's right. We shouldn't underestimate them."   "Drugo's right. Do not show them any mercy," Sitos suggests. We continue our chatter as we make it back to our home. Marin eventually joins us in a few hours. Later, a man comes by asking for what custom designed weapons we want. Apparently, the rewards for the preliminaries are weapons one tier higher than what we currently own.   The rest of the day passes faster than usual, and the next day we arrive at the front of the Academy at 8 AM. Our opponents have already arrived. I raise my eyebrows upon realizing their weapon choice. Three of the girls have a bow in their hands. The boy with the larger build uses the same weapon as Hiro, and the other boy has an axe and a shield. The last seem has a dagger in each hand. She's dressed in a long-sleeved shirt despite the hot weather.   "Looks like both teams are here. We will explain the game on the way to the Underground location. Follow us," one of the two referees instructs. We follow them into the Academy.   "Make sure to listen carefully; I will not repeat myself. In this game, each team will have something in their possession before it starts. You will find out what it is before the start of the game. The goal is to take what the other team possesses and bring it back to your starting position. All members of your team must be present during this time regardless if they have been eliminated; this is important. The first team to achieve this will win. Too much damage done to either team's objective will result in the automatic loss of the team responsible."   There's a man in front of a large door. One of the referees takes out a key, unlocks the door in front of him, and then opens it. We follow them down the flight of stairs in a dimly lit passage. The closing of a door resounds behind me. "There are already various referees stationed where you will battle, so remember not to break any rules.  Each team will be allowed a ten-minute planning period before we take you to your starting positions."   After many flights of stairs, we arrive in a huge open room; with dimensions at least half the size of the Academy. There's limited lighting available, and there are many stone structures present. It is almost like these structures are designed to be ruin-like and broken down. There are neither doors nor windows, but there are spaces in the walls for them. Nearby there are two carts with a set of six leather garments. After we put them on, we are separated from the other team for our planning period. We decide to each propose a plan and for everyone else to reject or accept it.   "I think we should just hide our objective in a good hidin' spot. Then we move as a team of six and eliminate everyone we see!" Hiro suggests.   "Rejected," all of us say simultaneously. He throws a fit, but we ignore it and move on.   "How about just the standard approach? Assemble an offensive and defensive team. One to secure their objective and one to protect ours," Drugo suggests.   "Rejected," Hiro says in the background of our conversation. The rest of us accept his idea as a possibility.   "I propose something different. We should put our objective in plain sight with maybe one of us guarding it. The rest of us would hide and ambush the other team when they arrive," I suggest.   "Rejected."   "That is pretty crafty; I think everyone can agree that can be a possibility," Sitos says.   "Didja hear me, I reject it!" Everyone nods their heads besides Hiro, who I ignore.   "My idea's similar to Drugo's. I think we should have a small recon group to scout what they're doing. The other group would protect our objective. When the recon group comes back, we make a new plan based on what they're doing," Luna suggests. None of us have anything against it besides Hiro.   "That is a good idea too, but how about we take advantage of the rules of the game instead? The rules state that you cannot harm the objective no matter what…but nothing says that we cannot use it as a shield," Sitos says. Hiro rejects it as usual while the rest of us accept it.   "Marin, what about you? Do you have any ideas?" Luna asks.   "Umm…it's a hunch but… I think it's too early to decide on a plan."   "What do you mean?" Luna asks.   "The instructions they gave us are kind of vague…so maybe…like…they did it on purpose…because knowing might be…game-changing."   "Rejected."   One of my eyes twitches. I say, "Hiro, shut up."   "Now that you mention it, they have not told us the name of the game either," Sitos adds.   "Hmm… How about we trust Marinster's judgment and wait until the start of the game before deciding what we're doing? We only have a few minutes left." We go with Drugo's suggestion. We talk out the next couple of minutes open-minded with regards to our plan. A referee comes to get us when the time is up. We come face to face with the other team.   "The name of the game you will play is 'Hostage Extraction.'  If you are bounded by rope, you are a hostage," one of the referees explains. I knit my eyebrows as he continues, "Hostages are not allowed to fight or use magic as long they are tied with rope. They are only allowed to struggle to break free and run away once the game has started. Team five, decide on who you want to take hostage from the other team."   My jaws drop. "Oh, great! We get to decide? That's an easy choice. We pick him."   One of the Archers on their team points at me. I knew it…   "That's dirty!" Hiro shouts.   "It's taking out the strongest person on your team. It's not dirty," the same girl responds.   "We will be taking your weapons for the duration of this round," one of the referees says. I hand over my swords to the referees. "Each team will be given three ropes and a blindfold. Use them as you see fit."   Two of the referees give each team the stated items. The opposing team starts by blindfolding me. Both of my arms are grabbed by two people. Based on scent and feel; it's probably the two guys on their team. "Team three, decide on your hostage."   "We want your strongest too! Give us that big guy holdin' onto Kai's right arm right now," Hiro requests. My right arm becomes free.   "No, we take that back."   "Sitos, what are you saying?"   "Hiro, you are banned from making decisions for the team."   "What, why?! What was wrong with my decision?"   "Shut up; I will explain it to you later so that even your tiny brain can process it. For now, we want to take that Archer girl who was talking earlier." Someone clicks their tongue near me.   "Why would you…" Hiro's voice grows quiet. "Oh… I get it."   He snickers. My face burns up. "Now then, we can finally start the match. One of the referees will lead you to your starting positions. The start of the match will be signaled by the sound of thunder. Good luck to you both."   I walk in the direction I'm being directed towards by the two people by my sides.   "Hiro, you are banned from guarding our hostage by yourself too."   "What?!"   I sigh. How embarrassing…   "You sure have it hard, huh?" a girl asks.   "You have no idea…" I reply.   We walk for around five minutes before a referee says, "This entire space enclosed by these partial walls is your starting position. I will take my leave now. The game is over when you hear the sound of thunder the second time."   His footsteps gradually resound quieter. "What should we do? They ruined our plan and took Aisha."   "Just stick to the plan. We still have you and Melody. For starters, we should use all of our rope and tie this guy up," a guy says. My hands are brought behind my back. They are tied strongly together with rope.   "Hey don't use that rope yet. I have a better idea. Let's use that blindfold to gag him and tie him around that pillar around his mouth. We can use that last strand to bind his legs. Then I'll enclose him in my magic, fulfilling the same objective in our original plan."   "Good idea. Let's do that then." Shortly after, my blindfold is removed, and the big guy tries to shove it in my mouth. I grit my teeth so he can't put it in. "Damn, he won't let me put it all the way in. It can't be helped. Open his lips."   The other dude follows his orders and uses two hands to open my mouth. The big guy gives up on putting it all in and settles on stuffing it in the space in front of my teeth. I can't do anything about it, or the blindfold would get pushed past my teeth. They push me toward a nearby pillar and then tie a rope around my mouth and the pillar.   "Tie his legs, and let's move out," the smaller guy says. The sound of thunder resounds in the distance. I thrash around my legs, preventing the big guy with the rope from tying me up. I can't move my head at all or make any noise. I try to break free of the rope gagging me.   "Hey, I'll hold him down! Take the rope and tie him!" The big guy hands the slightly-smaller-built guy the rope and then he charges at me. I kick him, but he's unfazed. Eventually, I can't move as he pushes me into the pillar. The other guy ties the rope around the pillar and my legs.   Afterward, I can't move at all. I'm only able to move my eyes around my current field of vision. Some portions of the walls are higher than others. There is no ceiling that I can see, but there appears to be a partial second floor implemented into the building. There's an exit on the right side of the room, but since I can't see the girls standing there, I presume there is at least one more exit on the left side.   "Are you guys done yet? Let's go," one of the girls says. The big guy picks up his sledgehammer while the other guy picks up his shield and axe.   "Right. Let's go then," the guy with the sledgehammer responds and then begins to walk away. He stops and says, "Oh, I almost forgot to hide our hostage."   He turns around and holds his weapon upside down, with the hammer part touching the floor in front of me. In about ten seconds, stone begins to rise from the ground around me. It slowly rises higher and moves toward the pillar, eventually enclosing me in a dark, cramped space.   "Okay, I'm ready. Let's go," the big guy says in a barely audible voice. Their footsteps quickly fade out. I sigh.   Well… I guess I'll take a nap. I'm sure Sitos and the others can win without me. I close my eyes, hoping to fall asleep in this uncomfortable position.   …   "We did it!" a girl exclaims. I slowly open my eyes, finding that I'm still stuck here. It's suffocating in this space. Droplets of sweat cover my entire body.   "I can't believe we actually beat them!" My eyes jolt open. My heartbeat speeds up.   What?! They lost?!   "Their teamwork is a total mess! After I yelled to you guys about their plan to use me as a shield, their plan collapsed."   What the hell are they doing?! I grit my teeth as laughing resounds near me.   "Luckily, they decided to keep me blindfolded instead of gagging me! Their idea of covering my mouth manually was good but fell short in the end. I heard their entire plan from start to finish. After realizing their initial plan of leaving one person to guard me wouldn’t work, they all came back and launched that plan of using me as a shield. What a bunch of idiots. I almost feel sorry for Kai."   "Hey, referees! Announce the end of the game! We freed our hostage, and we're all here!" More sweat forms on my body.   Fine… We just have to win the next two games! There can't possibly be another game with this concept.   "Hey! Why aren't you saying anything?"   I knit my eyebrows. The referees are silent.   "Hey, we're missing Melody!"   "What?!" I raise my eyebrows, slowly realizing my teammates' plan.   "Did she not follow the plan to fall back? Wasn't she with you?"   "No, we were on top of different buildings… Aisha, are you sure all five of them were there?"   "I'm sure… I heard five different voices as they dragged me along. They were going to use me as bait to direct the attention on the two with me. Then they were going to lead you into a trap where the rest of them lied in wait… Their plan should've been thwarted when Ada blinded them with magic, allowing me to break free and escape."   "No matter how bad they are at working as a team… They’re not idiots. Especially that guy who chose you as the hostage. Why didn't they bind more of your movements using the other ropes?"   "This is bad… If they attack us now, we're totally outnumbered. Aisha doesn't have her weapon either."   "Watch out! They're here!"   "Water arrow! Water arrow! Water arrow!"   "Doris, I'll handle the fire from above! Take out that girl!"   "I'll leave it to you, Aisha!"   "We need to leave this building! Before it's too—barricade!"   A loud smash resounds. There are vibrations under my feet. The stone wall enclosing me crumbles instantly, disappearing into nothing. Another stone wall is present in front of that guy's sledgehammer. It stretches across the entire room as far as I can see. It's around five feet tall. Drugo stands in front of Luna and Marin on the second floor. Fireballs are raining from above, but they are stopped by blobs of Mana in the air.   "We can't leave now! Let's just use their strategy and use our hostage as a shield!" Before they have a chance to move, an arrow flies toward the center of them.     The girl with the dagger parries it. I close my eyes and hold my breath, knowing what comes next. Dirt particles brush against my face. As the opponents cough, the rope binding my head breaks. Half a second later, my legs are free too.   "Gu—Shit! I ca—" I spit out the blindfold in my mouth, being careful not to take any breaths.   "Kai!" Hiro yells as the breaking of a wall resounds. I open one eye, leaving just a slit of space to avoid getting dirt into my eye. There's an opening in the barricade. I close my eye again and then run toward the opening. As I'm running, a gust of wind blows around me. It doesn't affect my running. I open my eyes as I clear their barricade. There's a large amount of water on the floor in front of the barricade. It covers the entire space enclosed by these walls.   "What?! Kai's free! We need to chase him!" I clear the body of water by the time their footsteps resound behind me. Sitos appears from the entrance on the right side of the room in front of me. When our eyes meet, I smile, and he smirks. I run past him and then appear outside the building.   "Lightning!" Sitos exclaims. Screams from the opposing teams resound. Sitos rejoins us. "Alright, let's run back and win already."   I let my team lead the way as they begin running toward our starting position. I say, "You guys nearly gave me a heart attack! I thought we lost when they came running back, bragging about winning the game."   "You didn't have faith in me, Hiro the Great?"   No, I didn’t…   "Well, this time was thanks to Sitos. He came up with the entire plan to trick the other team using our hostage," Hiro admits.   "I heard from them. What happened to that girl you captured?" I ask.   "She should be waking up soon from that shock I gave her earlier. She will not be able to escape from those ropes, though," Sitos answers.   Eventually, we run all the way to a similarly structured building from the one I escaped from. Once all of us have entered, the same sound of thunder resounds in the distance. Referees soon show up to lead us out of the Underground. They inform us that the next game will occur in the Arena in one hour. We are allowed the time to rest and prepare for the next game. I opt to take a nap. When the time comes, Sitos wakes me up. Our group heads toward the Arena.   The platforms and cylindrical devices are not present anymore. Instead, dozens of miniature obelisks about four feet tall are lined up along the wall of the ground floor. There are also carts full of the familiar leather garments. No audience is present, as expected. The other group stands in the middle of the room by the referees. The three Archers have restocked their arrows.   "We will explain the rules now that you are both here. The name of this game is 'Defend the Obelisk.' It is up to you to assemble an offensive team and a defensive team of however many people you wish. You will not know the arrangement of the other team until both teams have decided. We will use a wall to separate you and dissolve it when both teams have decided. Afterward, you may position yourselves however you like around the opposing team's obelisk. You have a minute to decide on the teams and a minute of preparation before the start of the round.   "The defensive team is tasked with defending a single obelisk. You are not allowed to attack the offensive team unless you stand close to the obelisk. Otherwise, you can only try to negate their attacks. The offensive team can target the player or the obelisk, but the goal of the game is to destroy the obelisk. It is equipped with a barrier slightly stronger than the leather garments. It also counts as being destroyed if you drain the power of the barrier completely. Each round within the game will last a minute. If the offensive team is successful, your team scores one point. Both teams can score or not score in the same round." Some referees move two obelisks on opposite sides of the Arena.   "This is the only game in the tournament where we will provide new leather garments and heal your wounds after every round in this game if need be. You will not be given any time to restock your supplies, however. When a new round starts, you cannot use the same configuration of players on either the offensive or defensive team as you have previously used. The winning condition is to have at least three points and lead by two points. That's all and good luck. The signal for the start of the round is the same from last game."   We split off into our own obelisk area following a referee's orders. Another referee constructs a giant wall between the other team and us while we decide on a configuration.   As a group, we all agree that we should use three people on each team. I'm placed on the defensive team with Drugo and Marin for the first round. A minute passes, and the wall is dissolved. It looks like their offensive team is compromised of the girl Sitos tied up in the last game and both boys on their team. They evenly space themselves out around the obelisk while standing behind the designated boundary marked on the floor.   "I'll take care of their Archer," Marin informs, shuffling herself around the obelisk accordingly. I look between their Heavy and Tank before deducing that Drugo is more suited toward negating the sledgehammer.   "I'll deal with their Tank," I say while moving into the proper position. Eventually, I hear the familiar sound of thunder, signaling the start of the round.   My target rushes toward me and then we exchange several attacks. Neither of us land any blows. He suddenly jumps back while pulling his shield back. He throws the shield high in the air. I knit my eyebrows as I follow its trajectory. It won't hit me. It won't hit the obelisk. It won't hit anything. Suddenly, it changes direction sharply. It speeds up as it sinks in height and makes a turn toward Marin.   "Marin, watch out!" I exclaim, but it's probably too late. I turn my head back on my target. I parry his incoming strike. I turn my head toward Marin. The shield hits Marin on the side. She lets out a scream as she's knocked onto the floor. Arrows sparkling with electricity fly toward our obelisk from the opposite side. I grit my teeth as I helplessly stand in place. The arrows bounce off the stone surface of the obelisk, but not before releasing electricity onto the surface of it. The barrier reveals itself and shines blue. After the third arrow, it becomes devoid of any color.   "Team five has scored a point!" I put down my fighting stance and then look over toward our offensive group in the far distance. Hiro and Sitos are kneeling down for reasons beyond me.   What're they doing…? There should be 30 seconds left… Arrows fly toward Hiro and Sitos. They don't move. Hey!   The arrows pierce them, and then they fall. Luna retreats and then the round ends soon enough. The referee casts Healing magic on the people injured during the first round: Sitos, Hiro, and Marin. Since they are physical injuries, no one has to replace their armor. One of the referees also replaces our obelisk. Sitos, Hiro, and Marin rejoin us when their injuries have been treated.   "What the hell were you guys doing on your knees back there?" I ask.   "We got blinded by that dagger-wielding girl," Sitos answers.   "You should've already known she has Light magic from the last game, though."   "I thought she would use it directly on us, but instead she reflected the light off an arrow lobbed in the air."   "I see.  They have a lot of tricks up their sleeves… You should be careful around their Tank. He can fling that shield like a boomerang, probably using Wind magic. That's how he got Marin."   "We will keep that in mind. For the next round, let us switch Luna with Marin. I think they plan to keep their Water user on defense to counter Luna." The wall that separates the two teams is dissolved. Their offensive team is comprised of the same people with the Tank switched out with the dagger girl. We agree that Drugo should mark their Lightning Archer, and Luna will mark their Heavy, leaving me with dagger girl. We adjust our positions accordingly as our opponents shuffle around the outer boundary.   As the loud noise resounds in the Arena, our opponents charge toward us. Arrows clanging on metal resounds behind me, probably Drugo's shield. I keep my eyes on dagger girl.   "Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!" Luna exclaims. In my peripheral vision, several balls of fire fly at her target. Dagger girl charges at me, and we clash. There's hardly any power behind her attacks. I overpower her and push her back. She points an index finger at me as she still holds onto the dagger. I move my arm in front of me to shield my eyes.   "Blind!" Some light radiates in front of my arm, but it doesn't affect me. I parry her attacks after she comes at me again. A loud noise erupts beside me. I turn my head to the right where Luna stands. A stone wall is in front of Luna.   "Luna!" I exclaim as I put strength into my swords, pushing dagger girl back.   "I'm okay!" I turn my head back toward dagger girl and then find that she isn't holding onto her weapons anymore. She's holding onto some kind of string. Pain radiates from my left forearm. I grit my teeth as the left side of my face distorts. I focus my eyes on my left arm. There's a dagger lodged in it.   "Blind!" I put my right arm in front of me before her magic shoots into my eyes. A ray of light shoots into my eyes from the dagger and blinds me.   "Ah!" I interject as pain radiates behind my eyes. I stumble backward and then fall down.  Another surge of pain radiates from my arm as the dagger is pulled out. Dagger girl's footsteps resound. Is she going for the obelisk…? No…   "Luna, she's coming for you!" I exclaim. I try to open my eyes, but the pain worsens, so I keep them closed. Dagger girl's footsteps and heavier footsteps approach Luna's position. Shit… It's my fault Luna's gonna get hurt and why we're gonna give up two points...   I smack the floor in front of me with my sword. Luna exclaims, "Bonfire!"   Hot air brushes the right side of my body. Dagger girl yells, "Whoa, that's hot!"   "Ada, are you alright?!"   "Moron, don't come here!"   What's going on…? Luna managed to thwart the two of them? The pain behind my eyes starts to subside. I open them, seeing double for a moment. My vision returns to normal moments afterward. My eyes widen as I turn toward Luna. Flames spin around in a large circle measuring about five feet tall. The stone wall is gone. Moments later, the flames die out.   Dagger girl and sledgehammer dude are backed away far from where Luna's magic was. Parts of their leather garments are burnt, so I assume that both of them are eliminated. I look over to see how Drugo is doing as I stand up. It appears that he's had no problems dealing with Lightning girl, who has stopped shooting arrows.   "Luna, you're amazing!" I exclaim with a smile as I walk over to Luna. She smiles back.   "Team five has scored a point!"   I knit my eyebrows as I look toward the referee standing by the obelisk. "What?! When did they get a chance to damage our obelisk?"   "Sorry, it was my fault," Luna apologizes. "I forgot about the obelisk when I used my magic."   I sigh and then say, "No, it was my fault to begin with. I let my guard down and put you in that situation."   "That's a problem…" Drugo says as he joins us. "We gave up two points. How are Hiroster and the others doing this time?"   I look over to the others. It appears that their Tank is keeping Sitos at bay with Wind magic, and the initial hostage girl is keeping Marin's shots at bay with arrows of her own. Hiro runs toward the defenseless Water Archer, parrying her arrows along the way. One of the arrows leaves behind a puddle of water as it flies in the air. Hiro slips and then falls on his back. An arrow hits him in the shoulder. I sigh and frown.   The second round ends with the opposing team leading by two points. After everyone is in normal condition, the teams regroup at their respective obelisks. Sitos says, "Shit, this is not good. They only need one more point to win. If we let them score one more time it is over. They will attack us with the six of them next."   "But we still need someone to score our point, or our situation won't improve for next round," I say.   "I'll score our point…" Marin offers. "I won't be of much use anyway."   "It seems every round they have had some kinda trick. This next round especially, we should keep our guard up," Drugo cautions.   "We're almost out of time. Let's decide what to do the minute before the round starts," I say. The wall between the two teams dissolves, and as we expected, all six of them are on the offensive team.  The Water Archer and the Lightning Archer stand together on one side. It seems that the other four are moving to the opposite side.    "I'll take care of the two Archers," Drugo says as he moves in front of them.   "Hiro, when the round starts, spill water on the floor in front of us," Sitos orders.   "Got it."   "The next order of things is to keep their Wind user at bay. I will leave that to the rest of you," Sitos continues, taking glances at Luna and me.   "Leave it to Kai and me! I've already started making my preparations. Good luck everyone!" Soon enough, the loud sound resounds in the Arena. The three people in front of us except the Archer rushes forward.   "Water ball! Water ball! Water ball! Water ball!" Several balls of water appear from Hiro's palm all aimed at the floor in front of us. The water splashes and covers 180 degrees around the obelisk while leaving the part where we stand dry. They don't stop their charge. Balls of fire appear on their left and right side that fly toward them. They jump back. I point my right elbow at them.   "Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!" The usual balls of fire come out of my elbow. I aim it at the middle of where they all stand. Now they have to deal with Fire magic from all sides. The Archer shoots arrows covered in Mana. It pierces my magic as if they are made out of flesh. The arrows stay lodged in them until they disappear into nothing. The arrows fall onto the floor. Sledgehammer dude creates stone walls around them.   "Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!" I continue to shout, regardless if they get neutralized. Luna keeps her barrage of fireballs too. I break down Rich Mana into Unrefined Mana.   "Barricade!" the big guy exclaims as he slams down his weapon. A long five feet tall stone wall appears in front of his weapon. The wall is perpendicular to us and blocks one side of Luna's magic. He runs toward us along the wall.   "Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!" I aim my magic at him, causing him to back off. My fireballs disperse on the wall he created, disintegrating parts of it.   "Water arrow!" a girl yells behind me. Water spills on the floor next to us, joining the bodies of water together.   "Friends! The two Archers over here split up! Be careful! I'm gonna follow the Lightning Archer!" Drugo warns. I stop launching my fireballs for a moment as I turn toward my right. Water Archer is standing there, cocking her next shot.   "The Mana I prepared ran out. They're coming!" Luna exclaims. I parry the incoming arrow from the Water Archer and then focus back to the three charging at us. Dagger girl throws her dagger at Hiro. Luna looks toward its trajectory.   "Luna, don't look!" I warn while occasionally glancing over to my right side, parrying the incoming arrows.   "Blind!" A ray of light appears from the dagger girl's right index finger. It bounces off the dagger into Luna's sight.   "Ah!" Luna interjects as she moves backward while covering her eyes. Hiro knocks away the dagger when it reaches him. Their Tank swings his axe at Hiro, who parries it, slowly pushing him away. Sledgehammer dude is right behind their Tank rushing toward Hiro. Sitos is kept busy with the other Archer firing arrows at him.   "Hiro, get back!" I warn, but it's too late.   "Tower!" the big guy exclaims. Simultaneously, the long wall from earlier disintegrates as the floor under Hiro rises. A square shaped stone platform rises quickly, launching Hiro into the air. I raise my eyebrows when the Water Archer hasn't fired any arrows at me for several seconds. As I turn my head over to her, an arrow covered in water flies past my view.   "Conduct lightning!" another girl yells. I turn toward the voice. The arrow covered in water pierces Hiro in his right shoulder, drenching the majority of his upper body in water. Another arrow is in the air from the opposite side and then pierces him from behind. He screams in pain as sparks of electricity and smoke radiates from his body. He loosens his grip on his weapon, and they both fall to the ground around the same time. Sitos is already engaging their Tank.   Damn, there're at least 30 more seconds to go! I grit my teeth as I turn to parry more arrows from the Water Archer. I focus back on the opponents in front. They're getting closer and closer.   "Kai, Sitos, get back!" Luna warns. I jump back immediately. "Twin flamethrowers!"   A large amount of constant fire emits from both of Luna's palms in front of her. The flames travel at least 15 feet before disappearing. She moves her palms around to cover a large area in front of her. The three opponents quickly back off.   "Water arrow! Water arrow!" Water Archer exclaims. I turn toward her and then parry one of the arrows. The other one flies by toward Luna's magic. The water disperses in the middle of the fire's path creating some steam while some of the flames die out. New flames that emit from Luna's palm instantly replaces the lost flames. Another Archer covers an arrow with Mana before shooting it at the flames. IT absorbs some of the flames, but soon enough the Mana covering the arrow runs out. The arrow catches on fire and falls to the ground.   Sledgehammer dude creates a wall between them and Luna. It disintegrates within a few seconds. I gulp as I gape at Luna's magic. I focus back on reality as I go stand by Luna's side to protect her from arrows shot by Water Archer. The three in front of us aren't trying to get closer.   If I were them… What would I do… I raise my eyebrows, focusing my sights on their Tank. He throws his axe and shield in two different directions.   "Hey, Sitos! Incoming!" I warn as I follow the shield honing in from my side. I run forward to avoid collision with Luna as I go to stop the shield. I follow its trajectory precisely, adjusting my position every passing moment. Dagger girl runs around Luna's magic toward me. The shield changes direction and heads straight for where I predict. I cross both of my swords as they hit the shield. The force of the attack knocks me back a few feet. The shield drops onto the floor. Another metal object clangs on the floor nearby at the same time.   "Hey, Drugo! Switch with me quick!" Sitos exclaims.   I keep my eyes on dagger girl. She has tied the string absent from the dagger she threw earlier with the other swing. She swings the dagger rapidly in the air as she runs toward me. I focus on the dagger. There's only one thing she can possibly do when there's so little time left… She can't harm the obelisk and harming me won't do a thing.   The dagger stops in midair in front of me. I move my right sword in front of me and then angle it toward her eyes. "Blind!"   The familiar ray of light appears from her right index finger. It reflects off the dagger and then off my own weapon. It reflects straight into dagger girl's eyes. She screams, dropping her weapon on the ground. I walk over and then cut the mystery string with a stab. I kick her weapon far away. Water Archer isn't firing anymore. I figure she's out of arrows. I face the others and find a sledgehammer in the air spinning horizontally toward the obelisk. I widen my eyes as I run toward it. Luna has stopped emitting flames and stands behind Drugo. She supports his back with both of her hands.   In midflight, stone covers the head of the sledgehammer. The rotation speed of the hammer greatly increases as it moves straight toward our obelisk. Drugo drops his sword and then holds his shield with both hands. Mana pours out of his arms that envelop the shield.   "Conduct lightning!" Lightning Archer shouts from afar. An arrow flies toward the puddle of water under all of us. My palms get sweaty and my heart races. My fears are lessened when Sitos easily stops the arrow in its tracks.   Drugo makes contact with the sledgehammer. It continuously pushes him and Luna backward. After two seconds, Drugo punts the sledgehammer into another direction. Parts of the stone surrounding the hammer fall onto the ground next to him. The hammer happens to be launched right at me. It sinks in height, but not low enough for me to jump over. I drop my weapons and then dive forward. I manage to duck right under it before its height reduces too much. I hit the floor. Dagger girl is now in the hammer's path.   One of the referees picks up the girl on the ground before the sledgehammer reaches her. Afterward, the hammer crashes onto the ground and slides along the floor for a while. It travels for around 30-40 feet before stopping completely.   The round ends shortly after. Just when I think that there are still more rounds to be played, it seems that the other team has given up. All three Archers have run out of arrows, and several of them can't use magic anymore. We have won the first round of the tournament.

I arrive and open the door with my left hand to 'The Simple Forge.'   "Oh, you're finally back?" the blacksmith asks from the back of the store. I close the door behind me. My arm guards, leg guards, and swords are already on top of the table near the entrance. "I'll be with you in a second."   I walk toward my sword sheaths and then attempt to grab it with my right hand. When I curl my fingers, the pain in my hand intensifies. I draw my hand back and refrain from picking up anything while waiting for him to return. Fifteen seconds later, he comes out holding an enclosed box. He hunches over and then drops it on the ground in a corner of the main room, creating a loud noise when it hits the floor. Metal clangs from inside the box. He straightens his posture before taking a quick sigh and then turns to me. He walks toward me and asks, "Kai, where were you? I almost thought you weren’t coming back considering that it's been an hour since you left."   "Well… I bumped into an old acquaintance, so we caught up a little," I respond hesitantly as I shrug my arms. He knits his eyebrows.   "Your—my god, what happened to your hand? Did you meet with your worst enemy?" I smile and laugh lightly while looking at my right hand.   "Ah, this? I felt like punching a wall, so I did. Don't worry about it," I explain with an apathetic look on my face. He quirks his lips and shakes his head.    "If you say so, but damn…that looks painful."   "Yeah… If you don't mind just put those arm guards and leg guards on me, would you?"   "Coming right up." He picks up the arm guards, and I straighten out my arms toward my sides. He equips my right arm first, then my left. Afterward, he picks up the leg guards and does the same to my legs. Finally, he unsheathes one of my swords and then holds it in his right hand in front of him. "This might be a little heavier than what you're used to, but it's the best I can offer you. It’s a decent sword."   He smiles as he slashes the air in front of me. I smile and raise my eyebrows, confirming my previous suspicions of his origins. "Why'd you quit being an adventurer?"   He suddenly becomes still. He stops smiling and remains expressionless for several seconds before he sheathes the sword again. He clips the sheaths onto my belt above my hips and answers, "That was a long time ago… Sorry, it's something I don't like remembering. I'm just a lowly blacksmith now."   Despite that he shows no emotions, I sense loneliness in his voice, feeling empathy for him. I close my eyes as I say, "No… I understand… My comrades were killed too, in the past."   "Is that so… But you're stronger than me. I didn't have the courage to continue when I witnessed the death of my comrades. I couldn’t take it anymore. So, I left and just became a blacksmith," he says while looking at the ground.   I open my eyes and then turn toward the exit. "I wouldn't say that. I'm not strong at all…"   "Lies. I saw it when I met you earlier today, and I still see it now. There's a fire in your eyes. Something that drives you towards your goals…" he says as he walks toward the back of his store. "Best of luck to you, Kai. Don't run from your past like I did."   I leave his shop and then head back toward 'Bolt's Inn' while thinking about the blacksmith's words. I open the door to our room, apparently unlocked. I go in.    "You're late," Leila says the moment I enter the room. She stands against the wall right next to the door.   "Oh, am I?" I ask in a joking manner and then laugh.   She stares me down. "It better not have to do with that equipment you have on you… The last time I checked, you didn't have any money on you."    "It kinda does… I went to pick it up for free be-before I came back here…" I answer reluctantly, despite feeling that she would take it the wrong way.   "You mean to say, you stole it," she accuses as she closes in her head closer to me. She gives me a suspicious frowning look on her face. I only smile in response.   I face my palms out in front of me and explain, "Nah, I really got it for free… You remember that man you gave ten gold coins to? He…"    I stop talking when Leila suddenly grabs my right arm. She cocks an eyebrow as she inspects my hand from various angles, before placing her hand over my wounds. She casts Healing magic while staying completely silent. She's focused. Several seconds pass before I quirk my lips and then ask, "You-you're not gonna ask what happened?"   She doesn't change expressions when she replies, "I'm used to it by now. It was probably something stupid, like punching a wall. It doesn't really matter. So, what was it about that man?"   I chuckle and smile before answering, "That man turned out to be a blacksmith… I bumped into him while gathering information and he offered to repair my armor and gave me everything else I currently have on me."   I leave out the information that he was never serious about the ten gold coins. Leila releases my hand and then says, "All done. Let's exchange the information we discovered so far. You go first."   I give a summary of all relevant information I found in the last couple of hours.   "Hmm… I see. Is it just a coincidence? The report your friend mentioned a week ago and the time that we were assigned to assassinate Dae are nearly identical."   "It's strange, though. I never heard any reports about Cascabel during my time in the army, and based on Marin's reaction, this is the first time she's come into something like this. It's not like she will find anything here, anyway. Did you find anything on your end?"   "Two things. First, I found the location where the underground information broker resides. People say his information's accurate and extensive." I raise my eyebrows upon hearing that, thinking about how Marin and company would eventually head there. "Second, in regards toward our secondary objective… Apparently the only place with a collection of books is in the castle."   "That's convenient. We'll eventually need to head to the castle anyway to drop off Irene. We still have some time before the speech. Let's head to that broker now," I suggest. I gesture my head toward Irene, who is still peacefully asleep and ask, "Should we bring her this time?"   Leila glances at Irene before answering, "No… The place we're headed to could taint her eyes. We'll return here later to pick her up."   "Alright, lead the way," I say while gesturing my hand toward the hallway. Leila locks the door again before we head out. We walk side by side as she indicates which turns to make.    In about twenty minutes of casual walking, the number of people on the street gradually decreases as the general sanitation of the area decreases. The houses nearby are crudely built, and there are people dressed in dirty, ragged clothes. The air smells like a combination of sweat, grease, and filth. This place isn't very social either; everyone seems to be in the dumps. There's a woman and a child close by. The woman has dark circles under her eyes and appears unwell. However, the child looks much healthier, but only physically; his eyes look dead, like the mother.   Subsequently, there's another young boy nearby after another minute of walking. I contemplate approaching him, but I refrain when a man comes out of the alleyway next to the boy. He walks away while clipping on his belt. With the shadow of another person in the alleyway, I avert my eyes from the familiar scenery. I turn my head toward Leila and ask, "Hey, how much farther?"   "It's in that broken building over there," she answers and points to a nearby structure without a door. Laughter and many pairs of footsteps echo in the building. Shortly after, a group of six kids runs out of the building. Smiling, they run into the distance. "What're you doing? Let's go."   Inside the building, we cross a couple of hallways, before turning towards a room without a door. There's a well-dressed middle-aged man behind a counter inside the room. There are toys on display on tables scattered across the room. I cock an eyebrow as I inspect the entire room. A poorly stitched doll of a young girl catches my eye. The man asks, "Are you looking to buy that doll, sir?"   "No, he will not," Leila responds as she gives me a glare. I put down the doll and then move closer to her. "Do you sell flutes?"   I knit my eyebrows. The man smiles before he replies, "No, I don't."   "I would like to buy this," Leila says as she picks up a stuffed animal of a lion.   "That will be 15 gold coins."    "Very well."   "Wait, what?!" I exclaim, feeling that something can't be right when I think back to the misunderstanding I had earlier with the two men. Subsequently, Leila puts down the stuffed animal, takes out 15 silver coins out of her backpack, and then drops them on the counter. The man takes it and then walks toward a back door.   "Right this way," he says as he opens the door. We follow him into the room that appears to be a storage place. He walks over to a stack of boxes and then begins to stack them on an empty space two feet beside it. When he picks up the last box, a trap door is revealed. "Please put the boxes back when you're done."   He walks back toward the other room and then closes the door behind him. I sigh and shake my head. "Is all this really necessary?"    "Don't ask questions," Leila says as she opens the trap door, revealing a ladder that leads down. She goes down first, and I follow. We find ourselves in a dimly lit small room with no one in it.   "Hey, are you sure this is the right place?"   "It should be…" she mutters while looking around. I survey the room too, finding that this room is made out of stone instead of wood. There are several barrels, boxes, and bags scattered about, but the only thing I find peculiar is the small opening in the wall, probably large enough to fit a baby at best.     "What do you folks want to know?" an elderly voice resounds from the other side of the hole. It's an old man with wrinkly skin. Leila and I briefly glance at each other and then nod our heads before turning back toward the hole.   "Tell us everything you know about Velyn," I respond.   "Hmm… That's going to take a long time… Can you be more specific?"   "Just tell us anything unusual you know that happened involving him in the past four years. We're also curious about the missing girl incident."   "The missing girl incident… The only thing I know about that is that Velyn investigated it three years ago. At some point, he stopped and concluded that it wouldn't happen again for unknown reasons. Another strange thing that happened is that he fired all the generals except Dae, and he replaced the ones he fired with new ones. I'm sure everyone has long forgotten about this already.   "If there's anything unusual…it would have to be the last month of last year; about six months ago. A source told me that he saw Velyn disguised in commoner clothes leaving Byzia. A month after that, he suddenly announced higher taxes in his usual public announcement. In addition, the prince and his advisors who usually appeared with him were not present." I grab my chin and scrunch my eyebrows together, thinking about the information gathered so far.   Suddenly, it feels like a cold stare is watching from behind. I turn around to check, but there's no one. Leila asks, "What's wrong?"   "There's someone watching us…" I claim with worry as I walk toward the barrels in front of me. My heartbeat is racing when I stop in front of them for several seconds. I shove the barrels aside. A rat scurries away to a nearby rat hole. Leila laughs from behind me.   "A rat…really?"   "Sorry…" I apologize and turn around, sighing afterward.   "You said Velyn claimed that the girls wouldn't go missing anymore at some point… Did it turn out to be true?" Leila asks as I'm bringing my mind back to the task at hand.   "Surprisingly, yes. It may be why people are suspicious of him now as of recent events."   "What do you know about General Dae?" Leila inquires.   "He's a man with a strong sense of justice serving Velyn for the past 11 years. Dae was the only high ranking officer that even bothered to help us in the slums. He didn't care about money as he donated most of it to help the people survive in these parts. The word is that he's working with Osmir as of late, but I would never believe it."   I raise my eyebrows upon hearing his last remark. Thinking back to our earlier deduction that they had to be working together, I ask, "Why's that hard to believe?"   "My sources have been keeping track of the movements of anyone related to the army or Velyn in the past six months, and they never mentioned anything about Dae leaving the capital, until about a week ago. One source said he left the castle carrying a pink dress in hand. There haven't been any reports of him coming back since. As far as I know, Osmir never came to Byzia until two days ago when he raided the castle with his group."   I knit my eyebrows together before asking, "Who's Osmir…? What do you know about him?"   "I'm afraid I don't have any trustworthy information about him."   "But you do have some information… Let's hear it regardless whether you have confirmed it or not," I insist.   "Very well… Let's see…" The man ponders for a moment before continuing, "Someone thinks they saw someone resembling Osmir together with Seirus and Aurora a long time ago before they were known to be the prince and prince's fiancé. Someone has said that he's a spy from another country. Someone has even said that he's one of Velyn's bastard children." Leila looks at me with a smile and then moves her head closer to me.   "Kai, that should be enough," she whispers into my ear.   "What, did you figure something out?" I whisper back into her ear.   "Not exactly… I'll fill you in later. Irene must've woken up by now."   "Wait, let me ask one more thing." She cocks an eyebrow, but I ignore it and then turn back toward the hole in the wall. I stare into the man's eyes and ask, "Have you heard of anything Cascabel related in Xantho as of late? Any names…hideout locations…possible plans?"   "No. I don't know anything about that. You're the second person today to ask that," the man responds immediately. I decide to pursue it further.   I ask again, "Are you sure? We're willing to offer 20 gold coins if you know anything."   I figure Leila has caught on since she's not throwing a fit. I gulp when the man doesn't respond for several seconds. "Yes, I'm sure. I know nothing."   I smile upon hearing his response. I turn around and say, "Is that so? Thank you…"   I raise my eyebrows and then turn back around again. "I have an offer to make you."   "Oh, what is that?"   "Someone else will come later, probably today or tomorrow asking about Cascabel… We'll give you a gold coin if you pass off some information to them."   "You're telling me to lie? If I actually accept that offer of yours… Wouldn't that make the information I told you become unreliable?"   I frown and stay silent, realizing his dilemma. But after a few more seconds, I smile. "We're both members of Cascabel. After we leave here, we're gonna head out of Byzia through the north gate. You can even get some of your men to follow us to confirm it. Use this information as you see fit."   With that, I climb the ladder to the top. After Leila comes up, we close the trap door and then stack the boxes on top of it. With a worried expression on her face, Leila asks, "Are you sure that was a good idea?"   "It should be fine… We made sure not to reveal our names during out time down there. We'll just leave as I said we would and go far enough to make sure we aren't being followed. Then we loop around toward the south gate."   "He must have scouts located all over town. There's no way to know where they are, let alone avoiding their sights."   I pause for a second, thinking of a solution. "After we loop back into town, we'll immediately go to a clothing shop and purchase hooded cloaks."   "I see. Let's go then." And with that, we make our way towards the northern gates. "What do you think?"   I shake my head, knit my eyebrows, and then respond, "I'm not sure what to think… After what we just learned it's possible that Dae wasn't working with Osmir…but they could've had contact prior to the last six months… The only two things we can confirm is that Velyn secretly left the country to visit Irene and how Neso knew Irene's attire before our arrival… I can't make sense of anything else right now…"   I pause for a moment before asking, "How can we leave Irene without knowing anything?"   "Kai, what's going on with you…? Aren't you a little too attached to Irene?" She asks, blushing. "I know she reminds you of someone…"   I hesitate for a moment and then sigh. "Yeah… I told you a while back, right? About what happened three years ago… She reminds me of her…"   I close my eyes, replaying my last memory of her before it happened. After recalling what she looked like, I add, "No…she resembles her…"   "Resemble…? Are you sure you're not delusional? Believing too strongly in something…and you'll trick yourself into believing that it's true, despite the low probability of occurrence."   "Maybe I am… I realized earlier today that I still haven't moved on from that point…" I smile lightly, acknowledging that possibility.    "Kai, you very well know we can't stay with Irene forever. I've been following your lead up to this point, so get it together. We'll do our best to deliver Irene to safety, but don't hesitate."   "Yeah you're right…" I agree while broadening my smile. "Sorry about that. So, what about you? How do you make sense of all this? It sounded like you came up with something."   "Yes, my thoughts on the matter are aligned with yours regarding the majority of what we discovered. In addition, we can use the unreliable information about Osmir to our advantage as we visit the castle."   I raise my eyebrows, understanding her ploy. I suggest, "While we're doing that, we might as well use Irene too. She has an eye for people."   Leila smiles. "Sure, you know best."   And with that we continue toward the north gate, eventually leaving the city. We look behind us, making sure that no one is tailing us. Afterward, we go through the nearby forest, sooner or later reaching the southern gates again. Suddenly, I remember a promise I made to Irene yesterday. "You know, we should bring Irene around town… She's been holed up in that inn for a while now."   "Are you an idiot? She stands out too much."   I don't let up and think of something. "Alright. How about this? We'll get another cloak for Irene. I'm assuming she hasn't been to a city in her entire life, so let her explore a little. After this, she may as well be holed up in that castle forever."   She knits her eyebrows and then says, "If you insist…"   We find our way to a clothing store, getting slightly lost along the way. Luckily, the first store we find has the hooded cloaks we want. Leila purchases three of them for only a silver coin. It's actually cheaper than that, but Leila doesn't take her change, and we leave. After putting on our cloaks, we head back toward our room in 'Bolt's Inn'.   Irene is sitting on the bed, facing the window. I announce, "Irene, we have good news… We know Velyn is innocent for certain."   "Well, we already knew that!" Irene turns around and lashes at me with an angry expression on her face. I regret telling her that already.   I scratch my head and follow up in a gentler voice, "You're right… Well, we still have a little over an hour before Osmir's speech… Let's go shopping until then. We'll cover you, so buy anything you want!"   Irene jumps up from the bed. Her sour mood transforms into her usual energetic self as she exclaims, "Really?!"   "Yeah, put this on and let's go," I reply with a smile, holding the cloak in front of me. She grabs it, happily puts it on and then runs into the hallway.   "Come on! Let's go!" she exclaims, grinning as she jumps up and down. Leila is also smiling.   "Let's go then," I say with a smile.   "I'm right behind you." And with that, we leave the inn and then make our way toward the shopping area.

Back at our home, Luna cooks some leftover rabbit from last night for me. I eat my fill and then spend the remaining time relaxing. Eventually, the fated hour arrives. We meet at the Arena and then change our leather garments with the newly provided ones on the usual cart.   "It seems both teams are ready. I will explain the rules. The name of the game is 'Eliminate the King.' The rules are very simple. Each team will designate a King or Queen. The King or Queen will wear a crown to indicate that he or she is the King or Queen. The winning condition is to use simply whatever means to take the crown off the opposing team's head," a referee explains. "Now, who will be the King or Queen from each team?"   Everyone looks toward Marin. She smiles before saying, "I'll be the Queen."   One of the referees hands her a crown. She puts it on tightly on the top of her head.   "I am the Queen," a girl from the other team says. It's their Mage.   "You have this entire Arena open to you to battle it out. You will start at opposite ends of the Arena before we announce the start of the game." We do as he instructs and move to the designated location. "Fight!"   We move forward as a group with Marin placed in the back. Our opponents seem to do the same while separated into two groups. The axe user is by himself at least 20 feet ahead of his team.   "Whirlwind!" the axe user yells as he starts to spin rapidly in a circle counter-clockwise while moving closer to us.    "Luna, it's up to you to stop him again!" Hiro exclaims.   "Stream!" A stream of water comes out of the spear user's palm. She aims it so that it is mostly evenly distributed around the vortex of the tornado around the axe user. The elliptical shield guy projects several rocks from his palm and mixes it into the vortex. The resulting debris circling the axe user obscures our vision from the rest of his team.   "I don't think I can stop that…" Luna says. We stare blankly at the spiraling tornado of doom heading toward us.   "Wake up you dimwits! Incoming arrows!" Sitos warns. Marin counters the volley of arrows with her own arrows as usual. They get knocked into the vortex. "Let us split into pairs and ditch this guy. This asshat will not be able to do anything if we move closer to his teammates. Marin can outrun at the pace he is moving at. I will go with Luna."   "Ahhh!" the circular shield guy yells from the other side. A giant spherical rock flies over the vortex. I think to move aside for a moment, but I realize it's overshot and simply stand still. Everyone raises their heads up as it misses us completely.   "I'll stay with Marinster," Drugo says.   "I guess that means I'm with Hiro. We'll go from the right side, and you guys go from the left," I say.   "Let us go," Sitos says. He and Luna run off. We do the same, running past the tornado guy from the right side. Their team stands still. The two Tanks are at the front, with everyone else behind him. I knit my eyebrows and stop running. I raise my eyebrows and then turn around. The Archer is aiming an arrow at Marin beside a broken rock. I'm decisive as I throw my right sword at her. I make sure to aim it so that she would undoubtedly take a step to the left. The arrow travels in the air shortly after I throw my sword.   Marin! Please react! I pray as I continue to run toward her. She knits her eyebrows and then takes a step to the left. A split second later, the arrow zooms past the top of her head, eventually spiraling in the vortex about 30 feet in front of her. My sword clangs and then slides along the stone floor. Marin opens her mouth and then turns around, finally taking notice of the enemy. Drugo, who has been several feet in front of Marin turns around too. He charges toward the Archer.   In a matter of seconds, the enemy Archer drops his weapon and then puts his hands in the air. "Let's no-not be hasty here… I give up…"   He takes off his leather garments and then drops it on the floor. I pick up my sword.   "Kai, you saved us from losing that game… I wasn't sure what to think when I saw you…throw your weapon at me," Marin says worrisomely and then sighs.   "Good thinking, Kaister. I should've been paying more attention to Marinster."   "Nah, it wasn't your fault. No one could've predicted that someone was hiding inside that rock. Moreover, it was probably that guy with ridiculous strength who had chucked that rock over in the first place. Let's just hope the others are successful in their attempt to take the crown," I say as I turn to face the vortex. The others are coming back from the left side of the tornado.   "Kai, where the hell did ya go?!" Hiro exclaims. "I didn't even realize ya abandoned me!"   "If it weren't for Kai, we would've lost already," Marin explains as she points to the Archer behind us.   "So that is where he was…" Sitos mutters. "We could not break their line of defense in the back. They are huddled together like freshly hatched baby chicks. Completely helpless otherwise."   He points to the tornado guy behind him with his thumb and continues, "Let us run around until this guy runs out of Mana."   "Sounds like a plan Sitoster."   I frown and say, "I don't like that idea. I'd rather beat them with brute force. They called us cowards…"   We casually move away from the incoming tornado of doom as we converse. Sitos says, "Throw away those emotions, Kai. Those monkeys are trying to get into your head. We do not have to play by their shitty rules. We just need to win. The tactic they just tried right now is very cowardly in comparison…"   "You're right…but I think we should go with Kai's idea. Like Marin said, if it weren't for Kai, we would've lost already," Luna says.   Sitos doesn't say anything for several seconds. He sighs before saying, "Fine…but how will we stop that while he is still working his magic?"   "Marin should shoot an arrow into the top of the vortex," Hiro suggests.   "Wow, you actually say some good things sometimes."   "What's that supposed to mean, Kai?"   "Unfortunately, I'm not good at lob shots… Sorry," Marin apologizes. Several seconds of silence follows.   Luna exclaims, "I got it! Maybe…"   She explains her idea and what would need to happen after that. After a minute of planning, our backs are nearly against the starting point of the game. As she approaches the spinning vortex in front of us, she says, "Here I go."   She paces herself to the right side of him from our position. The distance between her and the tornado is about 30 feet, decreasing every passing second. She stands still, pointing both her palms forward. I don't notice any changes to the approaching spiraling winds. When the distance between them is about 15 feet, some of the debris fly out in random directions. It doesn't take long before all of the water and rocks leave the vortex completely, leaving only the axe user spinning around. His teammates have been following closely behind.   Marin shoots an arrow at the exact moment the axe user is no longer unreachable. The arrow changes its course slightly, but it still manages to pierce his left thigh. He staggers a little. Hiro, who has been charging at him doesn't miss his chance. He connects his sledgehammer with the axe user with a spinning swing of his own. The blow knocks him down. I charge in to slash him with my swords, but the circular shield guy blocks my attack. I jump back as the rest of his team runs in front of him. The Wind user pants heavily as he barely supports himself in a sitting position with his arms on the ground behind him.   Their Mage pulls out the arrow in the axe user's leg and then puts her hands over his wound. "Heal!"   A few seconds later, she removes her hands from his injury, revealing that the wound has closed. The axe user says, "I can't use that move for much longer… I need to save some Mana for the next round too."   I smile before saying, "So you guys weren’t so tough after all. Have you given up now that you can't hide behind your barrier of wind?"   They whisper amongst themselves while still keeping their guards up.   "Hey, Kai. Are we going to give these imbeciles more time to plan too?" Sitos asks.   "I don't see why not. What can they do with four people against the six of us?" After 30 seconds have passed, their skin turns bluish like before. A split second later, they suddenly change formation. The two Tanks line up side by side with the spear user in the middle of them with her spear sticking out between the two in front. The axe user is behind the spear user, and their Queen is behind the axe user.   "Charge!" the two Tanks yell as they sprint toward us. They are on direct course toward Marin. I drop my smile and fall back to rejoin with Marin.   Hmm… Drugo will be able to block that spear quite easily… Do they really think they can win against the six…wait… I raise my eyebrows. Luna hasn't regrouped with us. She has one of her palms pointed toward the Mage behind the charge. Suddenly, the enemy team turns 90-degrees instantly toward Luna. I run full speed to intercept them before they can reach her. Luna opens her mouth and puts her arms down. She jumps backward, but she doesn't get much more of a lead. They are less than ten feet from her. Damn, not again!   I grit my teeth as I hopelessly try to intercept them in time to save Luna. An arrow covered in dirt flies by the right side of my head. It continues toward the two Tanks leading the charge. Marin shouts, "Scatter!"   A dirt cloud forms instantly around the arrow, obscuring my vision of the arrow. The enemy gradually stops their charge and then flails their shields around. "Wh-what the…how—" The three at the front of their charge cough uncontrollably. The dirt cloud moves toward their backline. Luna's palm is pointed toward them. I smile and change my course toward their Queen instead.   "Up flow!" the axe user exclaims, apparently directing airflow upward. The dirt cloud quickly clears up, but it's too late. By the time they have opened their eyes, my arm is in mid-thrust. A split second later, my arm is fully extended. My sword pierces their crown, forcing it off of the Queen's head.   "And that is game! Team three has won 'Eliminate the King' and wins the second round!" one of the referees announces. I sigh as I let the crown slide off my sword. I turn my head toward the other team.   "How did this happen… We were protected by Meredith's magic…" the circular shield guy mutters as he drops on his knees. I smile as I make my way back toward my group with Luna by my side.   Well, you were protected…but only against magic… Marin's specialty is Runic Magic, after all.   "Nice job, Kaister. You ended up doing all the work this time around," Drugo says.   "Nah… I just followed up with Marin and Luna. I didn't do much," I say as I glance over to Marin and Luna.   "This round went by really fast… I thought it woulda been harder than the first one."   "That is because the first team we fought were not simply monkeys grouped together. It just means the rankings in the preliminaries do not mean everything."   "It's still weird that the team in last place was stronger than the team in fourth…but our next opponents are strong for sure. Especially that spear user. They were team fourteen, right?" Hiro asks. I think back to the last match I fought in the preliminaries.   That guy was strong… I would've lost if the conditions were the same as the main tournament… There's also that guy who can ignite his weapons on fire.   "Don't be so scared, Hiro. We're stronger!" Luna exclaims with confidence.   "I hope so…'cause Sitos said rankings don't mean everythin'. How do ya know we're stronger?" Hiro asks with doubt.   "Hiro, stop being a wuss," I say. I give him a death glare and ask, "Or do you actually think they're stronger than me?"   "N-no… I guess not…" Hiro still answers with little confidence.   "What're we still doing here? I kinda wanna go home and take a nap," I say as my eyes wander around the Arena. The other team still hasn't left. I cock an eyebrow as I head for the exit myself.   "I could use a nap too, actually," Sitos says. A referee blocks me from my path to the exit.   "The other two teams are still playing their second game. Until they have finished, you can't leave here," he explains.   "What? Why?"   "I'm just following my orders." I click my tongue. I turn my head around looking for a good nap spot. It's the same everywhere. I start walking in a random direction and then lie down. I cross my hands and then support the back of my head with my palms. I close my eyes as I filter out the noise around me, voiding myself of any thoughts.   …   I slowly open my eyes while repeatedly closing and opening my mouth. The other team still isn't done…?   I roll over to my right side, immediately finding Luna's sleeping face an inch away from mine. I stare for a moment before I rear back. "Ah!"   Everyone is in a sleeping position around me. A few seconds later, several of them start to move, including Luna. I turn my head all around me, taking notice that the entire Arena is empty. Luna rubs her eyes with her hand and asks, "Kai…? What's wrong…?"   "Oh… I was trying to wake you guys up because it looks like we can leave," I explain as I just realized myself. Luna and the others yawn. Eventually, we start heading back to the dormitory together.   "Hey, did you hear? It looks like team two won by a landslide!" one of two students exclaims as they pass us.   "How did that happen?"   "I don't know… I just know that the round was over in two games."

"I'm thinkin' about moving back to Neso now that the raids won't be happening anymore," someone says among the crowds of people on the street. I continue slowly moving across in an attempt to pick up something useful from random conversations.   "You wouldn't believe what I saw earlier today!"   "What? Tell us!"   "I saw Osmir…! He made eye contact with me!"   "Oh my god! What happened after that?!" Straight ahead is a group of girls blushing and screaming. I ignore them and focus on something else.   "If only Velyn was overthrown a month earlier… Then I might've been able to afford medical treatment for my mother…"   "Oh right, your mother has been quite ill for over a year now, right? It might've not mattered considering how severe her condition is."   "I thought that too at first, but later I heard rumors about a healer that could cure anything, they call him Saint because of that. I figured that if I paid him a lot of money, he’d be able to help my mother."   I knit my eyebrows together. Saint… It seems people in these parts know about him too…    I start to walk into a new area, but I'm stopped by a familiar name.   "…Drosera," a man says. I widen my eyes and turn toward the direction of the voice. There's an old man sitting on steps in front of a building with a young couple standing next to him.   "Old man, whadaya mean by that? What possibly can be worse than what happened to Xantho in the past six months? Do you have any idea how hard I had to work to barely get by every day?" the young man asks as he shrugs his arms and smiles. The old man snickers.   "So you worked hard? Good for you," he says with a sharp tone and narrowed eyebrows. He frowns before saying, "At least you still have your family..."   The young couple stops smiling. The old man continues, "I lost everyone three years ago in that incident… My grandson, son, and daughter-in-law…everyone…"   I look down and close my eyes, recalling my own memories associated with the incident as I continue to listen silently to their conversation, selectively tuning out the rest of the background noise.   "Oh, that's right, I remember now! Cascabel is the one responsible for that attack on Drymo, right? I nearly forgot because the casualty count wasn't that high," the young woman mentions.   "Whatever you heard was a lie. They falsely reported the damage caused by the attack to not cause a panic among the other kingdoms. Despite that, Cascabel is still widely infamous."   "Oh… What were the actual damages, then?" the young woman asks.   "I do not know any exact numbers… I only remember going outside once all the explosions and fighting stopped which was several hours later… I was worried about my grandson, who was attending the Academy at the time, so I ran there as fast as my body would allow. On my way there, I could see corpses littered everywhere… Buildings were on fire, smoking, and everyone in a panic. By the time I got to the Academy, I was appalled. Apparently the damage was the worst in the Academy portion of the city. Later that day, I found my grandson laying cold on the ground in the large group of kids the rescue team took from a portion of the rubble…"   "That sounds awful… I'm really glad high taxes were the only thing I had to worry about now… Were your children found among the dead?" the young man asks.   "Actually, no, they were not. They were not really involved in the incident, but I felt that it would not have happened if they were there. You see, they are both A-class adventurers… The week before the attack, the top adventurers compromising of the S-class and A-class went on one of those stupid expeditions to the Cursed Territory…and they never came back. To think that I would be the last one to die in my family…"   I finally open my eyes, but I still only hear the events from that day playing in my head. I clearly remember the sounds that occurred, my losses, and the meeting with that man. I tightly clench both my fists and my jaws as I narrow my eyebrows and frown. Xedeus…! Everything is his fault…not just my suffering, but everyone else's too…like this old man. The next chance I get, I'm gonna do it… I swear, on the graves of…   "…excuse me…? Hello?" I relax my facial expressions and turn toward the voice. The old man and the young couple have noticed my presence. At the same time, the bustling activity of the streets fills my ears again.   "Hi~?" I reply. Afterward, I regret my stupid-sounding response. I blush and look away.   "Can we help you…?" the young woman asks. "You were staring with quite an expression on your face…"   The young woman guards her breasts and hides behind the man. I raise my eyebrows and wave both of my hands in front of me. With a smile, I say, "Ah, no, it's a misunderstanding. I was just thinking about—"   "Thinking about what, exactly?" the man asks and steps forward.   Still smiling, I answer, "I was thinking about…"   I don't finish and then turn around while running in the direction I was headed to previously. After several minutes, I check behind. None of them followed me. I slouch over and then sigh. Ugh… Back to information gathering…   "You gotta believe me! I saw it!" someone exclaims. There's a man with a desperate expression on his face talking to another man. I get closer to them feeling that this might be something important.   "So you're tellin' me…that you found some horribly disfigured corpse in the woods on your way here to Byzia? That somehow, this corpse had no traces of injury, but the body parts were re-arranged? Are you sure you didn't confuse it for a monster?" the other man asks.   "Yeah! It was definitely Human… The head was connected in front of the torso and…and…I don't want to remember anymore… It's the work of a demon, I'm tellin' you." I laugh loudly, remembering our work of art yesterday. I cover my mouth with both hands in an attempt to manage my uncontrollable laughter, but some giggles still escape with my breath. The two men stare at me.   "You must think I'm lyin' too, but I'm not!" I try to maintain my smile, despite feeling my lips wildly twitching.    "Nah," I say and then laugh lightly. "I believe you."   The other man laughs too and then exclaims, "I believe you too, really!"   "Clearly, you don't really think that! I can take you…" the man's voice dies out as I secretly leave. While chuckling to myself, I think back to yesterday.   We dragged Dae's subordinate deep enough in the woods so that his screams would reach no one. Leila and I stared down at him, who was on the ground.    "Hey Leila, this is a perfect time to repeat that experiment with a live specimen this time," I suggested with breaks of snickering.   "What a coincidence, I was thinking of the same thing…"   "Wh-wha-what are you go-going to-to do…?" Dae's subordinate asks while lying on the ground. An evil smile stretched across my face as I grabbed my blade. I took it out and then slashed his armor in multiple places. He squeals, "Eeeeeeee!"   A few seconds later, his armor shattered into pieces stripping his body of everything but his underwear. He knitted his eyebrows and alternated glances between himself and me. In prone, he tried to scurry away. I sighed, walked a few steps forward, and then stepped on his leg with my foot. He squealed again before screaming, "Help! The 'Phantom Swordsman' is homo!"   My smile changed into a frown as I narrowed my eyebrows on him. "Let's do this. Are you ready, Leila?"   "Oh, you don't wanna have some fun with him first? I thought last time you said that you wanted—"   "Shut up," I said bitterly, knowing that she knew the differing circumstances. I moved my leg to the top of his back. I raised my sword and then slammed it down on his right arm. His arm fell off, but before he had time to react to the pain, I took my leg off his back and then cut off his left leg above the knee.   "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!" he screamed and then bawled loudly. A small pain shoots through my eardrums. I didn't want to tolerate his cries, so I flipped him on his back using my foot. I kneeled down and struck his vocal box with my open hand. His cries turned into quiet choking noises. At this point, Leila already started working her part. She grabbed the cut-off leg and then placed it where his right arm was. Dae's subordinate constant squirming stopped Leila from getting the leg into the right position, so I stepped on his chest with my foot. She places her free hand around his right shoulder and the cut-off leg. A faint green light glowed around her hand.   Nearly 15 seconds passed by before Leila lets go of his cut-off leg, now connected to his right shoulder with no signs of fresh blood dripping down. The leg wasn't a perfect fit for the shoulder; the skin wasn't aligned with the size of the opening on the shoulder. She proceeded to do the same thing with the cut-off arm on his left leg. It took around 25 seconds this time. I figured it took longer because she had to close the wound of unused space.   "Phew… Working with a live subject is much harder… I don't want to do this anymore… It's a waste of my Mana," Leila complained and stood up.   "Well, that's understandable…but let's try one more thing now that we see that this was a success," I suggested as I stared down at Dae's subordinate. His new 'arm' and 'leg' moved around weakly. I sheathed my swords before I said, "He's probably gonna die after this… Basically, I'm gonna cut off his right breast and his head."   "Oh, that's an interesting idea! I'll put a little more effort into this one!" Leila responded, thrilled. I took out my skinning knife, knelt down, and then grabbed his right breast with my other hand. I tried to make an even cut across, to make a fit for the head. I tossed the bloody chunk of flesh aside and stood up. I took out a sword and then made a swift cut at the top of his neck. Blood spouted from his neck. Leila immediately took the head and moved it to where his right breast was. Meanwhile, I moved over to his neck with my right palm pointed toward the top. I let out a weak spray of fire. A few seconds later, blood stopped leaking from his neck.   Leila had narrowed eyebrows, apparently deeply focused on attaching the head to the designated location. The green light that shined from her hands had a greater intensity compared to last time. Only ten seconds had passed before she declared, "Done!"   "Did it work?!" I asked with a grin. Leila sighed and then I stopped smiling.   "Well…it was to be expected…  I wasn't really sure how to connect all the veins, arteries, and nerves properly…" she explained with low energy. I raised my eyebrows when something bulged in his underwear.   "Wait! He's alive!" I exclaimed while smiling and then pointed toward his groin.    Leila turned her head there, quirked an eyebrow, and then asked, "Huh? Are you stupid or something?"   "What? He probably became aroused at his new body…" I said weakly while skeptically curling one side of my lips. Leila sighed and then grabbed his left arm.   "Here, check for yourself."   I grabbed his arm and then used the finger on my other hand to check his pulse. I felt nothing. I knitted my eyebrows and said, "Oh, you're right, he's dead… What's that about?"   "It just happens when you suddenly die. Don't you know these things?"   "No, why would I? I would've never thought to look in this place after killing people," I said with my eyebrows squeezed together. I raised my eyebrows before I asked, "Actually how did you find out? Don't tell me you…you're into necrophilia?!"    Leila blushes a little and instantly exclaimed, "N-no you idiot! How would I even… Look, this is common knowledge, okay?"   She yawned, stood up, and then stretched. "Okay, I'll clean this up, and we'll head back."   "Wait! Just attach his right breast to the top of his neck and get rid of the blood. Monsters will eventually find their way here and eat him anyway.  And if someone finds him, they'll just be confused…" I suggested while trying to stop myself from showing a smile. I hoped someone would discover our work of art and laughed hard to myself inside.   "Sure, that sounds fine," Leila replied. Subsequently, she cleaned the blood off herself and me before we headed back to the convoy.   I smile and chuckle a few more times thinking about the panicked man.    "Hey, you! Guy in the broken armor!" a familiar voice resounds from behind me.   Broken armor…? I knit my eyebrows and looked at the hole in my armor before turning around. The scam-artist from earlier waves his arm as he walks closer to me.    "Oh, it's you…" I say with a frown. "What do you want?"    He laughs and then puts an arm on my shoulder. "Well, I wasn't actually being serious, but your friend gave me the money anyway!"   I raise my eyebrows while grinning and laughing. "Oh, can I have the money back, then?!"   "Nope." I stop laughing but hold my grin in place.   Hmm… There's probably a dark alley somewhere around here…   He laughs again. I drop that thought and relax my facial expressions. "I'll make it up to you. You see, I'm actually a blacksmith. My shop is not too far from here, and you can take whatever you want, and I'll even repair that armor of yours. All for free, of course!"   I cock an eyebrow before asking, "I thought you just arrived from your village just now?"   "Nah, I never said I wasn't from Byzia to begin with."   "What were you doing coming from outside the city, then?"   "Just an attempt to advertise my wares. Anyway, follow me; I'll lead you to my shop."   I follow a few feet behind him.    "Are you sure it was them?" a man asks.   "Yeah, there's no mistaking that symbol; an eagle with its wings spread out," another man answers. I raise my eyebrows and stop walking.   "I didn't see any large armies around the city, though, besides Osmir's company."   "There's not that many of them. I only saw three people wearing the special armor and less than a dozen of other soldiers; it must be a recon group of some sort."    I squeezed my eyebrows together and clasped my chin. It can't be…   "Are you coming?" the blacksmith asks. He's over twenty feet away now.   "Uh…yeah…coming!" I answer with a slight hesitation before completely dropping my thoughts. Afterward, I quicken my pace to catch up with the blacksmith. We arrive at his shop, 'The Simple Forge,' several minutes later. It's deserted. I smile and ask, "You're popular, aren't you?"   "Can it. It's because everyone wants magic-infused weapons and armor nowadays, and I specialize in ordinary goods," he explains as he paces around me. He slides his hand across the front of my armor. "What is this made out of, anyway?"   "It's Titanium. You're a blacksmith, and you don't know that?" I ask while curling one side of my lips upward. His entire face twitches afterward. I probably shouldn't be too mean to him, or he might change his mind…   "Well, sorry. This poor blacksmith can't afford anything even remotely expensive…" he apologizes. "I can at least repair your armor for you using the money your friend gave me for sure. Let me see one of those sheaths to get some measurements on your weapons."   He holds out an open palm. I unclip one of my sheaths off my belt and then hand it to him. He views it at various angles and touches it all over. "Hmm… This is quite light-weight, what were your weapons made out of, Titanium?"   I smile, wondering for several seconds if I should be truthful for the sake of his sanity. "Mithril."   "WHAT?!" he exclaims and drops his jaw. "You're telling me you lost two Mithril swords?!"   "Well…basically."   "Sounds like there is more to it, but I won't pester you for those details. I can get you two swords made out of Cobalt after some adjust…hmm? There is an opening at the end of this sheath…"   He quirks an eyebrow as he inserts his finger into said opening while feeling it between his finger and thumb.   "Hmm… It feels smooth…" he says and then raises his eyebrows. "Could it be…this was done intentionally?"   I smile before answering, "Yeah, it's a custom design. My blades were—"   "Longer than the sheath, right?"   "Wow~! As expected of a blacksmith!" I exclaim, attempting to compliment him, but it comes out wrong.   "It seems you finally understand!" he exclaims with a grin but frowns afterward. He looks at the floor and in a discouraged voice says, "Sorry to disappoint you, but I can't give you a sword longer than the sheath… After some adjustments, I can thin out the Cobalt swords I have in the storage room so that it will fit the sheath, but anything else would take too long."   "Don't be so depressed," I say as I put an arm on his shoulder. I smile and continue, "I'm really glad you're gonna do all this for me for free, so just do what you can."   "Thanks. I'll work hard for my first customer in weeks!" he exclaims and then hands me my sheath back." Can you take off your armor for me? I'll have that repaired for you by tomorrow. In the meantime, you can choose from the selection I have here."   I clip the sheath on my belt again, before taking both of my belts off and resting them on a nearby table. As I'm taking off my chest plate, I reply, "Nah, I can wait until tomorrow."   I hand it to him, and he gently places it on the floor beside a wall. He offers, "How about some leg guards or arm guards? I noticed that you're not wearing any…"   "Sure, I'll take what you have."   "Alright. Give me about half an hour to get your swords and guards ready. For the time being, just walk around the area and explore a bit. You're new to the city after all."   After his suggestion, I leave the shop and then stretch my limbs. I decide just to pick a random direction to go, but before I start walking, I notice two shady men heading towards an alley next to the blacksmith's shop. Fearing that they might do something bad to the blacksmith, I secretly follow them. They head into an intersecting alleyway in the alleyway. I close in without making a single sound at the edge of the wall. I take a small peak with my head around the corner. The two men have stopped just a few feet over. I retract my head and simply listen to avoid getting caught.   "So, what'd he say? Did ya find out anything?"   "He didn't know anything…"   "Damn it! How are we goin' to sell information to that girl if not even the underground broker knows anythin'?"   I knit my eyebrows together. Sell information? Could they be talking about Leila?   "Wait… Maybe we can just tell her that there's an underground broker somewhere that has what she's looking for…"   "Ho… That's a fine idea… We can just tell 'er that there exists one as the pre-payment and give 'er the location after we enjoy her…"   "We? This sounds like only one of us can do it…"   I clench my fist and frown. "Well, I'm the one who found the location of the broker to begin with, so naturally I'll be the one to do it."   "What?! But I'm the one who told you about the girl!"   "But when ya found her, she already bought lotsa information, right? Just blame yerself for bein' too late. Don't feel too bad. Here, take this as compensation. Ya might find someone wit' that gold coin," someone states and then snickers.   "But I wanted that girl… She's cute, young, and with a great body to boot… "   I can't stop myself anymore. I reveal myself and then shout, "Hey!"   The two men turn toward me and then one of them asks, "Huh? Whadaya want, kid?"   He has an appearance similar to a bandit. His body is much more developed than the other man, who appears to be weak and frail. Still frowning, I point my eyebrows downward and claim, "You were insulting my friend!"   He cocks an eyebrow and asks, "What the hell are ya talkin' about?"   "Don't play dumb! You were talking about my friend! We arrived in this city a few hours ago, and we wanted information, and now you're talking about how you were gonna enjoy her!" I exclaim as I stare at him. He puffs his chest out as he walks closer to me.   "I think ya got yer facts wrong… Get outta my face unless ya wanna lose a few teeth…"   "Huh?" I interject with knitted eyebrows. I interpret his words as a sign of aggression. I quickly punch him in the stomach, causing him to lower the upper portion of his body. He makes a gagging noise too, and before he can do anything else, I grab the back of his head with both of my hands. Afterward, I push down with all of my strength as I raise my right knee pointed towards his mouth. Something cracks when his face collides with my knee, probably a couple of his teeth. Subsequently, I throw him on the ground, stomach side up. I look down on him with an unpleased facial expression.   "Wa-waut! Woov gob it all wong!" he blabbers while waving his arms. Between every word, blood falls from his mouth onto the ground. Blood covered all of his teeth. "Ubs a misunbersanbing!"    Four of his front teeth are on the ground next to me covered in blood.    "Um, excuse me…" the frail man mutters while walking closer to me. "I think he's trying to say that it's a misunderstanding… This girl we're talking about can't be the same girl you're talking about because I found her yesterday…"   I blankly stare at him for several seconds with a relaxed facial expression.   "Oh…" I mutter, gradually pursing my lips for a few seconds. I bow my head toward the man on the ground and then say, "Sorry about that."   I turn around and head back to where I came from, ignoring the various angry-sounding noises the guy on the ground is making. Hmm… I should still have more time before the blacksmith finishes… Well, he probably won't care if I'm a little late.   I head off in a random direction and eventually find myself in an area that looks like the residential area. A cold beer would be great right now…   While looking for the tavern, I raise my eyebrows as I spot something else of interest; an emaciated girl sitting on a chair on the porch of a tavern. Jackpot…   While smiling, I walk over to the house and then give a friendly wave from afar. She doesn't change from her current position. Her head is slightly tilted down. I walk directly in front of her and then hold out my hand. "Hi there, my name's—"   Suddenly, I'm interrupted by her screaming. She waves all her limbs around in a panic and then ends up falling off her chair. I frown skeptically, finding that everyone around me is looking toward my direction with all kinds of facial expressions. The door to the tavern opens, and a middle-aged man appears. He assumes a defensive stance in front of the girl. He demands in a furious tone, "Who are you?!"   I back slightly away while holding my hands up, gesturing that I mean no harm. With a smile, I explain, "It's a misunderstanding… My name's Kai, and I was just trying to introduce myself and shake her hand…"   He lets his guard down and then sighs. He helps his daughter back into her chair and says, "So Kai, what's your business with my daughter? As you can see, her mental state is not very good right now…"   I come up with a lie that works in my favor on the spot. "I work for Osmir, actually. He ordered me to find out any useful information from the girls who were kidnapped."   "I see… Give me a moment," the man says as kneels down to the girl. He puts an arm around her before continuing, "Utna, this man here wants to ask you some questions. Can you answer them?  It will help Osmir."   Utna nods her head. "Okay, ask your questions, but try to keep it short."   "Alright, I just have a few questions. First, did you see Velyn at all during your imprisonment?" The girl shakes her head. "Did you see who assaulted you? What can you tell me about him?"   Utna shivers with fearful eyes. "It's okay, Utna, try to tell him what you can."   A few seconds later, the girl looks up at me before responding.   "I was blindfolded…so I didn't see anyone…but I know it was more than one person because…" she says in a very quiet voice. Her cheeks flush slightly red while her breathing is somewhat fast. "It felt… different sometimes when they…and umm…the texture and the size of their hands felt different too when they…touched me…"   I think about asking her about the day she was taken, but I figure that just people showed up at her village dressed like the army and forced her to come with them. I say in a volume matching hers, "I see… That's all I needed to know. Thanks for cooperating, Utna."   I hold out my hand again in front of her. She slowly moves her hand toward mine. It shakes and rears back several times before she finally takes hold of mine. I hold it firmly, giving it a solid handshake.    "Excuse me…" a woman says behind me. I turn around. She clasps her hands together and asks, "I couldn't help but overhear your conversation, but is it true you work for Osmir?"   I gulp before responding, feeling slightly bad about lying. "Ye-yeah, why?"   "Please! Have you found anything of my daughter?! Her name is Lily!" she begs with tearful eyes. I knit my eyebrows together as I think of the name Lily. I can't help but feel like I've heard the name somewhere. Nothing comes to mind, though.   "Was she among the kidnapped?"   "Yes! It was about four years ago!"   I quirk an eyebrow and then decide to take a risk. Confidently, I inform, "The women we found the other day were ones who were kidnapped in the last couple of months. We didn't find anyone else."   "But Velyn was the one responsible for this incident, right?! So he has to be the one responsible for the girls who began to go missing three to four years ago!"   I momentarily close my eyes, giving a few seconds of hesitation before responding, "Yes, he's the one responsible for the kidnappings. However, we haven't located him yet so we can't determine where your daughter is."   I gulp again, hoping that she doesn't discover that I'm a fraud. I hesitate because what I'm about to ask doesn't make any sense on a lot of levels.   "Your daughter was kidnapped from a village, right? Did you see who took her?"   "What?" she asks and knits her eyebrows. My face grows hotter by every passing moment. I relax when she answers, "No… She was one of the girls that went missing in the academy… She was in her fifth year…"   I raise my eyebrows. Several seconds later, I say, "I see… Don't worry ma'am, we'll do our best to locate your daughter."   I smile, turn back towards Utna, and then wave. "I hope you feel better, Utna."   I walk into the tavern. Inside, there are a couple of people sitting at different tables and no one at the bar. I figure that it won't be busy so early in the day, so it is no surprise. I walk over and sit on a stool in front of the bar. Despite having no money, I request, "Bartender, get me the best stout y­ou have."   "Coming right up."    I rest my head against my left hand, with my elbow against the counter. I think about some of the information I discovered after leaving the blacksmith's shop. Hmm… So now it's certain that the rumor about Velyn looking for a concubine is false…but what bothers me is what that mother just told me… Her daughter, Lily, went missing in the academy…and probably no one knows what happened because now they're blaming it on Velyn, whom they think is the cause of the recent kidnappings…   More people enter the building, probably three given what the footsteps sound like.   "What happened ta yer face, anyway?" a girl asks.   "Some asshole attacked me over a misunderstandin'…" a familiar voice responds.   I smile skeptically. Oh, it's that guy again...   I don't turn around, afraid that he would recognize me.    "Here you go," the bartender says and places the stout in front of me. I grab the handle and start to sip my drink.   Delicious…   "Well, whatever. What'd ya hafta offer me?"   "Yeah, 'bout that. I know of a location of an underground information broker of sorts… He has what yer lookin' for," he says with confidence.   "Oh, I know 'bout 'im, someone told me earlier today," the girl responds and then laughs. Her laugh disturbs me a little, reminding me of someone else I know.   "Actually, there're two information brokers… I bet the one you have been to is the one located in the slums, right? I'll give ya the location of the other one after my payment…" The man still sounds confident, even though I know he's lying based on what I heard earlier.    The girl laughs again before responding, "Okay, let's go~!"   Again, a sense of familiarity wraps around my mind in her manner of speaking. I turn half of my body around while still resting my left arm on the counter. I hold and drink the stout with my other arm. The man stands in front of the girl, so I can't see her clearly. I quickly turn back around before the man fully faces my direction. I notice the stairs to my right.   I gradually take bigger gulps of my stout, thinking about the missing academy girls from four years ago. Yes…this was the same as I remember when I first heard about it during my fifth year… I know it occurred in other kingdoms too… It would be hard to believe that Velyn was responsible for those too…   Gradually, the footsteps grow louder. I smile lewdly and flare my nostrils as I'm thinking about what the girl looks like. I turn my head toward the stairs while still gulping my stout. The girl has long, red hair with a slender body. She wears a small pink top with two black belts strapping over her chest. It covers no more than a bra would. Not that she’s wearing one with those nipples protruding out from her outfit. She pairs the skimpy top with matching pink short shorts with her thong straps above it.   Nice, nice!  What a lucky guy! Now I just wanna see what her face looks like… I take a gulp of my drink but keep it in my mouth. I stop smiling when I take note of her red gloves. Wait…those look just like…   The two finally make it to the stairs. As the girl turns her head, I raise my eyebrows. I choke and spit out the beer in my mouth. I set the stout down on the counter, continuing to cough. I knit my eyebrows together and narrow my eyes. My heart races progressively faster. Ruby…! Shit… if she's here, then…   Footsteps approach me from behind. "Excuse me, can you get me the darkest beer you have?"   I know exactly who that voice belongs to. Sweat forms on my forehead as I lock my joints in place. I hope she doesn't realize it's me. About 30 seconds later, the bartender places the stout on the counter and then says, "Here you go, my best stout, the same one this man is having."   "Hmm?" she makes a noise. I feel like she's staring at me right now. Several seconds pass.   "Ah! It's Kai!" she exclaims and then puts her hands on my left arm. "You're Kai, aren't you?!"   Since my identity is exposed, I turn towards her with a small smile on my face, quietly responding, "Marin…"

I run down the shaded path, chilled by a gentle breeze permeating my damp clothes. With my chest burning from respiratory exhaustion, still tired from training, I look ahead and realize the building isn't that wide; I'd reach the other side in five minutes at this pace.   There are metal devices sticking out across the entire length of the wall. They are small globular iron contraptions, spaced half a foot apart solely on ground level. What're those for?   Hot sweat drips from my entire head, still panting from exhaustion. When I move my arms even a little, they feel like dead weights. I run in a slouched position due to burning in my abs and lower back. I distinguish a tingling sensation on the surface of my skin around my body among my muscle aches. I knit my eyebrows. What's this feeling…? I didn't feel this when I ran here from home… It almost seems like my Mana wants to come out, but it feels…different…   I think about letting out this feeling to see if it would be different than any other time I released my Mana, but I refrain. I'm at the end of the path. I run past the wall and stop. Afterward, I look down on my arms as I rotate them. That’s strange. I don’t feel it anymore… Oh well, it’s time to eat!   Up ahead, there's a large, open grassy area between the Academy and another large building. Crowds of kids enjoy servings of food throughout the grassy area. I put my right hand over my stomach as it growls probably in response to the delicious food in front of me. I gulp, anxiously walking around to find where they serve the meals.   "Kaister, over here!" a familiar voice shouts.   Kaister…? Oh, yeah… Drugo calls Hiro, Hiroster, so… I turn toward the voice and then find Luna and Drugo waving. I wave back and run over in excitement.   “Hey!”  I cock an eyebrow when I observe that none of them are eating. "Why aren't you guys eating? Not hungry?"   There's a brief silence accompanying everyone's blank facial expressions.   "Whose fault do you think that is?!" Hiro lashes out at me as he clenches his right fist. I only raise my eyebrows and frown while still wondering what he's talking about. "I'm starvin'! Ya better have a good excuse for this, Kai."   I wrap my thumb and index finger around my chin. I know why I was late, but I still don’t understand why he’s mad at me… I can’t tell him I was playing with my Mana… Hiro's glare catches my eye.   “Uhhh…” I mutter.   "Sitos, you're bein’ unusually quiet, say something to 'im! Weren'tcha two in the same group?"   This bastard… He’s probably gonna tell everyone I was crying and say I’m a weakling… I frown while clenching both of my fists. Sitos turns around with his arms crossed. He wears an apathetic facial expression. I relax my hands as I quirk an eyebrow. Huh…? I thought he’d be furious with me… Why's it look like he doesn’t care?   "It does not matter does it? Let us get his ticket and eat already."   "What?! You're goin' to forgive 'im that easily?!" Hiro exclaims, meanwhile Sitos stays silent with the same expression.   "Well, you heard him, Kaister. You should've gotten a red piece of paper from Teacher Moria, right?" Drugo confirms.   Red paper…? Moria…? Oh, so his name is Moria! I reach for the red slip of paper in my pocket and hand it to Drugo, who takes out five other pieces of red paper and adds it to that pile. He turns around, walks towards an unfamiliar adult, and hands the paper to him. My eyes wander around the scenery surrounding me.   Hmm… Everyone is in groups of six; I wonder why that is? Drugo comes back with six pieces of yellow paper in his hand, giving each of us one. I scrunch my forehead as I stare down at the yellow piece of paper in my hand. "Umm… What's this for?"   "We can get food from over there with this slip of paper now. Since you weren’t here for the instructions, we'll explain it to you while we eat." Drugo explains.   We go to where there's food spread out on top of several tables. A giant pot of soup catches my attention, prompting me to grab a bowl nearby, eventually going back to the pot. My drool leaks out of my mouth as the rich smell of the broth enters my nostrils. I take the ladle in hand and begin serving myself the soup scooping up pieces of beef and soup into my bowl until it’s full. When I finish, I get a spoon from the silverware table and look around. The rest of my group is already seated on the ground, so I sit with them with the bowl of soup in front of me.   Drugo starts to explain the meaning of the red and yellow pieces of paper, but I lose focus scooping the bits of beef in my soup. I verify that it's real, genuine soup. Tears suddenly down my eyes when I think back to this morning.   "…Kaister are you lis… Did I say something bad?"   "Huh...? Oh, it's nothing!" I wipe my tears with my arms. "Sorry, I wasn't listening. Can you explain again from the beginning?"   Drugo sighs. “Okay, pay attention this time.”   I pick up my spoon and viciously eat the contents of the soup while Drugo explains, "Well, basically there will be goals for each day. When the first objective's met, you're given a red slip of paper, and when the second goal's met, you're given a yellow slip of paper. Each person has to obtain it individually on their own. On those days, everyone in the same group must present their yellow tickets to eat for that day."   He momentarily pauses to pick up a piece of sliced steak on his plate. He chews and swallows a piece before continuing, "Today was a freebie, but in the future it could be an individual activity we have to complete or a group activity."   I slurp up the last of the soup and stare down at the bowl in dejection. "I see… So it was my fault you guys were starving... Actually, I was—"   "Training, right?"   I look up and raise my eyebrows. A cold chill runs down my spine when I make eye contact with who just said that. My lips shake as I anxiously stare at Sitos. No way… Sitos saw me?   Hiro puts down his sandwich and says, "Training? Whadaya mean? It shoulda ended for everyone at the same time."   It's over… I look down and close my eyes.   "Yeah it ended, but Kai wanted to train more. He did not want to drag us down, so he stayed and worked himself harder."   Huh…? My lips stop twitching as I open my eyes and look up. After rubbing my eyes in disbelief, I still see Sitos sitting in front of me as the person who spoke those words. This must be a dream…   I pinch myself strongly on my left arm. Ow…    I look around; nothing has changed. Hiro awkwardly hops closer to me while he's still sitting down. He wraps his left arm around my neck and laughs. "Why didn'tcha just tell us that? So, ya worked really hard, eh?"   I'm still confused by this unexpected scenario, but I force a smile to play along. "Yeah…"   My eyes wander around our circle. Luna's smiling as she quietly claps her hands. Beside her, Marin smiles slightly. Drugo next to Sitos gives me a broader smile in comparison. Gradually, the smile that I forced on my face transforms into a genuine grin. I wonder what this feeling is… Is this what having friends feels like?   We make friendly banter until we hear Moria announcing, "Ahem. Everyone, I need your attention."   Teacher Moria stands in front of the other building that I saw. "I hope you enjoyed your meals today. You will also enjoy a grand meal prepared by us for dinner and every day of this year. Next year, however, you will have to prepare meals yourself."   The kids around us let out a unanimous groan. "Now, there is a reason we had you take the path outside to get here instead of the center corridor of the Academy. All of you should have felt some tingling under your skin right? The magical items attached to the wall are meant to stimulate the Scrap Mana in your bodies..."   I raise my eyebrows and feel a small smile gradually emerging on my face. Ohh… So that's what I felt earlier, I can't wait to try this out later!   "… Now that you have experienced what Scrap Mana feels like, it should be easier for you to release it. Do not worry too much if you cannot do it; on average it takes about a month to actually be able to release it from your body.   "Next, we will assign and show you to your living quarters. This building houses all the students here at the Academy. For this year's first-year students, you will live on the first floor. Within each room from the hallway, there are six separate lockable bedrooms with the same amenities in each room. In the common room, there is a kitchen, lounge, and storage room. It is up to you to figure out how to utilize these rooms. Stand in line and get your keys here now. You only get one, so do not lose it or you will be penalized as a team. The number on the key matches the room number."   We line up for the keys as he finishes the instructions. Luckily, we are the first group who gets there because Moria spoke close to where we sat. We follow Luna to the entrance of the building that's located straight from the back entrance of the Academy, and she goes in first since she carries the keys. After going in, there's a crossroad in which the left and right sides are completely symmetrical. At the end of each hallway is a set of staircases that lead up. The building is mostly made out of stone, like the Academy.    "Let's split up while we look for our room. It's room 46," Luna says as she walks towards our immediate left. Since Sitos is already exploring our immediate right, we go straight into the other hallways. There are three more identical hallways just like the first one up ahead. Each half hallway contains ten rooms, available only on the north portion of each hallway. I continue to move straight while the others split off into other directions.   I walk straight towards the last hall because the door at the end intrigues me; it doesn't look like an exit, and the door is the same size as the other rooms. When I reach the last hallway, I turn my head left and right, realizing that there are only three rooms including the door in the center.   I wonder what these rooms are for…? Hmm… Let's see… This room is 1b… These are spaced apart more than the other rooms… Whoever gets these places are lucky because they look bigger than the rest.   While I'm still pondering, someone shouts, "I found room 46, over here!"   I head to the adjacent hallway, where I think I heard the voice. I look in both directions before finding Hiro waving his hand on my right side. He's standing in front of the last room down this corridor. I walk over there, and we wait for the rest of our group to arrive. Luna is the last one to come with the keys. She inserts the keys into the door and opens it.   "Wow! It's so spacious!" Luna exclaims. We quickly run into the room afterward. Immediately in front of me is a long wooden table, with a chair on each end, and two chairs on both longer sides. There's a lantern that hangs below the ceiling above the table that illuminates this part of the room. Stepping farther into the room, I find the floors are made out of fine wood, similar to the chamber for sword training I was in earlier. Behind the dining table, there are six doors along the same side of the wall opposite to the entrance.   On the right, there's a storage area; there are two shelves along with three sizable metal chests against the wall, along with a lantern on the ceiling that lights this part of the room. Two familiar magical items useful for laundry are at the end of the wall. I go to the left part of the room which looks like the kitchen area. There's a refrigerator, shelf, sink, stove, counter space, and an oven. Drawers and cabinets line themselves along the counters. The usual lantern hangs from the ceiling.   Focusing back on the six rooms, I notice that all of the doors are open, except the one on the far left, so I go to that one. I open the door and close it behind me, finding a lock on this side of the door. I realize that this is the bedroom, observing that it isn't as big when compared to the common room. There's barely enough room to fit a bed, a drawer, and a shelf. I open the door next to the bed and discover the bathroom. There's a sink to my immediate right, with a toilet after it, a towel hung on a horizontal bar opposite of the toilet, and a bath in the back built into the whole width of the room. This room is made of stone, rather than wood.   Hmm… There aren't any windows in this room either… We're all gonna suffocate in our new home… I frown skeptically and sigh. I spot toothpaste and toothbrushes by the sink below the mirror. Back into the bedroom, my eyes focus on the bi-folding door on my left side, beyond the bed. I open it, finding many hangars available on the horizontal bar, but no clothes. I shut it and check the drawer in the room, but it's empty too. I dive onto the bed and sigh.   How am I supposed to take a shower with no spare clothes… I spread out my arms and legs while smiling. This bed's so comfortable… I could lie here forever…   I lay on the bed while losing track of time until I hear voices in the common room. I get up and open the door. Louder voices stem from the hallways. I run toward the entrance of our home to see what's going on, but someone says, "Hey Kai, you're still here? Moria made an announcement like ten minutes ago that we can select whatever clothes we want from the outfits available in the hallways! There's a lot so check it out! I'm gonna go back to get more, see ya later!"   Hiro runs out the door, and I follow him. The hallways are flooded with various outfits hung on racks. I discover that the clothes for boys are in the third and fourth hallways while the clothes for girls are in the first two. I don't care as much for this kind of thing, so I just grab entirely arbitrary clothes and take it back to my room. I carry as much as I can and soon fill up my entire closet and drawer with a few trips. I also take some new footwear to place on the ground on the closet. The clock on the wall opposite of the bed tells me that I took around two hours getting everything organized.   I decide to take a shower, now that I finally have a change of clothes. I lock the door to my room, take off my clothes, and go into the bathroom. Smiling, I stare at the magical item connected to the bath and recall a memory with Emdos when he taught me how to use it.    "Now Kai, you're going to have to do this yourself at some point, so listen carefully. You can turn this knob here to adjust the temperature of the water." Emdos pointed to the knob connected to the magical item before continuing, "It can be as cold or hot as you want, but if you wish to use the same temperature as I have set it for you in the past, turn it towards 106 degrees Fahrenheit. After that, you just activate it, and water will come out."   "I think I understand, but where's the water come from? How's it change temperature?" I said as I knitted my eyebrows. Emdos put his finger to his right temple.   "I don't think you'll understand, but do you still want to know?"   "Yeah!" I exclaimed as I grinned with raised eyebrows.    Emdos smiled before explaining, "This magical item is comprised of a water-based crystal and a fire-based crystal as the principal component. The knob adjusts the output of the Fire Crystal, and when you activate the magical item, it lets out the water that is immediately heated by the Fire Crystal. When any of these crystals run out of power, you need to get a replacement one. They are only E grade items so it won't be expensive."   I'll miss his explanations… I set the temperature to 106 degrees Fahrenheit, turn on the water, and go in. The sudden rush of the hot, clean water that flows down my body loosens and relaxes my muscles. Ahh… This feels so good…   The stench and stickiness of my dried sweat quickly wash away, and I feel completely rejuvenated. I take my time with the rest of my shower and finish in around 15 minutes.   I dry myself with the towel and exit the bathroom, dressing myself in the clothes I laid out on the bed beforehand. I go to the common room to see who else is there. Sitos sits by himself at the table. I ask, "Where's everyone else?"   Sitos turns his head towards me and answers, "I think Luna and Marin are still picking out their clothes… Drugo and Hiro are taking their shower right now."   "I see." I walk over and sit down across from Sitos. "Can I ask you something?"   "What is it?"   I pause for a moment, quietly staring at him before continuing, "Why'd you cover for me back there?"   Sitos tilts his head down toward the table silently for several seconds before finally saying, "I was jealous."   I cock an eyebrow as I skeptically raise one corner of my lips. "What?"   Sitos slams down his palms against the table and then faces his head up towards me. He scrunches his eyebrows while concentrating his eyes into mine. "When I first started training, I only lasted five minutes…but you lasted ten… That frustrated me, so I called you weak. But, I do not think you are weak anymore, Kai."   I open my mouth, but no words came out. My eyes are probably sparkling very brightly right now. "Sitos…"   I can't help but to get up and throw my arms around him. "What the hell are you doing? Get off of me!"   Sitos tries to push me off, but I hold on. "Hey Sitos, can you be my friend?"   "If I say yes, can you get off of me?" I grin and let go of him. "I thought we were already friends…"    Thinking I misheard it, I ask, "What’d you say?"   "Nothing… I am going to take a shower too." Sitos turns around and hurries into his room, slamming the door behind him.   I lay on the ground while fidgeting all of my limbs in excitement. I'm friends with everyone now! Hmm… Maybe not Marin, I don't know her too well yet.   I relax all of my muscles as I recollect on my day. I suddenly remember when my Mana tingled from under my skin and promptly jump up. I go to my room, lock the door, and sit on the bed with my hands out in front of me. I take a moment to recall the exact feeling I felt earlier. I gather that feeling, activate it, and release it as usual. A smile gradually emerges when the same faint shade of blue color from Scrap Mana demonstration appears in front of me. For some reason, this feels a lot easier to control.   I try rapidly changing the flow rate and release it out of one finger. I'm easily able to accomplish both, but after 30 seconds nothing comes out. I stare at my finger for several seconds. I guess that was all of my Scrap Mana…   I lay my head on the pillow while relaxing my entire body. Ahh… I could just fall asleep like this…   I'm about to fall asleep, when suddenly, I remember the book Emdos gave me, and I frantically roll off the bed. I panic while searching the bathroom and the bedroom, but I find neither the backpack nor the book. No…no no no…   I run out of the room as I repeat words of disbelief in my head. I swing the door open, hearing it make a loud noise when it crashes into the wall. I search the common room finding nothing, so I first think to check the lecture room from earlier. I run out into the hallways trying to avoid collision with students picking out their clothes, and out the entrance to the building. I go straight towards the back entrance of the Academy. Despite how much I ran around earlier today, I still find the energy left to run all the way to the lecture room without stopping for more than a second. I think I take around ten minutes to get to the lecture room because I got a little lost along the way.   I thoroughly check where I sat, and the table I was on earlier. It's not here… Did I even have it when I woke up?   I'm not sure about anything anymore, but I start running towards the training room as the only thread of hope I have left. I accidentally crash into someone around a corner, and I apologize briefly. I continue sprinting towards the room, eventually reaching it in no time. I swiftly open the door and survey the room. I blankly stare at what I see, and then start to walk slowly back towards the living quarters with my head down in dejection. I lost the book Emdos trusted me with… What would I ever tell him?   I spend at least half an hour getting back to the room. Drugo's sitting down at our table. "Hmm? Kaister, I thought you were in your room… What's wrong? Kaister? Hey!"   I ignore him as I walk towards my room. I keep my head down, still depressed about losing the book.   I open the door to my room, close it, and then lock it. My body falls onto the bed, and I crawl onto the pillow while I lay on my side towards the wall. I stare at the wall blankly while my eyes slowly and aimlessly wander around the stone surface. My eyes stop on the door for several seconds, before I knit my eyebrows together. Huh? Did I…close my door on my way out earlier?   I put my fingers on both sides of my temple trying to remember, but I didn't pay attention when I left earlier to know. While I'm wondering about whether I closed the door on my way out, I find something on the ground.   "What?!" I exclaim as my eyes are glued to my backpack on the ground against the wall. I rush over to open it and find the book safely inside. I put it back and lay down on the bed again while sighing loudly.   "Hey Kaister, hey!" Drugo exclaims as he pounds on my door, but I ignore him.   How'd I miss that earlier…? The fatigue must be getting to me, and I just overlooked it… I seem to have forgotten a lot of things today… Thinking about this isn't gonna get me anywhere… I'm just gonna sleep. I undress, tuck myself into bed, and fall asleep.   First Year Frame:

I wake up and stare at the ceiling with my limbs fully stretched out on my bed. As I think back to the moment I completed my practical test, I smile, slowly melting into a grin.   "Kai, that was awesome! What didja do?!" Hiro exclaimed and jumped out of his seat. Water drops resounded as they fell from Hiro and splashed on the ground. Luna and Sitos mouths' were widened as water slid down their hair. Everyone had similar expressions across the room. Shivers of excitement coursed throughout my body.   Everyone's amazed…at me! I turned to Hiro and responded, "Well you know, I sent out my Mana and set it all to activate automatically after a few seconds."   Hiro twisted one side of his lips upward while cocking an eyebrow. "Umm…what?"    "Ahem," Moria interjects. "I can explain what just happened… You see, Kai gave the Mana instructions before he released it out of his body… First, he probably gathered the rich Mana from his body and moved it to his arm. Then, he assigned instructions to the Mana beginning with the calculations of the path required to reach the magical items. Since we could not see the Mana leaving Kai's body, it must mean that he released the inactive form of Mana and put separate instructions that activated the Mana. As he just said, it activated after a few seconds after reaching the programmed destination.   "What I did not mention before is that after this magical item takes in Mana, an item inside it called a Glim gives the Mana additional instructions before the Mana reaches the magic-producing Water Crystal. They are usually made so that the produced magic is more powerful with higher quality Mana or quantity. I am slightly confused as to why the water balls were so huge when Kai activated the device…"   Moria walked to the wall he created and put his hand on the wall. Moments later, the wall shrunk down to nothing. The two magical devices were slightly distorted in appearance. Moria put his hands on the devices. "Ah, I see… They must have malfunctioned and produced an abnormal outcome…"   "Hmm… Yes, you see when I tested this device yesterday with Rich Mana, it was not nearly as powerful as what Kai demonstrated… I am really not sure what exactly happened, but I am going to have to replace these before the next group takes the test," Moria announced as he started to walk up the steps while carrying the two broken devices.   The silence was broken by Hiro when he said, "Kai, ya bastard… I always thought it was strange we never witnessed ya trainin' your Mana… What kinda secret trainin' have ya been doin'?!"   "I am interested in that too," Sitos said with unwavering eyes.   Hmm… He’s not surprised at all. What do I tell them… I can't reveal either the book or my Mana…    I take a few seconds to think of something before replying, "Well… Emdos trained me since I was six up until last year when I came to the Academy…"   "What?! So you have five years of experience ahead of us?! That's not fair! I wish I had someone to teach me when I was six…" Hiro exclaimed and pouted as he crossed his arms.   "I would not say that, Hiro. There is a reason why the Academy starts when you are 11. It is mainly because prior to age 11, manipulating Mana can be deadly to the user," Sitos explains. “I heard many talented kids have thrown away their potential by trying to test their capabilities too soon."   "Oh…" Hiro spoke quietly after relaxing his facial expressions and arms. "But whatabout Kai, Sitos?"   "I am wondering about that too. Who is this Emdos person? Was he trying to kill you?"   I pursed my lips getting ready to talk. I probably shouldn't tell them that I didn't know any of this at the time…   "He wasn't trying to kill me! He said that I'm special so that I wouldn't die. I trained under his supervision, and he had a secret medicine just in case!" I exclaimed confidently.   "You did say something like that on the first day…but how did he know you were special? You did not seem to know what the Mana measuring device was on the first day, so I doubt that he ever used one on you. It sounds like suicide to me that you trained your Mana when your Mana capacity grades are so low."   "Also, why didja keep that ya can use Rich Mana a secret?!" Hiro immediately asked.   "Uh…well…that's…"   "Tell us, Kai!" I opened my mouth, but I couldn’t think of something to say.   A moment later, Drugo put his hand on Hiro's shoulder and said, "Hiroster, calm down. I'm sure Kaister has his reasons for all of this… We don't need to interrogate him on all the details right now. We should give him a break."   "Oh, I guess you're right… The excitement really got to me. Sorry 'bout that, Kai."   "Yes, me too." I laugh lightly.   "Don't worry about it guys. I'll tell you all about it later," I replied. Footsteps resounded at the entrance of the room. Moria was walking down the steps with two new magical devices in hand. Moria randomly picked another group to take the test, and it continued for two hours. The rest of the day passed normally.    I grin, moving all my limbs up and down. Today, Moria will announce the results! We all get to move into the large room in the last hallway! That couch sounds nice…   The smell of freshly baked bread reaches my nostrils. When I draw air through my nose, a rush of hunger overcomes me. I get up and do my usual morning routine. Afterward, I head into the main room and exchange greetings with everyone. I take a seat and ask, "What kinda bread’s it this time?"   "Chocolate," Luna responds. Everyone has nearly finished their breakfast, so I quickly munch down the slices of bread on my plate and chug my milk. We walk to class together while having random conversations up to the point of reaching the lecture room door. We remain silent all to way to our seats.   "Who do you think will win?" someone asks around me.   "Is that even a question…? No doubt it will be his group."   "He's right there… Do you think he remembers us…?"   "Just don't make eye contact…"   I knit my eyebrows. Are they talking about me…?   I look to my left, finding several students jerking their heads in the opposite direction. I frown. Sitos says, "Do not mind those insignificants, Kai."   "Yeah…thanks," I say with a skeptical smile on my face. We take our seats and continue talking about what we want in our new room. Hiro fidgets and doesn't contribute to our discussion. "Hmm? Hiro, what's wrong?"   "Oh, nothin' really… Just excited for the results I guess…"   "Yeah, I know what you mean! I have so much energy I can't shake off!" I exclaim while bouncing my heels up and down. There's a faint noise coming from the hallway. There he is!   The noise level in the room dies down gradually as he says, "Good morning. Once I have announced the results, you all may continue with your individual Mana bonding training sessions."   He walks down the left side of the room while announcing, "I will start with third place. Remember as the two runner-ups you still get some additional furniture of your choosing. Third place goes to Dune's group with an average score of 94! You lot get one new piece of furniture!"   "Woo!" someone cheers from the left side of the room. I smile broadly while staring at the slip of paper the teacher is holding in front of him. My heart races. I shorten the length between my breaths.   "Second place goes to Coco's group with an average score of 97! You lot will receive two new pieces of furniture!"   "We did it, team!" a girl behind me exclaims. Other voices follow nearby.   Finally, it's our turn!    "Lastly, first place, the group who will get these keys to the first large room 1A is…" I gulp and gradually stretch my lips to a full grin. My heart beats like a drum in the moments before he announces the winner. I jump on my feet and walk forward with my right hand out. "Hina's group with an average score of 98!"   I freeze up and don't move at all. "Each of you will get to choose a new piece of furniture for your new home! Come get your keys right now!"   The room is silent. I turn around with my face still stuck in a grin and my hand out. No one stands up from the crowd. Did I mishear it…? No one's standing up…which means I misheard Luna for…Hina…?   I turn back to Moria and ask, "Umm…you said Luna, right?"   "I am afraid not… I double checked the results and the first place winner is indeed Hina's group. Is anyone from Hina's group here?"   My grin drops into a frown. Silence follows his words again.   "There must be a mistake… Right, Teacher Moria?" Luna asks.   "No matter how you look at it, we are the winners!" Sitos exclaims.   "No… I forgot to mention something else which may clear this matter for you. There is one group that failed and will have to stay for remedial lessons instead of going to magic bonding classes… That group is your group… You do recall that everyone in the group must pass to qualify for the competition, right?"   "What?!" I point my eyebrows down and exclaim.  "Who failed?! Everyone received high marks on the practical!"   I find my group looking at each other with suspicious facial expressions. Everyone's gaze lands on Hiro, who is avoiding direct eye contact with anyone. He quietly apologizes, "Uh…sorry guys…"   Hiro! He definitely passed the practical portion… I raise my eyebrows before asking, "Hiro, you failed the written portion?! It was so easy! Moria, what score do you need to pass?"   "70 points or higher."   "Then what score did Hiro receive?!"   "Well, that is…classified…"   "It's okay Teacher…tell everyone what I received… I kinda wanna know too," Hiro says in a lethargic voice.   "Well, if you insist… Your score was 36 points." I knit my eyebrows and frown. I pinch my glabella with my fingers while wondering how it's possible to score so low.   "That's strange… I coulda sworn I got at least 50 points…"   While still frowning, I let go of my face and turn towards Hiro. I stare at him until he cracks a smile that snaps one of my nerves. I grab the collar of his shirt and in his face yell, "You bastard, take this more seriously! My 200 points were worthless!"   "Now, now, Kaister. What's done is done. It was partially our fault for not realizing how clueless he was," Drugo says while pulling me back. My grip on Hiro's shirt gradually loosens. I jerk away from Drugo's grasp and then cross my arms.   "Damn, if only he weren't on our team…" I mutter, thinking no one can hear me.   "Kai, that's not very nice! Apologize!" Luna exclaims while frowning pointing her eyebrows downward. She stares me down with her arms on her hips.    Gah, I made her mad…but I really don't wanna apologize… While still crossing my arms, I look away and pout.   "Sitos, say something to Kai too!"   "Well, I understand how he feels... To be honest, it is just Hiro's fault for being dumb."   "That doesn't help dissolve this situation at all! Sitos, don't have that attitude right now!"   "This situation was caused by Hiro for failing in the first place, are you not mad at all, Luna?"   "Well, I'm disappointed, but like Drugo said, it's partially our fault for not helping him study!"   "Friends, I think you should calm down… It's really not that big of a deal you all are making it out to be…" Drugo says.   "Huh? When is it our responsibility to know every little thing he needs? He did not even ask us for help… Some teamwork…"   "Hello, friends?  Do you hear me?"    "Your attitude has been getting on my nerves lately, why do you have to be so cold all the time?!"   "Well, I am tired of you always bossing us aro—"   "Enough!" Moria exclaims, subsequently ending their bickering. Moria sighs. "This is exactly why you failed as a group… Clearly, you lot need to communicate and work on your teamwork. You may have great individual abilities, but lack working together effectively… I do feel slightly bad for Kai, so I will give him a chance. Kai, if you would like you can skip a year or two. I think your abilities are well above a second year Academy student."   I raise my eyebrows as I clutch my fists in front of me all while grinning.   "What, really?! Does that mean I can learn more advanced stuff?"   He laughs lightly. "Oh, yes, you will. And you will get new teammates too."   My thoughts stop, and I only ask, "What?"   "You will move into a new room and obtain new teammates. That is what you wanted, right?" I drop my smile and relax my facial expressions as I turn around and look towards my group.   "You should take it, Kai. I would do it if I were in your shoes."   "Sitos! What's wrong with you?! You should be persuading him to stay!"   "But that is what you want. What do you think he wants to do?" Luna doesn't say anything else. She only stares at me with a pout and teary eyes.    "Take it, Kai… Sorry for draggin' ya down…" Hiro apologizes and turns his back to me.   Hiro… I look at the others. Marin and Drugo are silently watching. I look into Moria's eyes and then gulp. I should take this chance…because I'll be able to learn more things I don't know…! But…   I grit my teeth before saying, "I've made my decision."   I face my group and take a deep breath. "I wanna stay!"   Luna and the others' facial expressions lighten up. Luna exclaims, "Kai!"   "Oh, are you sure?"   "Yeah," I respond while walking toward Hiro. "Because I don't wanna leave my friends… Even if Hiro irritates me a lot, he's my friend too!"   I put my arm around Hiro's neck while grinning."Kai…ya really mean that?"   Some tears well up in his eyes. "Yeah…but you have to pass the retake!"   "Ehhhh…~"   I laugh lightly. "Just kidding, of course! You'll still be my friend…but I really prefer that you pass."   Sitos' arms wrap around Hiro's neck on top of my arms. "Yeah, Hiro… Do not plan on sleeping at all tonight. We are going to cram everything into that tiny brain of yours."   "Ehehe… Thanks for the support guys…"   "You should be proud of your decision, Kai. You will come to learn that the most valuable treasures you can have are friends. I want to reward you with something… How about the same prize as third place? You will get one new piece of furniture of your choosing. I am sure no one else has any objections to that."   I let go of Hiro and turn toward Moria."Really?! Then I want a…"   I purse my lips. Oh, wait…   I glance over towards my group while skeptically smiling. I ask, "What do you guys want? Maybe we should decide by majority…"   "No need, Kai. All of us think that you deserve it, right?" Sitos says while looking toward the others. Everyone nods their heads.   Everyone… I face Moria and exclaim, "I want a couch!"   "Alright, I can get that delivered to your room early evening. Remember you have to stay here for remedial lessons. Everyone else, you are dismissed. Make sure to attend a magic bonding lesson for your red ticket. Winners for the competition should come see me later when you have decided on your pieces of furniture."   And with that everyone except our group left. I can't help but doze off from hearing things I already know for what seems like years. Before I know it, my head drops like a rock. I raise it back up whenever my consciousness returns to me.   …   I discover a waterfall of drool coming from my mouth. I wipe it off and look up, finding my neck stiff and sore. I massage the back of my neck while checking to see how everyone else is doing. I feel my veins protruding out of my forehead on what's in front of me. Hiro is sleeping in the same position I was in just now. This bastard… Why didn't anyone wake him up…?   I look beyond Hiro and cover my face with my right palm. I sigh. Everyone except Marin has fallen asleep too. Well…that's understandable… I don't think Marin's capable of doing that… I guess I'll have to do it… But really… Why's Moria still lecturing as if we're actually paying attention…?   I make a fist with my right hand and punch the back of Hiro's head. My knuckles throb with pain in rhythm with my heart beats.   "Ow!" Hiro interjects loudly and jerks his head up while putting both of his hands on the back of his head. Subsequently, everyone else wakes up.   I stay awake for as long as I possibly can before my mind decides to shut off again. When I wake up, I find the same scenario as earlier. I look at the back of Hiro's head and sigh deeply. I skeptically curl one side of my lips upward. Did I make the wrong choice after all…?

"Wow... How long has it been since you left, two years?" Marin asks nostalgically, her eyes shining with interest.   "Yeah, I think it was a little more than that, though," I reply with a smile, thinking back to the days I spent with her.   "It's good to see you again… I've missed you…" she says quietly. I pick up on her tone that seems like it's filled with sadness. She's blushing. I zoom in on her slightly parted lips and then gulp. My heartbeat is racing, and my lips twitch uncontrollably. I find myself darting my eyes, checking her out from top to bottom. She wears a modest purple tank top pairing with black pants. My eyes pop back up to her chest, which has greatly matured since the last time I saw her.   I turn toward the bar. I don't want to give too warm of a response worrying that she will become attached again, so I say in a voice devoid of emotion, "You too… You've grown a lot since then."   I pick up my stout and then drink some more. In a cheery voice, she remarks, "Not as much as you, though!"   A slight shiver goes down my spine as I wonder what she's referring to. I look between my legs and then find my enraged friend. My face gets hot and then I mutter, "Wh-what…? I'm sure you've grown more than me…"   "What're you talking about? You've grown at least a few inches taller…and I've only grown a little…" she informs while gesturing her hands in front of her, indicating our height difference.   "Oh…that's what you meant…" I mutter to myself. She cocks an eyebrow.   "What did you think I meant…?" I don't answer and just take more sips of my drink. Her face turns red after a few seconds. Suddenly, she giggles. She looks at me and exclaims, "That part of you hasn't changed at all, Kai!"   She smiles. I force a smile and then apologize, "Well, sorry for being a guy… By the way, should you really be going around without your equipment?"   "I didn't think there would be any danger around town. Besides, Ruby can care take of anything if something happens!" she claims confidently. Afterward, we take more gulps of our beverages. While I'm drinking, the ceiling makes a small noise. I look above, finding the lantern that's attached to the ceiling swinging around a little. I tilt my head down and then shake my head and sigh.   "Kai…" Marin says quietly, hesitating to continue. I know what she wants to relay based on her facial expression that I've seen before. "Have you thought about…visiting—"   "Stop it," I cut her off in a stern tone. "Don't talk about her anymore; she's dead."   She makes a small sound before she exclaims, "Oh, that's right! How goes your search for Emdos? Did you find any new clues?"   I sense sincerity in her voice as if she really wants to know the answer to that question. I frown, feeling bad about lying to her more, but at the same time, I don't want to disappoint her. Moans and grunts resound from above. The ceiling shakes violently. My mind focuses on the sound and tremors, feeling like they grow louder by the second.    "Yeah I think I found a lead, here in Byzia. Some blacksmith mentioned about seeing someone that matches his description a couple of months back. I'm still looking around for more clues before I leave, though," I say with a firm tone, trying to divert my attention from the distracting noises upstairs.   "That's good to hear…that you're making progress on your goals…" she says with a gradual emerging smile. I smile too, feeling some warmth stirring inside me.    She sips her beer for several seconds before I ask, "So, what's the Drosera army doing here in Xantho? You're here with Ruby and Jetia, right?   Marin's expression doesn't change as she continues to take sips from her drink. Several seconds pass before she puts it down and faces me. She darts her eyes around, restlessly moves her fingers with her fingers clasped, and says "Well… I don't know if I should tell you since you're not a part of us anymore…"   With a serious facial expression, she stares into my eyes. "Don't tell anyone I told you, okay?"   I momentarily pause before responding, knowing that I probably can't keep that promise depending on what she tells me. While smiling I exclaim, "Marin, you can trust me!"   She briefly reciprocates a smile, but then her facial expression becomes solemn again.   "About a week ago, we received an anonymous report about possible Cascabel movements in Xantho." I knit my eyebrows. "We arrived a few days ago and had been investigating it since."   I gulp before asking, "Di-did you find out anything pertinent?"   She closes her eyes before she answers, "Yeah, we found something yesterday. We luckily stumbled upon a few soldiers who were frantically yelling in the middle of Byzia…"   I cock an eyebrow and ask, "What were they yelling about?"   "They said something about the 'Phantom Swordsman' and 'The Witch' being here plotting a heinous plan." She opens her eyes and then gazes at me. It feels like they can see right through me. My heart beats like a drum as a shiver goes down my spine. I hold my breath, scared stiff of Marin discovering my identity.   "I know 'The Witch' is an Elf…  Have you seen any suspicious Elves around here, Kai?" she simply asks, but it feels like an interrogation.    My eyes are a little shaky, so I avoid eye contact when I reply, "N-no… I might've seen a few different Elves within the past few months, but they're probably long gone now. Besides, none of them really looked…menacing…"   I immediately think of my first meeting with Leila, sending more shivers down my spine.   "I guess you're right… I can't go suspecting every Elf around here…" she says concedingly as she looks away from me. A heavy weight on my shoulders is lifted as I sigh to myself, but another jolt hits me when she looks back at me without warning. In a suggestive tone, she asks, "Have you seen the 'Phantom Swordsman'?"    I frown while knitting my eyebrows and then summon my inner calm. "Is he an Elf too? If he is, my answer is the same as before… "   "Oh? How did you know he was male?" It feels like a knife stabbing through me as she catches my mistake. My entire face burns up, and I feel my heart beating out of my chest. Instinctively, I open my mouth and without thinking say, "I just figured that since he dual-wields two swords…"   "Hmm… He dual-wields two swords, huh…?" The smile that appears on her face petrifies me. I realize the stupidity in my response. I gulp and freeze up. She stares intently at me while her expression melts into a grim one. "Speaking of dual-wielding, don't you use that too? You're actually the 'Phantom Swordsman', aren't you?"   I laugh. It sounds forced. "Wh-what are y-you ta-talking about…?"   She doesn't let up her expression at all and simply frowns as she continues to stare at me. My head quivers left and right as I look down and away from her. It feels like time is passing extraordinarily slow, but only five seconds pass, when suddenly, she starts laughing. I quirk an eyebrow as the intense atmosphere dissolves.    "What’re you being so serious about? I was just kidding!" she exclaims with an innocent smile. Her volume decreases when she continues, "You're so fun to tease…in a lot of ways…"   My heart is still racing, but my body stops shaking. A breeze cools my moist forehead. Did I read too much into it…?   Several seconds pass before she says, "Hey, Kai—"   A sudden loud crash resounds above us. The lantern on the ceiling is swinging more widely than before. The moaning and grunting have both stopped, but obnoxiously loud laughing fills my ears. I close my eyes as she asserts, "Kai, why don't you come back to the army? We finally have a lead again, and we can find the people responsible for—"   "After you find them…then what? Will they be imprisoned or killed? It doesn't matter… In the end; they will never come back…" I explain, projecting part of myself onto her in the process. In reality, I feel the same as her, but I don't want to drag her toward the danger. She doesn't know how brutal Cascabel really is. Afterward, she only makes a small noise while pouting.    During the silence, a man above us yells, "Wait! Please! I'm sorry! Don't do it!"   Next, I pick up on Ruby manically laughing again, before a booming noise erupts from above us. The tremors reach the stool I'm sitting on. Agonizing screams follow, indicating that I should probably leave before Ruby comes back down.    "What the hell was that?!" the bartender exclaims. I quickly down the rest of my drink, slam the mug on the counter, and then get up, but Marin grabs my hand.   "Wait!" she exclaims. I turn toward her, finding that tears are welling up in her eyes. "Tell me the real reason you left…  It's because of me, isn't it…? I know your excuse about Emdos is a lie…"   My heart beats twice in a single beat as I realize she knew all along. I close my eyes for a moment and then take a deep breath. In my most earnest tone of voice, I answer, "No, it's not, Marin. In fact, I'm really grateful to you… You were there for me when everything was just so fucked up…"   Footsteps resound near the top of the staircase. I pause for about two seconds before continuing, "I can't tell you the real reason; I'm sorry…"   Suddenly, Marin moves my hand closer to her; it rests snugly between her breasts. She proposes, "Then…spend tonight with me! We can tell each other secrets like we used to!"   Her face is flushed completely red. I blush too, and I get excited, but I hold myself back. At this point, footsteps resound like they're going down the stairs. "Marin~!"   I ignore Ruby's voice and forcefully pull my hand back. Tears are spilling from her eyes as I do, also delivering my barely audible response, "Sorry…"   Some tears are welling up in my eyes too, but I hold them back. As I turn my back toward her, I quietly say, "It was nice seeing you again… I'll visit and tell you everything, eventually…"   There's a slight pain and tightness in my chest as I walk forward. I stop right in front of the exit when Ruby asks, "Marin, what's wrong? Are ya cryin'?"   "N-no… I'm just a little tired… How did your end go?"   She sniffles. I scrunch my eyebrows together when a tear runs down my cheek.   "He didn't know anythin' useful, that liar…so I killed 'im!" Ruby cheerfully and calmly states. "The room's kinda damaged though…"   "What did you say?!" the bartender yells.   "It can't be helped… It's a good thing we brought a lot of gold with us… Sir, take this as compensation."   Several coins roll onto the counter. "Oh! Yes, this will do. Thank you very much…"   "Thank ya, Marin! Were ya talkin' ta someone?"   "Umm…yeah, I was… It was a local… I asked him about the usual…"   "Hmm… I'm goin' ta join ya fer a bit. I'll have what she has!"   I close my eyes as a wave of nostalgia hits me again. I think about the days I spent in the Drosera army, the good days and the bad. It wasn't a complete lie, Marin… I'm still looking for Emdos, to this day… I still don't know what you saw in me… We were just sad and broken… We weren't meant to be…   I take a deep breath, exhale, and then wipe my tears on my arm. Afterward, I finally open my eyes and then walk out the door. Goodbye, Marin…my second love…   "I didn't think I would have to see yer ugly face again, traitor," Jetia says as he's standing against the building. Neither Utna nor her father are around anymore.   I don't wanna see your fucking face either… I scowl for a moment but then relax. Without emotion, I inform, "Well, I was just on my way out."   I walk forward and don't stop even when he exclaims, "Yer only good at running away, aren’t you?!"   I clench my fists and jaws. "Yer running from Marin just like how you ran from her!"   I stop just in front of the porch as he continues to yell with contempt.   "You were too scared to fight Cascabel, so you deserted! Look at you now; it's pathetic! It won't be long until she realizes that I'm a much better man…and you'll know what I'll do after that, right?"   A rage stirs in me as he snickers. Like a boiling pot of water with the lid on. I grind my teeth back and forth as I contort my face into a frown.   "I bet you just ran away with yer tail between yer legs when yer friends died one by—"   I turn around, point at him with my finger, and scream, "Shut the fuck up!"   A tightness that surrounds my throat and chest discomforts me. It feels like the steam in the boiling pot of water erupted and blasted through the lid.    "You don't fucking know anything; you piece of shit," I say as I step toward him, clenching my right fist so hard that the cracking of my knuckles resound.   "Whoa there… I'm going to have the right to defend myself if you go any farther…" he states as he pulls out his sword. Shortly after, two pairs of footsteps approach from inside the tavern.   "Jetia, what's going on out there?" Marin asks. I click my tongue, back away, and then turn around. There are a bunch of people staring at me. I run away.   "That's right Kai, run away…" Jetia says and then laughs. I turn my head back toward the tavern when I think I ran far enough. Marin and Ruby are talking to Jetia. Soon after, they head into the tavern together. But not before Jetia turns his head toward me and then smirks as he puts an arm around Marin.   Shit! I grimace as I throw a full-on straight with my right arm into the nearby stone wall. The actual cracking of my bones resound as pain radiates from my knuckles. Hot puffs of air escape me as I press my bloody knuckle harder into the wall. I spend the next fifteen minutes wondering if I made the right choices up to now. I sit against the wall and look down as I think. Maybe Jetia's words had some truth to them… Even I'm surprised I got so worked up just now…  I guess I never came to terms with leaving Marin when I left… Perhaps I need to come to terms with her too…   I finally get up and then make my way back toward 'The Simple Forge.'

"Kai, it's time for breakfast, I made your favorite."   Huh? Did I just wake up? What was I doing just now? I follow Emdos' voice into the kitchen where a bowl rests on the table, automatically assuming that it would be soup. I feel like something has happened like this before, but I don't remember. While ignoring the feeling of déjà vu, I rush over with a smile on my face and then peer into the bowl. My smile quickly dissolves into a frown as I open my mouth wide.    "Now eat it, Kai. I'll make it easy for you." Emdos takes the bowl with the spoon in hand and moves in on me, closer and closer. Out of instinct, I want to run away, but I can't move. I glance at my legs and arms, realizing my limbs are tied to the wall. Emdos is right in front of me laughing with an evil smile as he scoops up the contents of the horrifying soup. "It's time for your punishment Kai."   "Nooooooooooooooo!" I scream, forcing my eyes to shut tightly. I keep them closed for several seconds. When I realize that there's no noise, and I can wave my arms around, I very slowly inch an eye open to check if Emdos is still there. When neither the spoon nor Emdos is there, I sigh and then open my eyes normally. A stone ceiling is ahead.   Was I dreaming just now…? Where am I? I sit up and look around; an old man is standing in front of me, leaning backward. He is wearing a red robe with black vertical stripes on it. His gray hair is tied up in a knot and holds something in his right hand. On my left, there is a large crowd of kids like me. They are seated on seven different elevations with about 20 seats per row. Some of the seats are empty, but I estimate that there are at least 100 of them. On the left and right side of the room, stone steps lead up to closed doors on top of each stairway.   I'm sitting on what appears to be dirt and grass on top of a table. On my right, there is writing on a blackboard. As my eyes continue to wander around the room, I realize everyone is staring at me, so I smile nervously.   "It looks like you are finally awake. The guards have updated me on what happened. I have casted some Healing magic on you so you should feel fine now, but you should take it easy. But since you were late, I will have to give you a punishment," the old man informs.   "Punishment…?" I immediately think of the soup and cover my stomach with both hands. I hear my stomach rumble as I feel my insides burn. By instinct, I open my mouth as I turn my head towards my left and face the ground and without warning, I feel hot air rush up my esophagus like I'm burping. I make a gagging sound, and then a burst of dark, yellow liquid waterfalls out of my mouth, onto the floor creating a splattering sound. I taste my vomit in my mouth with trace amounts of the soup and then gag once again spewing more of my breakfast onto the floor.   "Gross…" Several kids are whispering among themselves in the crowd. I raise my head as I wipe my mouth with the sleeve of my shirt while looking back at the old man afterward.   "Um, sorry I wasn't feeling good…" I give a small smile and laugh a little.   "If you are still not feeling well, the punishment can wait."   "Um, I'm fine… I'll take my punishment now…" I'm scared of what my punishment is going to be, but I figure that it would be better to get it done sooner than later. I think of all the horrible punishments I got from Emdos, sending shivers down my body. I gulp. "Are…are you gonna make me eat carrots?"   There is a brief silence, but then I hear giggling from some of the kids. I realize they are laughing at what I said, so I turn my head towards them with raised eyebrows and respond, "Yeah, carrots! They're scary!"   The room bursts into laughter. I feel my face burning red, and I can't help but look down. Even the old guy is laughing.   "Haha, you are a funny one are you not? I am not going to feed you carrots, but I am going to have you wear this on your head." The old man holds something that has the shape of a bowl in front of me. I reach out my hands, firmly grabbing it with both hands.   "What's it do?" I ask as I knit my eyebrows. My frowned lips tremble, expecting some horrible consequence.   "This is a magic item that measures your Mana capacity potential. You see, there are three grades of Mana. Scrap Mana is the lowest quality of Mana, Rich Mana is the highest quality, and Unrefined Mana is in the middle. After putting this on for a few seconds, it gives you a rank depending on how much you have of each type. S is the highest and E is the lowest. It does not hurt, and you will not feel anything. Everyone else has received their results in private, and you would be the only one left who needs to measure his Mana capacity potential. As for your punishment, I will reveal your results to everyone."   My eyes and mouth widen in fear as a cold sweat drips down my forehead towards my cheek. I instantaneously recall my conversation with Emdos from yesterday. I can't put this on in front of everyone, or everyone's gonna find out about my Mana and no one will wanna be my friend…   I simply stare at the magic item in my hands while holding my breath. I immediately come up with a question and then ask, "How do I know this won't hurt me? I'm kinda scared."   "Haha, it cannot be helped. Would someone volunteer to take the test again?"   "I will!" A girl in the front row stands up and walks towards me. She is shorter than me with long, straight, brown hair down to her waist and wears a long, white blouse pairing with red shoes. Although she makes eye contact with me and smiles, I blush and look away.   She's pretty… She stands in front of me for reasons beyond me. I gulp before muttering, "Wh-what?"   "Can you give me that?" she asks as she points her finger towards the magic item in my hand. I forget that I'm still grabbing onto it, and I hold it out in front of her with a loosened grip.   "Ah. Here you go."   "Thank you," she responds as she takes the item from my hands. I blush lightly; feeling like her smile pierced my heart. She puts on the device as she begins walking to the old man, stopping in front of him inches away from where he stands.   "Teacher, is it ready yet?"   Oh…so that's who the old man is.   "Let me see… Oh my, yes, I remember you now. Your name is Luna right?"   "Yes!"   "Luna, your Scrap Mana rank is S, your Unrefined Mana rank is B, and your Rich Mana rank is A."   I raise my eyebrows as I smirk.   Isn't that kinda good…? This means I'll be her only friend… I begin to grin, but I relax and turn towards the crowd of kids when I suddenly hear them roaring.    "Wow, that's amazing!"   "Awesome!"   I realize that the kids are cheering for Luna. I cock an eyebrow as I skeptically frown. What? They aren't jealous? I thought for sure they would hate her… "Umm… Teacher, are her results that…poor?"   "No, on the contrary, they are quite impressive! Over the history of this Academy, only 5% have tested S for Scrap Mana, 25% have tested B or better for Unrefined Mana, and  less than 1% have tested A or better in Rich Mana. These percentages are not mutually exclusive. A few other students this year had quite some impressive results as well. Ahh… Do not worry, most people fail to get anywhere near Luna's results so do not be disheartened. Now it is your turn."   I'll show everyone my greatness, and I'll be friends with everyone! I grin before declaring, "Alright! My name's Kai, remember it!"   Luna turns around, walks towards me, takes off the magic item, and then holds it in front of me. "Good luck, Kai," she says with a smile.   I take the magic item from her and put it on my head. "Thanks Luna, don't feel bad when I have better results."   "Um, okay." she forces a smile before walking away.   I cross my arms and puff my chest out while holding my smug smile. Luna sits back in her seat while the teacher comes over and examines the device. He knits his eyebrows together and frowns.   Is he shocked at my talent? What's taking so long…? The room is silent, and I can only hear my own breathing.   "Hmm… This is troubling indeed."   "Emdos said I'm special, so I must have some great results right? Now tell everyone my results." I hold my current position and don't move.   The teacher scratches his head before finally saying, "All of your ranks are grade E."   I stop smiling and relax my facial expressions. Did I…mishear it?   Unsure if I heard him correctly I utter, "What?"   I focus my hearing to the upcoming words from the teacher, and I frown as I drop my arms to my sides. "Your Scrap Mana rank is E, your Unrefined Mana rank is E, and your Rich Mana rank is E. You have no talent, I am sorry. I did not want to announce it because it seemed too cruel even for punishment…"   My eyes and mouth widen in disbelief as the teacher responds. All of my thoughts stop, losing my sense of hearing as I stare into the distance and being unable to bring my eyes to focus. I shake my head, trying to get back to reality. I regain some confidence when I think back to moments when Emdos praised me. "Umm, there must've been some mistake? Emdos said I'm special…"   "Hmm… I am sorry there is no mistake. You are indeed special… You are the first student to enroll here to receive the E rank in every category in the history of the Academy…" I stare blankly at the teacher. There is a brief silence until I finally hear the crowd of kids explode into laughter in unison.   "Haha, he's special indeed!" I frown and look at the floor, feeling my face burning up.   "Hahaha! Didja see how confident he was?"   "His name was Kai, right?"   I listen to the students continue their gossip and laughter. On my left, Luna laughs through her mouth even while she covers it with her right hand. I tilt my head down as I clench my teeth and my fists, at the same time scowling in anger. I feel the insides of my chest burning and all of my muscles feel tense as my heart rate speeds up. I take a deep breath. "Stop laughing! I'll show you my power!"   The room becomes silent, and I hear nothing except my own labored breathing. I close my eyes as I start to focus all of my Mana into my right arm. I fully extend my right arm in front of me just like how I did when I trained. I want to gather as much Mana as possible, so I create a barrier on my hand similar to this morning. This is about right. I'll show everyone…   I open my eyes wide preparing to break the barrier in the next moment, but suddenly an icy feeling overwhelms me, and I can't move. I feel so cold that I can't move any part of my body and for some reason I can't even break the barrier. Almost naturally, I think of the moment I stared into Emdos' eyes yesterday and feel fear. My entire body shudders, and it's difficult to breathe, feeling light-headed while hearing ringing in my ears; I couldn't clearly hear anything around me. For some reason, I'm able to dissipate the Mana in my right arm, and I do just that. A moment later the icy feeling is gone, and I take a deep breath, calming down. I spin around, surveying the room, but there's no one suspicious.   What was that...? Was it Emdos…? I have a bad feeling. I'm just gonna do what he told me and not reveal my Mana to anyone. Focusing back on reality, I'm still holding my arm in front of me. Everyone stares at me silently. I put my arm down and then scratch my head while smiling.   "Just kidding." I laugh out loud as if it's a really funny joke. I expect everyone to react negatively, so I mentally prepare myself.   "What the hell? Don't mess with us!"   "I was scared for a moment… I thought he was actually going to do something."   "Hah! I knew he was bluffin' all along."   I keep a neutral facial expression as boos emanate from the crowd. I glance over at Luna to see how she feels about me. She makes eye contact with me and then chuckles. I smile in response.   I'm glad she doesn't hate me. I sigh, relieved.   "My, you are a funny one are you not, Kai? Well, how about you go take a seat? We still have some more time before my lecture ends."   I look around for a seat, and my eyes naturally wander to where Luna sits; the furthest left seat on the first row. I walk over to the empty seat next to her and sit.   "Kai, you're so funny!" she exclaims with a wide smile. I smile back as I blush and then look down at my seat, only to look up again when the teacher clears his throat.   "I will continue where I left off earlier. Every living organism in this world has Mana, it is a necessity of life. But, too much Mana is toxic to all life. When we magicians use magic, we must activate our Mana. We slowly recover the lost Mana through breathing. The remnant of casted magic diffuses into the air in the form of inactive Mana, and when you breathe in air, you breathe in Mana that is bound to oxygen. Your lungs absorb the Mana, and you are able to slowly regenerate your Mana. When the amount of Mana has reached your maximum capacity, the excess amount exits from your body through the skin and diffuses into the air to prevent the toxic effects of Mana.   "Remember, there were three grades of Mana… Scrap Mana…" The teacher raises his right arm in the air and emits Mana into the air. It has a very faint, light blue color, like an ice cube.   "… Unrefined Mana…" The Mana that emits into the air from his hands changes to a deeper tint of blue, almost like the color of the sky.   "… Rich Mana…" The flow of the Mana suddenly becomes fiercer and the color changes to an even deeper tone of blue, like a sapphire.   I close my eyes as I purse my lips, thinking back to the training I had done with Emdos for the past five years. The color of my Mana never changed, and it matched none of the three the teacher just presented… It was a much…deeper blue…maybe darker…   "…but each has their own advantages and disadvantages. The more pure the Mana, the harder it is to control and the slower it can recover. You can see that I am having some difficulty controlling the highest Mana grade, despite that I have trained for a very long time. Those of you who received good results in higher grades of Mana shouldn't be happy with just that. You must still work hard to achieve full mastery of your Mana. Those who have a low capacity for Scrap Mana, should not be discouraged. When you can freely manipulate your Mana, you are able to break down the higher grades of Mana into larger quantities of a lower grade Mana. " The teacher stops releasing his Mana and puts his arm down.   "But beware, you can give yourself Mana poisoning if you are not careful. For an example, you spent all of your D ranked Scrap Mana, but have all of your B ranked Unrefined Mana remaining. If you break down less than half of Unrefined Mana as Scrap Mana you spent into Scrap Mana, you'll have just about all of your Scrap Mana recovered. If you break down too much, however, you will exceed the capacity you have for Scrap Mana, and it will become toxic to you. While you can downgrade your Mana, you cannot combine lower qualities of Mana to become a higher quality of Mana. Knowing when to break down your Mana and how much of it to break down will determine the tide of a battle. Any questions?"   "Ah yes, Luna?"   Luna has her hand raised. "If there's Mana in the air, why doesn't it have a color?"   The teacher rubs his chin as he pauses for a moment before answering, "Good question, that is because the Mana in the air is inactive. Remember what I said about that magicians must activate Mana to use magic? The Mana in our bodies stay inactive until we activate and manifest them. Only manifested Mana will have a color. One of the reasons why higher grade Mana is harder to master is because activating them is harder than a lower grade of Mana. Any other questions?"   There is a long silence in the room.   "I think that is enough for today. Next, you will break into the groups you were in earlier. We will meet outside, at the entrance of the Academy at eleven."   And with that, the students around the room get up and talk amongst themselves. The teacher starts to walk up the stairs next to Luna towards the exit. I get up in a hurry chasing after him and exclaim, "Teacher! Um, I don't think I have a group…"   "Oh Kai, right you were late. Hmm… Everyone is already broken into a group of six…" The teacher raises his right arm, and I hear him mutter a few words. I observe a bubble forming right over his hand, and when it pops, I hear a thunderous noise. Instinctively, I cover my ears with my hands, but it still manages to penetrate my ear drums, and some pain lingers. The room is silent again. "Ah yes, sorry for the interruption, but Kai needs a group. What group wants to take him?"   Everyone averts their eyes away from me, and the room remains silent. After what happened earlier, no one wants me in their group… It's not a surprise, even Luna won't…   I sigh and frown as I look down in dejection. A brief moment later, someone answers from the front of the room; it's a warm, gentle voice that makes my heart skip a beat.   "We actually need one more. We'll take him!" Luna has her arms raised in the air at the front of the room.   "Are you sure? Alright, you will be responsible for him from now on." The teacher's footsteps get farther away. "Hmm? Was this door open this whole time? Oh well."   Around the room, the other students that have gotten together in their own groups start to leave as well. I focus on the voices around Luna.   "What! Luna are you crazy? We do not need a talentless scaredy-cat who is afraid of carrots." My eye twitches once in response to that comment.   "Yeh, he'll drag me down."   "Don’t worry!" Luna exclaims. I nod and smile to myself, knowing that she will defend me. "The strong have to protect the weak right?"   Yep…wait what? No, that's not right… Being protected by a girl is… I point my eyebrows downward as I protest, "I'm not weak!"   "Right, you're actually holdin' back your real power, sure."   "But it's true…" I pout and mutter my words so no one can hear me.   "Hiroster, don't be like that. If he trains hard, he won't hold us back too much. I agree with her on this one, we do need one more after all."   The boy that was mocking me a moment ago sighs. He's about the same height and weight as me with orange, spiky hair and wears an orange, sleeveless shirt pairing with brown pants and black shoes.   "Drugo, you're too nice. Fine, I'll make up for his lack of strength with my amazin’ talent. Consider yourself lucky, Kai."   I can't let myself get angry again; I'll play along. I walk down the stairs towards Luna's group, forcing a smile as I laugh lightly before saying, "Thanks, your name was Hiroster right?"   "That's Hiro the Great to ya."   I can feel veins popping out of my head as I smile against my will. "Ah, Hiro the Great, could you tell me what you received on your test?"   "Oh…that's… I forgot." His voice gradually lowers in volume.   "Hiroster, how do you not remember? You told me what you got not that long ago. A, C, and D in that order right?" The largest kid in the group responds.   Hiroster…? Well, I think that guy's name was Drugo… He's clearly taller and weighs more than me. His black hair is styled into a buzz cut, and he wears a gray long-sleeved shirt pairing with brown shorts with no footwear. I knit my eyebrows as my eyes focus on his bare feet. Is he poor or something? I think I saw someone like that before…   My thoughts roam to the memories where I walked around the Residential District with Emdos. I scrunch my forehead as I narrow my eyes and purse my lips, while lost deep in thought. When I realize I can't remember I relax my facial muscles and sigh.   "Idiot! Don't tell 'im."   "Why not? He's part of our team now you know."   Hiro clicks his tongue and then crosses his arms as he frowns. I smirk and decide to tease him a little bit. "Hiro the Great, surely you meant it the other way around right? A in Rich Mana, C in Unrefined Mana, and D in Scrap Mana. It would only be natural for someone as great as you, right?"   Hiro stares at me blankly, but then he smiles as he raises his eyebrows.   "Huh? Oh yeh… That's right. I made a mistake on my part. I'm glad ya realized my greatness! Haha." Hiro sticks out his chest in pride.   Ahh, this guy's predictable, and to think he's gonna be in my group… Hmm, so we have Luna, Hiro, Drugo, and me. Where are the other two?   Looking around the room, only our group remains. Someone is sitting down next to Luna; it's another girl. She is slightly taller than Luna, but still shorter than me, with red, straight hair that rests on her shoulders.  On top of her head is a white headband. She wears a light-blue colored short-sleeved shirt coupling with a light-green skirt and dark, blue shoes looking generally frailer than Luna.   "Ah, this is Marin." Luna's hands are pointed towards the girl seated next to her. The girl stands up and faces me. She doesn't make eye contact with me for more than a second as she moves her head around in other directions.   "Umm… My name is…Marin… Nice to meet you…" she says quietly as she smiles slightly while bowing her head. Afterward, she sits back in her seat.   "It's your turn to introduce yourself, Sitos." Luna steps to the side and reveals a guy with his arms crossed standing right behind her. I immediately recognize him; it's the guy who called me a scaredy-cat. He is slightly taller than me with a slightly bigger build, and his long, black hair is tied into a ponytail behind him. He also wears a black kimono with splotches of red and a white sash around his waist. Black boots cover his feet.   "What's with that outfit?" I frown as I cock an eyebrow in disgust, instantly relaxing my facial expressions when I see Sitos walking in front of me.   "Ahh...let me see… I am Sitos. I am from the Royal District. Do not get in my way," he says in the lowest energy monotonic voice possible.   I frown as I grit my teeth, feeling like veins are popping out of my head. I don't think I wanna be his friend…ever.   Luna claps her hands together in front of her.   "Now that everyone knows each other let's head over to the front of the Academy! It looks like we only have a few minutes to spare," Luna says as she slowly walks up the stairs. I follow behind her with a smile on my face.

“Kai…” Luna calls out to me in a soft voice. Her soft moans throw fuel on the fire. I clench her breasts hard.   “Luna!” I exclaim as a euphoric feeling explodes from my body. I loosen my hands, still panting. As the feeling of ecstasy fades from my body, I open my eyes. Marin looks at me with watery unsteady eyes. A tear drips down the side of her face. I open my mouth as I try to say something, but nothing comes out. I let go of her and look away. “Sorry…”   I rest on my side away from her. A light breath of air tickles the back of my ear. Marin wraps an arm around me. “I don’t care.”   I take her arm off me, scoot away, and sit up while facing her. “What do you mean you don’t care?”   I clench my fists and look down. “I used you…”   I look up again when she puts a hand on top of mine. She’s sitting up too. “It’s okay… I…knew this would happen… I used you too.”   I process her words, but I still don’t understand. “What do you mean?”   “Kai… You don’t know this…but… I’ve liked you for a long time…” I widen my eyes. “So I always knew…you liked Luna.”   I pull my hand back and say, “More the reason I—“   She grabs it back and says, “I don’t like seeing you sad… So… You can think of me as Luna.”   I look away and then say, “Thanks Marin…but I’m okay now.”   Suddenly, she sandwiches my head with her hands and turns me toward her. We fall on the bed, lying side by side. “Then… The next time you’re sad… I’ll be here.”   I blush and turn my view toward the ceiling. She rests her head on my chest. “Hey… Can you tell me…what happened…? By the time I got there… Everyone…was already…”   She sniffles. I sigh and put a hand on top of her head. “I’ll tell you everything.”   I do just that. From taking a nap in Emdos’ place, to my trek to the Adventurer’s District, to the events unfolding there, to waking up on a bed, and to what I saw at our inn. While Marin listens the entire time. A few tears escape her here and there.   “I don’t know her anymore,” I mutter.   “There…has to be a reason… Luna wouldn’t do something like that…”   “Yeah, you’re right. Luna wouldn’t… But she’s not Luna.”   “Have more faith in her, Kai. I know…she trusts you more than anyone… If you won’t believe in her…then…” Neither of us say anything for another minute. I only think about Luna the entire time. “We’ll go see her together tomorrow, okay?”   “Alright, but…”   “Don’t worry… I’ll keep this…a secret,” she says and then yawns. We tuck ourselves in and then fall asleep.   …   I open my eyes slowly, finding a familiar scene in around me. This is…the Residential District… Where am I…?   I look at a familiar building up ahead. I widen my eyes as I remember it was on fire and crumbled.   “Kaister, what’s wrong?” Drugo asks.   “Drugo! You’re alive! How did you…” I pause for a moment as I find Luna, Hiro, and Sitos staring at me. “Everyone…! Wait…”   I look around again, finding myself in a wagon. There are people talking and walking about as usual. No one is injured, and everyone is calm. Sitos says, “You must have had a really bad dream.”   “Huh…yeah… What’re we doing here again? Where’s Marin?”   “Do you not remember? We are going back to the Academy to tell the teachers what happened as we discussed. Marin went ahead of us.”   “Oh, right,” I say, remembering that we had a wild journey starting from the ruins under the Academy.   “Ya look pretty psyched out,” Hiro says and then laughs. “Did someone chase ya with a giant carrot?”   “No, what the hell? I’m not scared of that anymore!”   “Then tell us what ya dreamed ‘bout!”   “It was a really scary dream! You, Drugo, and Sitos were all dead…and the city was attacked…and—“   Hiro breaks into laughter. “What the hell are ya talkin’ ‘bout? So…a giant carrot attacked the city and killed us?”   “What? No…nevermind…” The wagon rider takes us all the way to the bottom the hill that leads up to the Academy. We thank him before heading up to the entrance. The two guards standing by the main entrance give us a few strange looks.   “Wait a minute. What is with all that blood staining your clothes? You are not 5th-year students yet, are you?”   Blood…? There are blood stains all over my armor that weren’t there before. I turn around to the others, widening my eyes. Hiro, Drugo, and Sitos lie lifelessly on the wagon covered in large amounts of blood. More blood drips from a small spiked mace someone’s holding. There stands Luna smiling while fully nude. I open my mouth to scream, but no sound comes out. She turns her head toward me.   “Kai, come here… Let’s complete our contract…” Luna says with open arms. I turn around and run a few feet. I stop and look down. The two guards lie in two pools of blood. I run past them while never looking back. Somehow I find myself in a forest. Suddenly, something drops from a tree in front of me, and I stop. It’s Drugo.   “Kaister…help…”   No…   “Kai…” Sitos says from behind me. I turn around. He grabs one of my legs immediately and looks up while lying on the ground. “This is all your fault…”   No…   Someone behind me wraps their arms around me. I can’t move. Hiro’s head rests over my shoulder. “Kai, why didn’tcha save me?”   No…   A figure comes out of nowhere. A splattering sound resounds soon after. Sitos is now completely unrecognizable. I realize it’s Luna. “Finally…he’s dead.”   She turns toward me and grins. “I did good, right Kai? We’re finally alone…”   She closes in for a hug. “Kai…”   “Nooo!” I scream and sit up. My entire body is sweating.   Marin holds my hand and asks, “Kai, what’s wrong?”   I pant while looking around the room. It’s morning. “It’s nothing… Just a bad dream.”   I stand up and suggest, “As much as I want to make Hiro feel at peace, I think we should inform Alios on the situation first.”   I pick up my clothing scattered on the floor and get dressed. Marin asks, “Don’t you remember last night?”   I turn around to face Marin who is still in bed, remembering clearly. I blush. “Ye-yeah…”   Marin’s face flushes red. She pulls the blanket over her head and hides under it. “I don’t mean…that…”   It takes several seconds for me to recall the conversation we had afterward. “Right… We’re gonna see Luna. I’ll wait outside.”   I go outside and then wait a few minutes. Marin still has not come out. “Hey, Kai.”   I turn around, finding Hina walking toward me. “Hey.”   “Are you tryin’ to show off your scars from the battle?”   I force a smile and reply, “Nah, I just never got the chance to put something on.”   “What do you mean?” she asks and then smiles. “Did things get so intense last night you forgot all about it?”   “Wh-what? No…” I answer and then look away, remembering last night. Footsteps resound behind me.   “Thanks for waiting, Kai. I’m ready to go see Luna,” Marin says as she walks to my side. My hands are sweaty as I turn back to Hina. She gives me a suspicious look and then at Marin. “Oh, hello, Hina.”   “Hey, Marin. I didn’t know you were that type of girl,” Hina says and then turns toward me. “I take it things didn’t go well with Luna yesterday.”   Marin blushes and then turns away. I interject, “Uhh…”   There’s an awkward silence. “Whatever. It’s none of my business what you guys do. I would be furious if I discovered darling doin’ somethin’ like this.”   Wanting to change the subject, I ask, “So, what’re you doing here then? Shouldn’t you be nursing your boyfriend back to health?”   “I’m takin’ on the request by the army. I thought that was what you guys were doin’ too.” I cock an eyebrow. “Haven’t you heard? The army’s offerin’ a few gold coins for helpin’ out around the city since the Adventurer’s District is temporarily closed. They could use the manpower if you’re interested.”   “We don’t need any money. We got plenty from a con artist the other day. Shouldn’t there be more of you?”   “We’re assigned to different tasks. My job’s to clean the place up startin’ with the Adventurer’s District.”   “The Adventurer’s District… We’re gonna head there soon to bury Hiro and the others.”   “I see… I’ll make sure to pay my respects to them if I see them. I’ll see you guys around,” she says with a wave and then walks away. Marin still has her head turned away.   “You can turn around now.”   Marin turns around. Her face is still flushed red. “What do I do…? Hina thinks I…”   I slap her on the back and say, “Don’t worry about it. She’s not gonna say anything. Let’s hurry on back.”   “Okay…” We head toward our inn and then go inside.   “Kai! I’ve been waiting for you!” Luna exclaims with a smile. She’s sitting against the wall by the entrance. She stands up and then rushes over to us. “I’m sorry I made you mad. Can you forgive me?”   “No,” I answer.   “But…why? Can you tell me what I did wrong? I won’t do it again, I promise!”   Several things are going on in my mind, but I figure it’s better to address the first thing. I ask, “Then tell me. Why… Why did you…kill Sitos?”   My heart races. “Because I wanted to.”   “What do you mean you wanted to?!”   “Well, because it was part of the contract.”   I clench my fists and ask, “Contract? What contract…? Between you and who?”   “The contract between me and Sitos. He got what he wanted, so I got what I wanted.”   I grit my teeth. “This again… I don’t understand! Explain better!”   “Kai, why are you mad again? I won’t know why unless you tell me.”   I click my tongue. “Forget it.”   “Kai…why are you—“   “Shut up and come with us,” I demand. Hot puffs of air escape me as I turn around. I start making my way toward the Royal District.   “Okay…” Luna says and follows. “Where’re we going?”   “To Sitos’ place. We have to explain what happened,” I respond.   “I don’t wanna go there.” I stop walking and turn around. Luna stands there with a frown. I pinch my glabella and take several deep breaths. I look at Marin for a moment, but she turns away. I grind my teeth back and forth.   “I’m not gonna forgive you if you don’t come with us,” I declare.   Luna smiles and says, “Okay, so you’ll forgive me if I come, right?”   “Maybe.”   “Yay!” Luna interjects and follows. We continue in silence, eventually arriving at the front of Sitos’ home. The gates are open and two guards stand there. Normally, there are none.   As we are walking closer, one of them says, “Halt. No one is allowed entry here.”   I cock an eyebrow. “Why? Did something happen?”   “An investigation is underway after we received an anonymous tip that—“   “What’s going on here?” an old man says as he walks from the residence.   A guard turns around and replies, “Nothing, Sir Zarus. Just a couple of kids trying to walk inside.”   “Hmm?” Zarus interjects as he looks over to us. “You’re Kai, aren’t you? You’ve come at a good time. Come on in.”   “Sir Zarus, I am not trying to be rude, but you do not have the authority to allow them entry. We were ordered not to let anyone in,” one of the guards explains.   “These kids are acquainted with Alios and one of his sons. We may be able to shed more light on the situation with their help. If you’d like, I’ll go back inside and ask permission from—“   “There is no need for that, Sir Zarus. We will let them through,” one of the guards says.   “Excellent,” Zarus says and then walks toward the entrance. We follow. “So, what brings you youngins here so early?”   “We’re here to see Alios,” I respond.   “That’s going to be a bit difficult,” Zarus says. “We’ll explain inside.”   We? I think to myself as we’re making our way in. The place seems unusually empty. All the doors in sight are open with some people shuffling in and out. Three odd people stand in the middle of the foyer. Zarus leads us to them.   “I brought acquaintances of Alios with me,” Zarus informs. The only man with armor turns around toward us. He has long brown hair, a well-defined frame, unusually bushy eyebrows, and abnormally large hands. An eagle with its wings spread out is engraved on the front of his armor. “These three plus three others, Sitos included, were under Alios last year for their 5th-year Academy experience.”   “When was the last time you met with Alios?” the man in armor suddenly asks.   “Uhhh…” I pause for a second. “Three months ago, during the last request of the 5th-year Academy phase.”   “Where’s Alios’ son, Sitos? He’s a part of your team, right?”   I look down before answering, “Sitos… He’s…passed on...”   “I see, that’s unfortunate. Was he acting strangely at all two weeks prior to his death?”   “No…”   “Did he say anything unusual?”   I look away thinking of his conversation with me before he died. “No…”   There’s a pause before he says, “We’ve found evidence in this household that Castalia and the recent attackers are linked. We have Alios and everyone who was in this building yesterday in custody already…but if you know anything regarding Sitos or the recent attack, let us know now.”   “We don’t know anything. The masked people got three of us… Sitos was one of them. He was completely normal, and there wasn’t anything he—“   “Kai meant to say, Sitos was one of them,” Luna says with anger.   “No I—”   “He was a bigger jerk than he normally was, he killed Drugo, he hurt Kai, and he took away my worth.”   The armored guy turns to me and asks, “Did Sitos inflict this wound on you?”   I look down while small droplets of sweat form on my forehead. I open my mouth to speak but only stutter.   “I see,” the armored man says. “We almost have all the evidence we need. You understand what this means now, right, Zarus?”   Sir Zarus sighs and then replies, “Yes… I will go inform Alios.”   “Wait!” I exclaim and then gulp. “He told me something before he died. He said something about a masked man...a masked man approaching him three weeks ago. He was made an offer by that man, and he refused at the time but Sitos...he said he felt a change from within himself since then that he couldn’t ignore. He took the masked man’s offer a week ago because...because he couldn’t resist anymore… He said he felt like waking up from a dream and realized what he did wasn’t what he wanted. So... He didn’t mean any of the things he did!”   There’s a brief silence before the armored man says, “So, he regretted the actions he took...but that doesn’t excuse him of his crimes. Nor does that excuse the crimes Castalia has committed.”   “What’re you talking about…?” I ask.   “We’ve investigated this household and discovered a hidden passage that leads to numerous points in the city. It would explain how the masked men were able to stay undetected inside the city. We found a few of the white masks with the snake symbol of it inside already, but it’s not enough to draw links between Castalia and the attackers. But it’s only a matter of time before we have all the conclusive evidence we need.”   “No...that can’t be…” I mutter.   “I will take my leave now,” Zarus says with a bow and then leaves.   The armored man turns to the other two with him and then says, “Daquan and Emric, you are to start questioning the household keepers and the guards that work for Castalia.”   “Yes, General Nero,” they salute and then leave. General Nero turns to us.   “You three can leave now too. If you find anything new regarding the attack, be sure to ask for me, General Nero,” he says with a smile and then walks deeper into the foyer. “I’ll need to finish up my work here.”   I stand in place while looking at the ground for several seconds.   “Kai, let’s go!” Luna exclaims while tugging on my arm. I grit my teeth and pull my arm away from her. “Kai…?”   “Why...why’re you still saying that Sitos was with the masked attackers? Sitos...he was our friend… Everything was that masked man’s fault.”   Luna frowns and crosses her arms. “Friends don’t do the things he did.”   “It wasn’t his fault he did those things… The masked man made him do it!”   “I don’t understand… How’d he make him do it? He wasn’t there when he was being a jerk…and he wasn’t there when he killed Drugo. He didn’t threaten him or anything… He just...did it all by himself.”   “No, that’s wrong! Sitos said he didn’t want anything to do with it the first time he met with the masked man. But, his feelings went haywire afterward… He couldn’t control himself.”   “So he took some time to think about it and couldn’t wait to do all the things he wanted to.”   “Didn’t you listen to—“   “Kai,” Marin interrupts as she puts a hand on my shoulder. Our eyes meet. “Hiro’s waiting.”   “You’re right…” I respond. I glance over to Luna. “We’ll talk about this later. Hiro and the others come first.”   “Okay!” Luna exclaims. We walk out of the Castalia residence when suddenly, I think of something. I sprint toward our inn without thinking about it.   “Kai, where’re you going?!” Marin asks. Eventually, I arrive at our inn, but it’s too late. There are army people already stationed outside of it. I run inside and go up the stairs. The door to Sitos’ room is open. I look inside, finding all of Sitos’ belongings scattered.   “There’s nothing here either,” a man says from another room.   “We’re done here,” another man says. Four guards walk out of Luna’s room. They walk past me and then go down the stairs. I go to my room. It’s a mess in here too. I sigh as I pick up one of my t-shirts off the ground. I put it on and head out. I notice something peculiar in Luna’s room, so I go inside to check. Our team fund container is on the ground with some of the contents spilled on the ground. I kneel down and empty the entire container on the ground. I knit my eyebrows while counting them.   No way… This is the same amount we had several days ago…How’d Luna pay for my treatment…? I think back to yesterday.   Footsteps and heavy breathing resound behind me. “Kai… What’re you doing…?”   Marin sits against the wall behind me. “Marin, we have the same amount of money as we did several days ago. How’d Luna afford my medical treatment? The doctor said he received the full payment by the team he healed me.”   “Hmm… Oh, Luna took the pouch of coins you gave to Hiro after you went to see Emdos.”   I raise my eyebrows. “Do you remember what I told you yesterday about finding the doctor outside of our inn?”   “Yeah, you said he went in and came out with a pouch of coins.”   “I think that’s the same pouch of coins Luna had… So, she must’ve used that to pay for my treatment, right?”   “Yeah? What’re you saying?”   “So, isn’t it weird that the doctor lied about receiving the full payment when he didn’t have it?”   “Maybe he forgot it or dropped it… There’s no reason for him to lie.”   “You’re right… Sorry, I’m thinking too much into it.”   “Did you run back here just for that?”   “I wanted to check Sitos’ room before they came, but it was too late,” I explain and look around. “Where’s Luna?”   “Oh… I’m not sure… We should go look for her.”   I sigh and then answer, “Forget her. We’ll waste too much time trying. She’ll be back here later. Let’s hurry to Hiro. He’s been waiting long enough.”   We make our way to the Adventurer’s Hub. We discover the reconstruction has spread to the Adventurer’s District already. Nearby, there are people moving bodies onto a wagon. Eventually, we arrive at the center of the Adventurer’s District where the Adventurer’s Hub is. I widen my eyes. A couple guards are stationed right outside the Adventurer’s Hub. I have a bad feeling about this and hurry. Several other guards exit the Adventurer’s Hub. One of them is dragging Sitos’ body across the ground.   “Hey!” I exclaim and run up the guard pulling Sitos by the leg. “What do you think you’re doing?! You can’t take him! He’s my friend! I’m gonna give him peace and bury him!”   The guard continues to drag Sitos. Another guard stands in front of me and then says, “Beat it, kid. He’s going to be thrown with the rest of the conspirators and be fed to monsters.”   “No, he wasn’t one of them! You’ve got it wrong!” I exclaim while walking toward Sitos.   “There’s plenty of evidence that this kid was one of them. Now, get lost!” the guard says and shoves me back. I watch helplessly as they drag Sitos away.   “Kai!” Luna exclaims from the entrance of the Adventurer’s Hub. I clench my fists and my teeth. She grins. “I finally did it! Sitos is finally gonna get what he deserves! Kai, tell me I did good!”   “No…” I mutter.   “Kai…?”   “No, you didn’t do good…you did the worst possible thing you could’ve done!” I scream. Luna’s eyes tear up a little.   “Why’re you mad at me again…?”   “Shut up. Just shut up. I don’t know you anymore. I don’t want to see your face or talk to you right now. Go back to the inn.”   “But…what about Dru—“   “Go!” I exclaim and point away from here. Several tears flow down her cheeks as she runs away. My eyes turn slightly watery. I rub my eyes with my shirt, the back of my throat burning. Marin looks at me with a concerned expression. “I’m glad you’re still you…”   Marin blushes and looks away. Someone’s walking out of the Adventurer’s Hub. Hina has her nose pinched and her mouth covered. “It reeks…”   She uncovers her face and then gasps for air.   “Hina,” I say and then widen my eyes. “Did you happen to…”   “Yeah,” Hina replies while still taking deep breaths in. “I heard…everythin’. Didn’t want to get between that…”   I look away. No one says anything for several seconds. “Luna told me what actually happened to you guys.”   “Sorry, I didn’t mean to hide it…”   “No, I understand. It’s not easy to say. I’m really sorry about Luna. I hope she gets better.”   “Thanks…but she probably won’t,” I mutter and then look away. No one says anything for several seconds again.   “Hey, Marin,” Hina says and puts her hand on Marin’s shoulder. Marin looks at her. “Don’t be bothered what I said earlier, okay?”   Hina smiles. Marin reciprocates and replies, “Okay…”   “It’ll be hard for you guys to haul the big one and the monkey by yourselves. How about I give you a lift on our team transportation?” Hina asks.   “But the Transportation Center is closed…” Marin says.   “No one’s goin’ to care if I sneak out our wagon. Look, the door is wide open. Everyone’s doin’ it. I’ll be right back,” Hina says and then runs toward the Transportation Center. I gather Drugo’s and Hiro’s bodies outside the Transportation Center. About twenty more minutes pass. Hina comes out with a worn-down wagon led by a horse. “So-sorry that took so long!”   I put Drugo and Hiro on the back of the wagon and get on. Marin climbs onto the back too. Hina asks, “Where’re we goin’?”   “The Academy,” I answer. Hina signals the horse to start moving soon after. “Is this really your team transport…?”   “Do-don’t worry about it!” I shake my head and sigh. We eventually arrive at the front of the Academy, but there’s something off. The Academy gates are open and no one is guarding the entrance. I look more closely at the front of the building. The entrance is caved in from the top.   “Hey, this looks really bad!” I exclaim and jump off the wagon. Hina and Marin do too. “Let’s go see what’s going on!”   We run toward the back of the school from the right side. The path is completely blocked off. Part of the right side of the Academy seems completely demolished. We switch to the other side where there’s a path available. Eventually, we reach the back of the Academy. I widen my eyes, finding the dormitory building utterly destroyed. Some people are atop the rubble. Moria stands close by next to a row of younger kids lying on the ground. We run up to him.   “Teacher Moria!” I exclaim. Moria turns around.   “Kai! It is good to see you! Marin and Hina too. I heard from Marin yesterday. I am sorry for your loss.”   “Yeah…”   “Where are Luna, Sitos, and Drugo?”   I bite my lip before answering, “Luna’s resting at our inn, Drugo’s sleeping next to Hiro right now…and we weren’t able to retrieve Sitos…”   “Truly a tragedy… It pains me to find out that so many of my students have passed on before me…” Moria says with a frown as he looks around him. There are more bodies here than at the Adventurer’s District. “I was not able to protect a single one of my students…”   I widen my eyes and gape. “Wait…you can’t be serious, Teacher Moria.”   Moria rubs his eyes before responding, “I am afraid so… Every student that was here at the Academy died in the attack. First years, second years, third years, fourth years, and fifth years. A couple of our instructors were bested too.”   I look around as he continues, “Instructor Fulharm was inside the dormitory when the enemy used a devastating Wind magic that collapsed the entire building. We have been trying to remove the rubble ever since. The few we have pulled from the rubble have already passed on. I do not think there are any survivors under there.”   “You can’t lose all hope yet, Teacher Moria!” Hina exclaims. “There might be one student still alive under the rubble!”   “Yes, you are right. That is why we are doing our best to remove the rubble. In any case, I am glad to see that you three have made it out okay. We are thinking about digging one big hole here to accommodate all the students who have died here in the attack. Is it okay that Hiro and Drugo will be thrown in there as well?”   “Yeah, that sounds fine,” I say. Marin nods her head.   “Emergency!” a man exclaims from behind us. A guard is sprinting toward us. He stops in front of Teacher Moria. “Are you Moria?”   “Yes, what is going on?”   “A member of the expedition came back, but he’s barely alive. All of our personnel are not available to help him. My superior told me that you are skilled in Healing Magic. Please, come with me!”   “Yes, I understand,” Moria says. He turns toward us and then says, “I am sorry, but I will be back later.”   “Wait, let me come with you! I’m worried about my parents! They were in the expedition too!” Marin exclaims.   “That is fine. Lead the way,” Moria says.   “Yes, sir! Follow me!” the guard runs off while Moria and Marin follows. I chase after them.

Two hours later, we are the first ones to arrive at the Arena. The obelisks are not here. We take the leather garments on the cart.   "I still can't believe y'all used me…" Hiro says bitterly. "You're not hidin' anythin' from me this time, are ya?"   "There's nothing to hide here. This game doesn't involve any tricks. You still remember the plan, right?" I ask.   "Yeah, we'll charge in if it's 'Eliminate the King!' My favorite kinda plan! They don't stand a chance!" Hiro exclaims.   "We have the advantage on this game, so do not fuck this up," Sitos says.   The other team arrives. Hiro walks in front of us, standing in front of the other team's path.   "Hah! Didja see my amazin' performance from last game? I basically won it for the team! It's too bad ya underestimated me!" Hiro exclaims with his chest puffed out while pointing at them with a finger. "Whadaya hafta say to that, Hina?"   Hina and the rest of her team walk past Hiro as if he doesn't exist. Hiro runs after them and yells, "Hey! Don't ignore me! I'm asking ya what ya hafta say to that!"   Hina stops in front of me while the rest of their team head for the leather garments cart.   "That was a clever strategy. I didn't think focusin' the weak one would backfire on us," Hina says. I smile.   "Weak?! Who're ya callin' weak?!" Hiro exclaims and happens to spit on the side of her face. Hina twists that side of her face a little, but she continues as if nothing has happened.   "I may be lazy, but I'm not stupid. I can read you like a book," I respond.   She smiles and says, "We'll see about that."   With that, she makes her way toward the rest of her team. I cock an eyebrow. She's not the least bit concerned about the game we're playing?   "Hey, Hina! Hina Hina Hina Hina, Hina!" Hiro exclaims quickly as chases after her. I stop him with my sword as he reaches out with an arm.   "As your friend, I can't let you embarrass yourself any further," I say.   "Yes, whatever the hell you are doing, stop, please. Talk with your hammer, not your mouth," Sitos adds.   Hiro grunts afterward and then says, "Fine… You hafta let me be the one to drive my body through that frail body of hers."   "She's all yours…" I say. I doubt you'll even get a chance to…   "Well, it looks like both teams are here and ready," a referee announces. "From what I understand, both teams have already played 'Eliminate the King,' so I will not be explaining the rules. We can start as soon as the Kings and Queens are decided."   "I'll be the Queen," Marin answers, steps forward, takes the crown, and then puts it on her head.   "I will be the king," one of the guys from the other team steps forward and then does the same.   He only has a buckler. This guy must be the Conjuration user. We go to our starting positions and then wait for the start of the battle. I clench both of my weapons in preparation.   "Fight!" Drugo leads the charge using formation Diamond as the start of the game is announced. Sitos and I follow by his side slightly behind him while Hiro follows directly behind Drugo. We form the shape of a diamond with our positioning. Marin and Luna follow not too far behind. Our opponents do not move.   "They aren't moving… Should we fall back to plan B?" I ask while continuing to run in formation.   "No, they are planning something. Best not lose our advantage by waiting too long," Sitos says. Several of them close their eyes. Their Archer shoots a rock into the air toward us. I close my eyes and continue to run at the same speed, all according to plan. The rock shatters and then light shines on my eyelids.   "My minions, I summon you!" their Conjurer exclaims. I knit my eyebrows.   What'd he just do? Light still shines on us after three seconds have passed. Footsteps close in on us from the front. Are they charging blindly at us?!   "Deflect version two!" Drugo shouts. I open my eyes, finding that the light rays in the air are only pointing toward us. Drugo redirects it toward the two charging at us. It's the rapier girl and the big sword guy. They back off. There appear to be three boars behind them, but they're different; its tusks are twice its normal size. Two seconds later, the rays of light disappear.   The boars charge at us with the two from earlier backing them up. Hina and her boyfriend appear to be doing nothing in the backline. The Archer slings another rock in the air. I keep my eyes open as I charge forward. Drugo points his shield toward the rock and shouts, "Deflect version two!"   Mana envelops the front of Drugo's shield. It stretches out from his shield, extending far enough to cover Sitos and me. The rock doesn't shatter. It flies over us. I frown. So they're trying to separate us…   The rock shatters behind us. The conjurer shouts, "Enrage!"   The boars squeal loudly and run faster. Drugo is the first one to collide with a boar. I point my right elbow toward the one in front of me. "Fireball!"   A ball of flames appears from my elbow that flies toward the boar. It explodes on its face, but it doesn't slow down. I thrust my right blade toward the center of its head. The momentum of its charge pushes me slightly backward despite my own. Sitos exclaims, "Volt thrust!"   The rapier girl has her weapon drawn back, preparing to thrust it in the next moment. I knit my eyebrows as she won't reach me. It feels like something is coming, but I don't move. Something pierces me like a pin through my right shoulder. I clench my teeth as the pain radiates around that point. What?!   I clench my right sword and then start pulling out my sword from the boar's head. Another one of her thrusts is coming. "Deflect version two!"   Drugo's Mana extends outward, apparently protecting me from whatever the rapier girl is using against me. My eyes are on her weapon the entire time, but there's nothing. There's only one conclusion; Wind magic. Hiro's in the air behind Drugo. He shouts, "Water smash!"   I finally pull out my weapon from the boar's head as Hiro smashes the boar in front of Drugo. Some water splashes out in all directions. The boar with a burnt face and hole in his head doesn't stop charging at me. I break formation and jump backward. Their Heavy is swinging his large blade at Hiro, who is wide open.   "Flame wave!" Fire envelops his large sword. Drugo forces his shield in the air toward the direction of his attack. Simultaneously, he thrusts the boar in front of him with his sword. Hiro's weapon is forced into the air, and then he falls backward. The Mana surrounding Drugo's shield disappear as flames scatter toward the direction of impact. Some of it hits Sitos.   I ignore the boar in front of me as it will probably die regardless. I jump to the side before it hits me. I charge toward the rapier girl and point my right elbow toward her. "Fireball!"   She avoids my ball of fire and then extends her arm back again. I put my blades in front of me, preparing to block the exact point she thrusts. She shouts, "Air cut!"   She slashes her weapon in a horizontal line toward my face. I block it thinking that it's a thrust, and I end up getting cut on both sides of my cheek with no damage in the middle of my face. I don't stop running. She jumps backward and thrusts at me with additional attacks. I move my sword toward the trajectory of all of them though I only feel a force behind some of them. Damn, so annoying.   It looks like she's about to jump backward in the next moment. Now!   I point my right elbow forward and shout, "Fireball!"   She jumps backward in the same moment my fireball launches from my elbow. Suddenly, I find their sword user coming at me from my left side.   The moment an arrow appears between the heavy sword user and me, Marin shouts, "Scatter!"   A dirt cloud appears around the arrow. He stops charging.   "Airburst!" the rapier girl blocks my fireball with her buckler. My magic disappears. Afterward, a small gust of air blows against my face. My magic did nothing to her. I jump back and then rejoin with the others. Their Archer has been flinging rocks at Sitos. I cock an eyebrow at Hina and her boyfriend who are still standing still.   "Those annoying boars are dead. Formation Diamond, hurry!" Sitos exclaims. We do as he says and charge forward in formation Diamond. Their Tank drops his shield on the ground with the back facing upward. The rapier girl runs forward toward my right while the heavy sword user runs to the left toward Sitos.   "Tidal wave!" A huge amount of water suddenly appears in succession in front of Hina. It starts from the bottom, quickly rising in height. It's at least twice as tall as I am and spans a long distance. The water forms a wave and approaches us rapidly.   Holy shit… I stop running and gape at the incoming wave of water. I consider charging toward the rapier girl, but I figure she'll push me back with her Wind magic.   "Friends, behind me!" Drugo exclaims. I stand behind Drugo, Hiro, and Sitos in that order. I figure Marin and Luna are behind me. "Deflect version two!"   Mana covers the front of Drugo's shield as he points it in front of him. He appears to be putting additional Mana into it beyond what comes out with his keyword. The wave of water collides with Drugo's magic and doesn't flow past it. However, some water leaks through the bottom, and the wave starts to fall on us from above.   "Barrier!" Drugo exclaims as he points his sword above him. A flat horizontal wall of Mana appears on the level of the tip of his sword. "Spread out! Get closer!"   We do as he says and split into two lines instead of one. Water rushes past us from every side. Our view is completely obscured by the water from every direction. Her Water Affinity is insane!   It sounds like something resounds above me and some water splash on me. Drugo's magic is still in place. I turn around and then gape. Their Tank is drenched in water, but he has Marin's crown in his open hand. He turns around and smiles.   "We lost…" I say.   "What're ya… Whoa! How'd he-he has our crown!" Hiro exclaims. The rest of stay silent as the water from Hina's magic finally pushes past us. It leaves a huge puddle of water behind us. In the distance, there's an elliptical shield on the ground. I knit my eyebrows.   How's that even possible…? I think of the possibility that he rode the wave on his shield when he dropped it on the ground before Hina's magic started. But I toss that thought out as I know metal doesn't float.   He laughs, walks away from us, and says, "Hina can use Wind magic too."   "The winner is team two!" a referee announces.   "You did it, darling!"   "Damn!" Sitos interjects. "There's a 50% chance that the next game is going to be 'Hostage Extraction.' We are going to be in deep shit in that narrow space with the shit she just pulled off."   "Oh, shit! What if they take Drugo as their hostage?" Hiro asks.   "Don't panic. We take Hina as our hostage," I say.   "Oh, so it's gonna be a cinch!" Hiro exclaims, suddenly confident.   "Don't forget about their Archer," Luna says. "The Underground's the perfect place for him."   "Oh… So we're screwed…" Hiro says lethargically.   Drugo pats Hiro on the pack and says, "Well, don't worry about it so much, Hiroster. We don't know if we'll be playing that game yet."   "Your next game will take place in the Underground. We will meet at the front of the Academy entrance at 12 PM," a referee announces as another one uses Healing magic on my injury. Hina smiles and waves toward us as her team leaves.   "There's no point in sulking here. Let's head back," Drugo suggests. After the referee finishes the Healing magic, we head back to our home and then relax a little before going into discussion mode about possible plans and counters for 'Hostage Extraction.' We eat lunch before the destined time for the last game. We arrive at the front of the Academy where the other team is waiting, along with the referees.   "Let's get this over with. Follow us, ya damn brats," a referee says as he and four other referees start walking. Both teams follow. "Let's see. Uhh... The game you'll play is called… Shit, what was it again? 'Watch your feet.' That's it."   "'Watch your step.' Why the hell did you even come here for, Gudar?"   "Vulwin, are ya tryin' ta pick a fight with me here, eh? Why don'tcha explain this ta these shitty brats instead?"   "Stop yer yappin' and explain the damn game already, dumbass," a female referee says.   "Pff… Vulwin's playthin' getting' cocky again..."   The female referee laughs. She moves closer to his face, strokes him on the cheek with a finger, and says, "Aww… Don't be so mad cuz I won't sleep widja."   His hand reaches for the sword on his waist. The referee leading the four behind him turns around and then says, "That's enough out of you two. We're on a job here. Explaining the game is your job, Gudar. Or did you beg me for this role because you knew Deona was coming?"   The female referee chuckles. What the hell's wrong with these referees…?   Gudar relaxes his body and then says, "Ahem…  In this game, each team will go through an identical obstacle course full of traps at the same time. The goal's ta minimize your casualties while aimin' fer a quick completion."   We're going in a different direction compared to the last time we went to the Underground setting. "Ya got two hours ta complete the course. Understand?"   I'm not completely sure about the rules, but I'm slightly intimidated by him, so I don't ask. Hiro asks, "What's the goal again? I don't think I understand."   "Didja hear that? He said yer explanation sucks!" the female referee asks and then giggles.   "Uhh…no, I didn't say that…" Hiro mutters.   "Okay, I'll explain it so even a brain-dead idiot like you can understand." Hina and her team chuckle. "An arrow flyin' atcha. Run. Magic flyin' atcha. Move. Yer armor dead? Yer out. Lose too much blood? Yer out. Time limit. Two hours. Run fast. Team with less outs, end. Win. Both teams same. Faster team wins. Got it?"   During his explanation, one of the referees opens a locked door and then we head down the stairs. "Oh, okay… Um—"   "Uhh-umm-durr. What's it ya wanna ask now? Spit it out."   Hiro looks down for several seconds and then asks, "Wh-what should we do if we get out?"   "I dunno. If ya were dumb enough to get hit enough times in the first place, ya should probably keep movin’ and get struck by somethin' else and drop dead.  One less idiot in this world."   "Words spoken by the idiot," the female referee says. Someone clicks their tongue.   "In other words, just find a safe spot and one of us will come getcha. You'd best pray that it isn't my job ta do that." The referee in front turns to glare at Gudar. "Just kiddin', of course. I won't let any of ya die, probably."   I muster my courage and gulp as we arrive at our destination. There appears to be a corridor on both ends of this room. Between them are two doors widely spaced apart. I figure that those are the entrances each team will take. I say, "I have a question."   Gudar turns to face me with a cold expression like he's telling me to hurry up. "Won't teams that have played this game already have an advantage?"   He glances over at the other group and then smiles. "Nah, ya won't hafta worry 'bout that. The course's different in each round. I forgot ta mention. Ya aren't allowed ta take any of yer weapons inside. Earth magic's restricted. There's yer shit armor over there."   He points to the usual cart. "Hurry up and put it on so I can get this shit over with."   We deposit our weapons on it, put on the leather garments, and then wait in front of the door on the left. I turn around to take a better look at the referee that was leading the four behind him and then knit my eyebrows. He seems familiar… Have I seen him before?   A shiver goes down my back as he turns to make eye contact with me. It feels like I'm suffocating. Luna asks, "What's wrong, Kai?"   I turn toward her, still feeling a bit stiff and say, "It's no-nothing. I just thought those referees are a bit strange…"   "Yeah! That Gudar guy was really mean to Hiro! He shouldn't be here if he doesn't wanna. Did Moria hire him?" Luna asks.   "Yeh, I was just askin' a question! Why didja get special treatment, Kai?"   "Because he is not an idiot," Sitos says.   "Don't call me an idiot too, Sitos!" Hiro exclaims.   I put a hand over my face and shake my head. This feels awfully familiar…   "Yer two hours start now," Gudar announces. Afterward, Hina's team goes in their door. I turn to look at the referees again.   Why're they all staring at me? So creepy.   "Kai, get your ass moving! We are losing time!" Sitos exclaims.   "Coming!" I reply and then follow my team. The door closes behind us. We arrive in a rectangular shaped room shortly after with the longer wall facing us.   It looks like a normal room made out of stone. The exit is at the upper right corner of the room. I walk a little forward, but I don't go too far. There's a space about two feet on the longer from the ground up to stand on. I poke my head out to the left, finding that it extends up to the opposing wall. The right side has no place to stand. I raise my right leg up and then stand on the small platform on my toes while leaning my weight forward. I put my hands on the wall to help balance as I slowly side step my way across.   "I see," Sitos says. I make it to the end of this wall and then carefully change platforms onto the adjacent wall. Sitos is right on my tail with the others in pursuit. Hiro still hasn't gotten on the platform yet.   "What're y'all doin'? Let's just walk across!" Hiro exclaims as he walks forward.   "Stop! Get back!" I yell. He walks across regardless. I gape with my jaws dropped as he walks to the exit. Nothing happens.   "See? What the hell are y'all doin' over there? Y'all are thinkin' too hard," Hiro says. I sigh and then jump off. The others soon follow.   "Hiro, from now on don't make decisions like that by yourself," I say as I walk across the room.   "Hey, do you hear something?" Drugo asks. I stop to listen.   Hmm… There's a sound, and it's getting closer. It sounds almost like… Water suddenly bursts into the room from where we came from.   "Damn it Hiro! I knew it!" I exclaim as I run for the exit.   "This happened 'cause y'all were too slow!" Hiro exclaims as he runs farther ahead.   "Wait! Don't go too far by yourself! Stop!" I shout and then lose sight of Hiro as he turns around the next corner. I soon catch up to him and find a flight of stairs. I run up the steps quickly in pursuit of Hiro. I knit my eyebrows. There are larger steps we can jump onto on the side of the stairs. It begins about a quarter of the way up. I climb on it the first chance I get. Hiro, your speed's gonna screw us…   The others follow me. Drugo climbs on the other side of the steps. Marin is still running up the steps. The stairs suddenly turn into a 45-degree slant. Some water slides down the slant.   "Ah!" Marin interjects. Sitos and I grab different arms, and then we pull her up.   "Ahhh! Save me!" Hiro exclaims as he slides down back toward us. I bend down and then reach out while Sitos grabs onto my legs.   Damn, he's too far! I consider diving down completely, but I drop that plan. Drugo's reaching out to him. "Drugo don't, you'll fall too!"   He doesn't stop. Eventually, Drugo grabs a hold of Hiro's hand all while maintaining balance by holding onto the edge of the steps with his other hand. I sigh as he pulls him up. The water level decreases, eventually draining into the hole that's at the bottom of the stairs. We make it to the top of the stairs. I punch Hiro in the back of the head.   "Ow!" Sitos kicks him in the leg."Ow!"   Hiro gives Luna a sad look and exclaims, "Luna, they're bein' mean to me!"   Running to Luna… I shake my head.   Luna smiles and then kicks him in the other leg.   "Ow!" I laugh as Hiro falls on his ass.   "Stop running off by yourself! You'll be good and work with us now, right?" Luna asks with a broad smile. I can feel murderous intent leaking out from her lips.   "I'll be a good boy," Hiro says. There are spiked balls swinging left and right in the next hallway. Bursts of fire are coming out of the floor and occasional gusts of wind blow on my face. Hiro walks toward the wall and says, "I'll sit this one out and watch y'all get past this one."   Something clicks near Hiro. "Whoa!"   What now…? The walls near Hiro are moving, revealing a passage. There's a block pressed inward on the wall beside Hiro. I see. So there're tricks like that too.   "Nice one. I will hold back my urge to punch you in the gut now," Sitos says as he steps over Hiro into the passage. The rest of us follow.   "Hey, wait for me!" Hiro exclaims. We arrive in another rectangular room, except this time the longer ends of the wall are on the sides. The exit is on the other side. My eyes wander around the room. There isn't anything that sticks out other than how the floor is divided into stone squares. I peek my head out around the corners for platforms, but there aren't any.   "Friends, let me have a go at this one," Drugo says as he walks in front of me. He takes baby steps into the room while closely following the right wall. He doesn't fully put weight on his legs right away. Sometimes a stone lowers as his feet press down on the floor, but returns to normal positioning as he lifts them up again. I remember the locations of these problematic stone squares.   A click resounds as Drugo moves a leg forward but doesn't touch the floor. A small fiery explosion erupts where Drugo stands while a flaming ball of fire appears on the other side of the wall. It flies toward him.   "Drugo!" several of us exclaim.   "Deflect!" Drugo shouts and then Mana envelops around his hands. He extends an arm out to his side. He punches the incoming ball of fire and reflects it to where it came from. It hits the wall and then scatters into nothing.   "Drugo, what happened?! Are you okay?" I ask.   "I'm fine thanks to the armor. It looks like I might be out, though," Drugo says as he rejoins us. "There was a thin wire there I didn't see until I already tripped it. Be careful. I guess I'll wait here for rescue."   "I will take over," Sitos says as he follows the path Drugo took. He slowly moves his leg in front of him before attempting to tap the floor. I follow behind him about five feet apart.   Hmm… I wonder if I can mark these somehow. I shoot out a thin burst of fire pointed at the problematic squares. It leaves behind a black burn mark. I point to the black mark and say, "Avoid the ones with the burn mark in the middle. You hear that, Hiro?"   "Got it," he responds.   "Wire!" Sitos exclaims. I note his location while continuing to burn the ground with my magic.   I pay close attention to where Sitos stands when he warns us about a wire. I note it while continuing to burn the ground with my magic. I say, "Stop for a second, Sitos."   I crouch down upon making it to the first wire and then purposely trip it. Two flaming balls of fire appear three feet up the wall where the wire connects to the wall. They collide with each other and then scatter into nothing. So it activates more than once.   I let out a burst of my Fire magic on the wall where the wire attaches to the wall. I get back up and then continue forward. We advance like this until all of us have reached the end of this room.   In the next room, there are two different passages. The one on the left has a circular path with flames coming out of the ceiling that rotates around the circle clockwise. The one on the other side is identical except the flames spin counter-clockwise. I say, "Hiro, you're up. Run in and tell us if you find anything."   "Yessir!" Hiro exclaims with a salute and then runs off.   I say, "Hey, wait for the…"   I frown and shake my head. Sitos says, "His legs move faster than his brain. He will be fine."   Three seconds later, the flames reach the start again. There are no signs of Hiro coming back. 15 seconds later, his footsteps resound progressively louder. The flames are right on his tail, but he safely makes it back with two seconds to spare.   "That was close…" Hiro says as he looks behind him.   "Well, did you find anything?" I ask.   "No, the path just curved back here with no exit in sight."   "Nothing else?"   "Nope. Should I go in again?"   "That's probably a good idea, but for god's sake Hiro… Wait for the flames so that you're chasing it, not being chased by it."   "Oh, that's genius! Okey-dokey, I'll keep circlin' around until I find somethin'!" he exclaims and then runs into the donut-shaped room again. I sigh.   "Well, I think I'm gonna try exploring the other way," I say as I face the left passage.   "Okay, be careful!" Luna exclaims. I wait for the flames to reach the beginning of the way in, and then I chase after it. I bounce my eyes left and right between the outer and inner walls while sliding my hand on the inner wall. There's a stone square sticking out on the wall ahead. I run over and then press it. It stays pressed in despite me not putting any pressure on it. Nothing changes around me. I continue running clockwise until I've made it back.   "How was it on that end?" Sitos asks.   "I found a button on the wall. I'm gonna go for a second lap here in a second to check for its effects," I say and then face the left passage again. I wait for the flames to come back before chasing after it again. I run all the way up to the point where I found the button on the wall earlier. Huh? The button isn't pressed in anymore.   I run up to it and then press it again before running back to the beginning. Sitos exclaims, "Kai, this is bad! Our idiot is missing!"   "What?! Did he get hit?"   "I do not know. The idiot did three laps without stopping and did not come back for a fourth. I am about to go check," Sitos says and then runs off into the right passage. I knit my eyebrows.   I highly doubt he’d get hit… So what other explanation could there be? Rooms identical…counter-clockwise and clockwise…symmetrical…button that resets itself after a certain amount of time has passed… I raise my eyebrows.   "Did you figure something out, Kai?" Luna asks.   "Yeah, but I'm not sure. I need Sitos to check something for me."   Sitos comes back and says, "I did not see him. Where the hell did that idiot go?"   "I think I might know the answer. Can you run in again?" I ask. "Try to stay on the other side long enough for me to get to the button I found earlier. I think something might open on your side."   "I will be upset if you are just fucking with me, but I will trust you." When the time is right, I run into the left room while chasing after the flames as usual. I make it to the button, press it, and then run back. Sitos arrives a little later. "You were right. Something opened in the upper right outer wall of the passage I was in. So that idiot ran off without us again…"   "We can't be worrying about that idiot right now. There's probably a button on your side too that opens my side. We're gonna have to press them at the same time and run for the exit…"   "Yes, I saw the button. I propose we run in reverse to get the button, and then run forward to the door."   "That sounds…risky…"   "Well, only you and I can pull it off since the idiot is not here. I do not think the girls are fast enough for that."   "Alright, we'll try it. But don't go in because we're just trying if it's possible."   "Right."   "Good luck, you two," Marin says.   "Good luck!" I go back to the left room and wait for the flames. As soon as it glides by, I run in reverse. I quickly press the button and then run forward again in my fastest sprint. I make it around to the upper left corner of my room, but there is no exit. I barely get away from the flames by the time I get back to the starting line.  "How was it, Kai?"   Sitos comes back. Breathing harder than usual, I answer, "It's no good. There's only one thing left to try, but it's all or nothing."   "I was just thinking the same thing," Sitos says.   "What do you mean?" Luna asks.   "It means…we'll chase the flames, grab the button, and then run backward," I explain. "We'll be cutting it close, and there's no turning back."   "That does sound like the only way possible…but I don't think Marin and I can do that."   "Which is why we'll repeat what we just did to get you two across. Sitos will run in reverse while you girls run into the left room. He can wait out the button as long as possible before pressing it. Right, Sitos?"   "Right. I will have to do it since you are too tired to continue."   "No, I'm not tired! I've been running longer than you have so it's only fair."   "It's okay, Kai. We understand," Luna says as she pats me on the back. I frown and then sit against the wall before lying on the ground completely. I close my eyes. The girls giggle.   "You're teasing him too much," Marin says.   "Not really."   I get back up as the girls' footsteps fade out. Several seconds later, Sitos comes back. I face the left passage and say, "I'm ready. Let's go."   "Wa-wait just a minute! Let us wait for the next lap."   "What the hell? Who said that I was too tired so he had to take over…?" I shake my head.   "Shut up."   Well, better safe than sorry…   We end up waiting for two laps before getting into our positions. I say, "I'll see ya on the other side."   "Right." I sprint full speed forward as the flames pass by. I stick close to the inner wall to minimize the distance I have to run. I don't slow down at all. As the button is in sight, I switch to moving straight toward it. I turn my body 90-degrees as I approach it. My hand collides with at full speed, and then I turn 90-degrees in the same direction while running back where I came from. My passage opens about a second later. I safely make it into the passage with less than five seconds to spare. The wall closes in the same amount of time. I sigh and then follow the passage down. I rejoin with the others.   "You did it!" Luna exclaims and pats me on the head while smiling.   "What about me?" Sitos asks as he points to himself.   "You did good too. By the way, Hiro already figured out this room."   "He better have…after pulling that," I say as I continue forward into the room. There's a seven feet tall fence that stretches across the middle of the room, connecting to both walls. The ceiling is only about eight feet high on our half of the room, but in the area around the fence, the ceiling is around 15 feet high. There's a vent-like surface in one area in front of the fence and on the wall adjacent to the short ceiling. "Care to explain?"   "Since y'all were too slow to…" I stare at Hiro while imaging that I'm strangling him. He laughs nervously before continuing, "Anyway… There's a stone on the ground here that when you stand on…"   He stands on a stone square in the bottom right corner of this room. The stone stays in even after he steps off. "After about 15 seconds, a burst of air is released from this wall up here."   He runs over and points to the wall adjacent to the short ceiling. "And then there's this stone on the wall over in this corner of the room that releases a burst of air on the ground over there after about five seconds."   He presses a stone button at the bottom left corner of the room. I say, "Sounds simple enough."   "And before you ask… I've tried climbin' the fence already. I got immediately zapped by electricity, and it pushed me away. I think I'm still in the game, though," he explains with a smile on his face.   I wasn't gonna ask… I sigh before saying, "Alright. Since you're the fastest runner here, you'll be the person that clears the fence last."   We carefully time the buttons and launch over Luna, Marin, Sitos, and myself in that order. Now, Hiro has to make it over by himself.   This was a mistake… I skeptically raise one corner of my lips as Hiro fails miserably. He simply runs to the button on the bottom right and then immediately sprints to the other corner. After making his way to the vent on the ground, a draft of air blows him upward, but the other draft of air doesn't come, and then he falls down.   "Ow!" he interjects as he falls for the eighth time.   "Let's bet on how many more falls it takes until Hiro breaks his legs. I'll go with three," I say.   "I will go with two. I think I heard a crack that time," Sitos says.   "Hey, that's not funny! My legs are really gonna break at this rate!"   "Hey, Luna… Maybe you can use your magic…to help him across?" Marin asks.   "Oh, that's a good idea, Marin! Okay, Hiro just try one more time!"   Oh, there was that option…   "Ugh…my legs…" Hiro mutters as he gets up. He presses the buttons in the same order before standing on the vent. A draft of air blows him up like before, only this time, a gust of wind propels him forward as he reaches the peak of height. "Ahhh!"   He's traveling across faster than we were. His feet touches the ground and then he rolls a long distance forward. He's lying flat on his back.   "Operation Launch Hiro Over, success!" Luna exclaims. I give him a look of pity and shake my head.   "Alright, moving on," I say as I walk over Hiro's lifeless body.   "Hey! Don't leave me!" Hiro exclaims. I stop walking and briefly glance at him.   "Oh, you're still alive. That's good. Let's go," I say and then continue forward. We come across a room with two visible buttons on the wall in front of us. There's a sheet of paper taped to the wall above each button.   Press this button to pass for free at the cost of one member. Press this button for a difficult path.   "Well, this is an easy choice," I say.   "Agreed," Sitos agrees.   "I know what y'all are thinkin'… Y'all can sacrifice me to move on," Hiro says. I press the button for the difficult path and then the walls move, revealing a path. "Kai, what're ya doin'?!"   "The goal's to make it to the end with as many players as possible. Of course we're not gonna sacrifice you," I explain.   "Besides, it looks like we get to pass for free," Sitos says as he walks through the path.   "What the hell? Did they mix up the signs?!"   "No… I think it was testing if we were willing to sacrifice a member," I say as I follow Sitos. "It probably would've given us a hard path on the other route."   Eventually, we come to a room with six different narrow paths widely spaced apart. Before looking at the piece of paper on the wall, I look into the third path, noticing that it's a dead end.   The path will only open if only one player stands inside. After the path is opened, it is closed from behind. The two on the left are speed trials. The two in the middle are dexterity trials. The two on the right are finesse trials.   "I have a bad feeling about this one…" Sitos says.   "I'll take the one on the left!" Hiro exclaims.   Oh, god… Now it's up to luck. I take the path next to his. The walls resound as they move around on Hiro's side. The wall behind me closes and then tiles move below me. I fall about eight feet down. The path is still narrow with the same width as a door. I go in. There several different ways to go. I pick the one on the right and then the path branches again. Is this a maze?   I pick an arbitrary direction and then come across a dead end. I run back, go in another path, find a button on the wall, and then press it. Something resounds in the distance, but I stay put. 20 seconds later, the same sound resounds in the distance as the button resets itself. I sigh. Here goes nothing…   I press the button and then run back where I came from. I try going on the straight path from the starting point instead of the right turn. It branches out again, but I don't pick any direction. Ten seconds later, something resounds on my right. So it's that way…   I return to the button, press it, and then follow the same path. This time I continue onward where I heard the sound from before. I run through and then find a straight path with six different ways to go this time. A moment later, something resounds behind me. I turn around. The path is closed, but I find a button nearby. I press it. The path opens up again. Should I check what was in the path I didn't explore…?   I refrain and continue onward. It takes a while, but I start checking every path starting with the first one on the left. It branches out into two different paths, and I pick the one on the left. Something clicks under my feet as I run. A flaming ball of fire approaches me when I turn around to check. I point my right elbow in front of me.   "Fireball!"   My magic overpowers the one approaching me, but it loses its shape and disappears into the air before hitting the wall in the distance. I sigh. Now there're traps in addition to this maze? What a pain.   I move on while exercising a little more caution in where I'm going. I set off some traps anyway, but I utilize every possible maneuver to avoid getting hit. I go through five different paths of the six in the beginning and find nothing. I sigh as I go into the last path on the right side. At the end, I find a button on the wall. Finally…   I press it and then run all the way back to the beginning, hoping that it opens the path there. Of course it wouldn't be that easy…   I stand there while smiling. 15 seconds later, something resounds in one of the left branches. "Ugh!"   I run back to the button while gritting my teeth. I press the button and then run back. I pick an arbitrary left path to go in, and lady luck finally shines upon me. There's a path open that wasn't open before. I run across. The wall closes behind me five seconds later. I… I did it! Running in these narrow, short paths isn't easy… I wonder if everyone else has to go through this too.   I follow the path ahead of me and then find a large room. There are five other paths that lead to this room. The one I came through is the second one from the right. There's no one else here yet. I sigh and sit against the wall. How much longer's this course…? I think it's been over an hour now.   "I made it…" Marin comes out the path next to mine. She's panting.   "Oh, good work. Did you have a maze too?"   "Oh, Kai… Maze…? Kind of…but there were…a lot of buttons…like…"   "Ah, you don't have to explain." Sitos comes out from the other end of the room and then falls on his knees. He has an arrow lodged in his left shoulder. I stand up and then run to him. "Sitos!"   "I am fine. I can handle this much," Sitos says as he stands up. Some blood drips from a few cuts on his face and arms.   "God, what was in your trial…?" I ask.   "Arrows flying everywhere, spiked balls swinging like a pendulum, rotating blades—"   "Stop! I don't need to hear any more. Now we're just waiting for Hiro and Luna."   "Luna will be fine, but Hiro…"   "It's over!" Luna exclaims with her arms stretched above her head. "Oh, you guys made it too!"   Luna runs over to us and says, "Oh, Sitos. You're injured. Are you gonna be okay?"   "Yes, I am fine."   "Okay then. Where's Hiro?"   "He hasn't finished his trial yet. Maybe I should help him out because I'm the only one here who completed the same trial."   "We should ditch him. We do not know if he is eliminated or not. It will not be much longer until the referees decide to eliminate me from the game."   "That's true…" I say as I walk further into the course. An uneasy feeling creeps inside me for some reason. I stop and then turn back. "I think I'm gonna go after all! I'll be quick!"   "Wait, Kai!" Sitos exclaims. I ignore him and run into the first path from the right. I find a button that opens up the path inside the maze.   "Hiro! Where're you?!" I yell as I run in random directions, finding that it's a different maze.   "Kai! I'm over here!" Hiro exclaims from the left. I run over there and then find two different paths.   "Hiro!"   "Kai!" I knit my eyebrows. For a moment, I think his voice is coming from somewhere different than a few seconds ago. I shake my head and simply follow his voice.   I knit my eyebrows when I think I hear the direction of his voice from somewhere else. I shake my head and simply follow his voice. "Hiro!"   "Kai!"   Is he getting farther away…? I stop moving and say, "Hiro, stop moving so I can find you! You're going the wrong way!"   "Kai! I found the exit! It's over here!" I knit my eyebrows.   What…? I make several turns following his voice. I find myself in a square-shaped room. I go in, but Hiro isn't here. Where the hell's this place…?   The room isn't the room where we started, and this is clearly not the exit."Hiro! Where're you?!"   There is only silence. That's strange… I know I heard Hiro's voice in this direction…   Suddenly, the walls close behind where I came from. What the hell?!   Several possibilities run through my mind. The most probable one is that the referees made a mistake somewhere and left an empty room here. "Hey! Hello?! Is there a mistake here?"   There is no response. I frown and walk around the room. Something below my feet clicks. Oh, shit.   A flaming ball of fire appears in front of me. It looks bigger than the ones I previously encountered in this game. I point my right elbow in front of me. "Fireball!"   My magic collides with the approaching ball of fire. I expect it to break through easily, but instead, the trap swallows up my fireball and heads toward me. What?!   "Ahh!" I scream as the flaming ball of fire ignites my upper body on fire. I drop to the ground and then roll back and forth as fast as I can across the room, not caring if more traps are set off. Eventually, the flames die out. I pant as I grimace from the pain. I lift up my head with my eyes focusing on my body. The leather garments and my shirt are completely burnt up. My skin looks pink and raw in some places. I lightly brush over some pink skin, resulting in pain radiating from that spot. I rest my head on the ground. Sitos and the others are gonna be disappointed when they see me like this…   Suddenly, another flaming ball of fire appears on the other side of the room. It flies toward me. What?! I didn't set any traps off!   I quickly roll out of the way. I accidentally put weight on my tender spots, feeling pain radiating everywhere. "SHIT!"   I quickly get up on my feet. "Hey! Help! I give up! Please, help!"   There's only silence again. My eyes get slightly watery. I gulp. That fireball's no joke… It must be made outta Rich Mana…   I start preparing my Mana to prepare a stronger version of my fireball, but there's no time. Another flaming ball of fire appears that launches straight at me as if it knows where I am. I dodge it without a problem. Something resounds behind me. A path is opened. fDid someone hear me?   I walk into the passage that opened up. It is a narrow corridor that goes in one straight direction. Suddenly, the walls close in on me from behind me and in front. I'm completely trapped. I pound on a nearby wall and yell, "Hey! What the hell's going on?!"   There is no answer again. Something horrifying appears in my mind. I gulp. What am I gonna do if more traps are set off…?   My heart stops for a moment as the same flaming ball of fire appears from the other side of the hallway. I grit my teeth as my heart pounds rapidly. Shit! I only have one option now!   I gather my Mana and then quickly bond my Fire affinity to it as I point my right palm forward. I shoot it immediately forward. It doesn't have a shape, but it easily disperses the flaming ball of fire. My magic shoots all the way to the end and then scatters on the wall. It leaves behind a very dark mark on it. I use this time to prepare more careful instructions with my Mana. About 15 seconds later, another flaming ball of fire comes at me.   "Fireball!" I exclaim as I point my right palm in front of me. My usual shaped ball of fire comes out but bonded with my Mana. It overpowers the approaching fireball and then explodes into nothing on the other side of the wall. The dark mark now covers the center chunk of the opposing wall. I sigh. I need to find a way out of here before I run outta Mana…   I put my hands along the walls, feeling everywhere for any hidden buttons. There's more Fire magic coming out from the opposing wall. I point my right palm forward. Alright, I'll…   I gape. The Fire magic coming out is no longer a flaming ball of fire, but a stream of fire that's steadily getting closer to me. It covers the entire height of the hallway. "Fireball!"   I use my magic anyway. It swallows up the middle of the stream of fire and then explodes on the wall, but afterward, the stream of fire comes out from the wall and then continues where it left off. Shit, shit, shit, shit!   At this rate, I figure it will reach me in less than 30 seconds. My mind races. 15 seconds pass. There's only one thing I haven't tried that might work…   I put my right palm in front of me and crouch down. Please let this be a wall that stops the fire!   "Gate!" A dark-purple gooey thing appears in front of me that covers the entire width of the hallway from the ground up in the form of a vertical rectangle. I can stay in this position and stay safe from the incoming stream of fire. The fire approaches and goes through the gooey thing like it isn't even there. Some of the heat reaches me, and then I leap back. My back is against the wall. I will be miserably burned to death in just a few seconds. I squeeze my eyes shut. My heart feels like it's about to explode. Shit! Please work!   "Gate!" I exclaim but then realize something. I didn't point my palm toward the incoming fire. I grit my teeth. I'm dead!   I squeeze myself in fetal position despite the pain. I open my eyes as the heat is only radiating above my head. I look up, finding something unbelievable. The second dark-purple gooey thing I created is at a 45-degree angle. The stream of fire doesn't go through either of the gooey things I made, but some still go through near the top of the hallway where my purple thing doesn't cover. I crawl forward a little to get a better view.   Suddenly, the stream of fire starts to shrivel back into the other direction. I widen my eyes as it retracts behind the second purple thing, leaving only some flames leaving the purple thing at a 45-degree angle. I raise my eyebrows and then look at the first purple thing. The stream of fire pulls back from the front of it. I turn back to the second gooey thing. No fire comes out of it. Holy…shit…   I stay on the ground as I stare blankly at the wall. I feel the urge to start reading the book Emdos gave me again. I look forward as something resounds. The exit is revealed at the end of the corridor. Is it…over…?   I get up slowly and then walk forward, stopping an inch in front of the first purple thing I made. I wonder how this works…   I gulp before lifting a leg across, but it feels like there isn't a ground there at all even if I go lower than where my other foot stands. I cock an eyebrow as I retract my leg back. I creep closer to the gooey thing without going past it. I move my leg across in the air as if I'm going to take a step. I bend my body and head over to the other side. My leg is there, and then I walk across normally.   I turn back around to inspect it again. I look over it with my head and put my hand through it near the top. My hand doesn't appear from the other side, but instead, it appears near the top of the second gooey thing in front of me. My hand is inverted. I slide my hand out by moving it upward. My hand disappears instantaneously from the second purple thing while my hand suddenly becomes visible past the first purple thing. I slide my hand back where it was, but it doesn't appear back in the second purple thing.   Next, I stick my entire head through the purple thing in front of me. I look up, and the exit is in sight. I raise my arms up in the air. My arms are above the first purple thing in front of me. I move my arm down and slide it into the first purple thing as I tried with my hand a moment ago. Suddenly, my view changes, and I fall on the ground. The first purple thing divides my body in two, but it feels like it isn't even there. What the hell…?   By the time I stand up, the two purple things fade into nothing. I knit my eyebrows for several seconds and then relax them. I raise my eyebrows as I remember I'm still playing a tournament. I hurry and run to the exit. I come across a room with the six exits where I was earlier. The stone wall closes behind me. I sigh. What the hell are the referees doing? How the hell was anyone supposed to have survived that?!   I slowly make my way to the next room. It's an empty room with a random hole on the left side. I assume that the others have already solved the room, and I move forward. Eventually, voices are audible in the distance. The exit!   "I think I see Kai!" Hiro exclaims. "Hey—what the hell?!"   "Kai!" Luna exclaims.   "Kai, what the fuck happened to you?!" Sitos exclaims. My team rushes over, Drugo included.   "I do-don't know… I was looking for Hiro and followed his voice and I found this huge room where these traps flung fireballs of Rich Mana class at me and then I was in this narrow hallway and the same thing happened and I was completely trapped when a stream of fire slowly filled up the room and…" I say quickly but stop. Luna grabs my hand and then lifts my arm up. Hina's standing near me.   "And…what?" Hina asks. "How did you survive when a stream of fire filled up the room?"   She laughs and then exclaims, "If Kai's out, that means we win!"   "Damn it, Kai! It's all your fault! We woulda won if ya didn't get lost and ran into a bunch of traps!" Hiro exclaims.   "Shit… If only you listened to me and did not run back for Hiro. He found his way out only a minute after you left," Sitos says. All of his injuries are healed, the arrow no longer lodged in his arm.   "No! But I was following Hiro's voice the entire time!"   "What? I don't know what you're talkin' 'bout. Ya moved farther and farther away from me. I heard your voice. Then ya suddenly stopped respondin'. Didja hit your head somewhere and pass out? Maybe ya dreamed up everythin'," Hiro says.   "What?! No!"   "Do not be a sore loser, Kai. Stop making up a fake story because you fucked up," Sitos says.   "Hey! Why haven't you announced us as the winner yet?" Hina asks. I find Moria standing with the other referees.   "Oh, yes, sorry about that. I was trying to figure out what happened to the five referees I assigned to this round. But I think that misunderstanding has mostly cleared up," Moria explains as he walks closer to us. "Oh, Kai! What happened to you? Those injuries look serious… Hmm… This is troublesome… Why did you not stop Kai?"   He turns to a referee behind him. He's the one that looks familiar to me. Calmly, he explains, "I lost track of him when he went into the maze to look for his friend. By the time I found him again, he was already in those injuries you see now. Since the exit was right there, I went ahead and came back."   "Hmm…" Moria interjects.   "Hey, why're ya actin' all suspicious of us?" Gudar asks. "We're simply emergency stand-ins like we told ya! We didn't have much time ta know the ins and outs of this damn place!"   "No, I am not suspicious of you, but I am wondering why those five did not come to me. There were plenty of other referees on standby."   "We dunno anythin' 'bout that. Those five came ta our boss here, and he brought us four along with him."   "I see. I will just have to ask those five if I see one of them again. Well, with that, team two is the winner!"   I filter out the cheering of the other team as I gulp. I think back to what happened to me. A dream…? No…that was definitely real…   "Don't feel too bad, Kai. You should get your injuries treated," Luna says as she lets go of my hand.   "Ri-right…" I hesitantly walk toward the referees.   "Wait!" Moria shouts and walks toward Hina's team.   "What?"   "Hina, turn around for a moment." Moria examines her back for several seconds.   "What's wrong, Teacher Moria?"   He sighs and then says, "I am afraid I am going to have to take back what I said. Your leather garments have run out of power. That means that your team only has three surviving members while team three has four surviving members. Team three is the winner!"   "What?! I never… That's impossible!" Hina exclaims.   Her boyfriend exclaims, "Yeah! We were with her the whole…"   Moria turns to the referees again. Gudar says, "Don't look at us. We tried our best."   Moria sighs again. "Before I take back what I said again, I will need to examine all of you."   With that, Moria examines the back of all the surviving players. He doesn't find any errors with any other surviving player. "It looks like team three is the real winner."   My team cheers, but I feel uneasy. Someone puts a hand on my shoulder. It's Luna. "Isn't that great, Kai?"   "Ye-yeah…" I look toward the referees again. Gudar is smiling.   "You should get treated. I think his name's Vulwin. He's the one standing on the left," Luna says while pointing to him.   "Huh? Okay…" I walk toward him. The voices around me ring in my ears.   "I'll get you fixed up." He waves his hands around my upper body while releasing Rich Mana from his hands. The Mana turns into a faint green glow around my body. It feels soothing. "All done. You're good to go."   I feel myself all over. There's no more pain. I head back to my team. Hiro is hopping from one leg to the other in front of Hina. "Hina! How's it feel to lose to me? Huh, Hina? Hina, Hina!"   "Sh-shut up!" Hina shouts and then walks away with her head down. I find that she's frowning as she looks back up, making eye contact with me. "Come here for a second."   She invites me over with her hand. I go to her and ask, "What?"   "Isn't there somethin' suspicious going on with those referees? Maybe you'll understand because no one believes you either. I swear… I didn't get hit by anything," she whispers.   "They are a little suspicious, but I don't see any motive," I whisper.   "Yeah but… I trust in myself. You do too, right?" I think back to the horrifying moments where I thought I would die and then shiver.   I gulp before saying, "Yeah… What're you thinking?"   "Nothin' right now… I'll keep my eyes peeled out for them and ask some people."   "Alright, I'll do the same."   "Good job on the win. It was a good fight," she says in a normal voice. She holds a hand out and smiles.   "Thanks," I say as I shake her hand and then go our separate ways. I guess she can kinda be cute too…   I shake my head. No, no, no….   "What were you two talking about?" Luna asks. I freeze up.   "Uh, you know… Normal things… We made amends."   "That's good! Fighting's bad."   "Oh, here are the keys to your new room. It's room 1C," Moria informs as he hands me the key. "Congratulations on your win. Your new weapons should be arriving there shortly.   Later, we go back to our room to move our baggage over. I open my closet, locate my backpack, and then open it. I find the book inside. It's been over two years since I opened this… I really wanna read more of this as soon as I—   The door to my room bursts open. Hiro shouts, "Hey, Kai!"   I hurry and put the book back inside my backpack. "What're ya doin' crouched down there?"   I zip it up and then stand up while putting on the backpack. "Nothing, just grabbing my things."   "Ya can do that later! Ya have the key to our new room! Let's check it out now!"   "Alright, alright," I say as I walk out of my room. I guess I can store this in my new room.   I follow Hiro out our current home, eventually joining with the others. We go down the hallway toward 1C. I take out the key and then open it. I grin. Whoa! Look at that massive couch!   I dive onto it with my entire body. "It's so soft…"   "Kai, really?" Sitos asks. Everyone laughs. Someone closes the door.   "Hey, our new weapons just arrived! Whoa! Check out this new Platinum weapon!" Hiro exclaims as I melt deeper into the couch. Suddenly, a heavy weight falls on top of me. A sweet smell enters my nostrils and something soft presses against my back.   "Don't hog the couch to yourself, Kai!" Luna exclaims.   "O-okay I'll get off—"   Another heavy weight falls on top of me.   "Sitos, you're too heavy for me…" Luna says next to my ear. Her breath blows against my ear. My heart is pounding. The weight suddenly increases in weight two more times.   "This is kinda fun," Drugo says. My face is practically shoved into the couch at this point.   I can't breathe…   "Hey! Why're y'all ignorin' me and leavin' me out! Let me join too!"   "No… Hiro…" Sitos mutters. In my peripheral vision, Hiro spins around his new sledgehammer around his body. He trips. My heart skips a beat.   "Whoa!" Hiro interjects as the head of the hammer approaches my face.   Shit! I can't move! Miraculously, Hiro changes the direction of it. A loud crash resounds near me as it drops to the floor. It sounds like he broke the floor.   "Oops…" Hiro mutters.   What do you mean, oops?! Breaking our floor the moment we walk in!   "Hey, Drugo. Can you get off me?" Marin asks. Hiro's struggling to get his hammer out of the floor. The handle of it is pointed toward the couch.   "Sure, give me a second." It feels like the weight is getting heavier instead. Meanwhile, Hiro's ass is in my face as he continues to pull on his weapon. A crack resounds below me. My mind goes blank as I gulp. The sound of crackling continues at a rapid pace below me.   Oh, shit…   "Ahh!" all of us scream as the floor apparently breaks. We fall into the unknown darkness below us.

We arrive at Neso, the closest village from the border of Xantho to Elbar. The sun has almost completely set, and it'll be getting dark soon; judging from how little light there is and the time of year, I'd say it's about 8:00 p.m.    I approach the town's gates riding the convoy. One of the four guards standing there exclaims, "Halt! What are you doing at this hour? Name your purpose!"   "We're adventurers headed to the capital, Byzia. We need a place to stay for the night."   Two of the guards approach us, one on each side.    "What is in the convoy?"   "Ah, just my companions." They walk to and stand in front of both doors.    "We need to confirm." The guards simultaneously open the doors without warning.   "An Elf…and a girl? The girl doesn't seem to be an adventurer… Who is she?"   Why do guards have to question every little thing…? This process has gotten tedious. It's a good thing I prepared several answers for these kinds of situations. I turn my head around the front left corner of the wagon while still sitting down. "Actually, we received a job at Byzia. We were asked to escort their niece from Elbar to Byzia. We've been traveling a long way, you see, and the girl's exhausted. Can you just let us through so we can rest?"   After a few seconds, one of the guards makes some kind of hand gesture. I quirk an eyebrow, but when I face the front, I realize that he is signaling the two by the gate. The two whisper to each other while making some occasional glances in my direction. The two by the convoy go back to the gate and continue to whisper amongst themselves before knocking on the door in what appears to be some kind of code. They turn around and declare, "You may pass!"   I guess that the gate is probably opened by a switch device located in the town. The gates slowly rise higher; massive, durable gates that are made out of iron, probably weighing several tons. When they stop, I signal the horses to move forward. One of the guards takes out a Klam, a magical device for long-distance communication.    I knit my eyebrows. Is he alerting the town that we arrived? But why…? Hmm… This must have something to do with what's going on in the country… I should try to find out more when I can.   We enter the town which is still bustling with villagers out and about. The land here is lush in cultivated fields and blossoming angiosperms. Up ahead, bright lights illuminate the heart of the village. We arrive there in a few minutes.   While wondering where the local grub is, I point my head towards the nearest villager, who happens to be a young man. "Excuse me, where can I get some food and lodging?"   He stops walking and turns around.    "Oh, are you travelers? I think your best bet would be to go to the local inn. You'll see it at the end of this road. It's the building on the right corner at the intersection," he says as he points in a direction in front of me.   "Ah, thank—"   "Wait!" someone suddenly exclaims from a crowd of villagers in front of the convoy. A man waving his hands appears from the crowd. "The local inn is probably not serving food at this hour and may even be booked for the night. You should head to the tavern instead. It's that building right there."   The man points to an old looking building on the left side of this road. It is just two buildings over from the one we are currently next to.   "What're you talking about? We don't get many…" the first man says but doesn’t finish his sentence. His eyes point to a direction on his left. I don't know what he was staring at, and there's nothing suspicious around us. "Oh! I completely forgot! Normally, we don't get many travelers at all, but it's that time of year again, and we have a lot of travelers stay overnight at Neso!"   He forces an awkward laugh. I skeptically raise one corner of my lips. “Is everything alright, sir? You seem nervous…”   He laughs again, but it sounds forced. “Ahh, the heat stroke probably got to me, and I forgot something as important as that. Actually earlier today, I forgot where I lived and walked into the wrong building. It was really silly of me.”   What the hell? I pretend to laugh merrily alongside him. "Don't worry about it. I'll head to the tavern then."   I smile and bid farewell to the two men. I look around failing to notice anyone that appears to be an outsider other than us. What was that about…? Something's wrong here… Clearly, none of these outsiders he spoke of is outside right now, but they could just be resting at this hour…or he was lying…   I laugh at the thought of someone lying about something so trivial. I signal the horses to go forward. The name of the tavern is "White Bison." Ironically, an image depicting a bison's head painted brown can be seen under the name. The rowdiness of the tavern drowns out the random conversations villagers have as they pass by me. I park the convoy right outside the tavern.   I get off and open the convoy door. It takes ten seconds before Leila even begins moving out of her seat. Her eyes are barely open as she stretches her arms and yawns. Someone's stomach grumbles and Leila blushes soon afterward while covering her stomach with both of her hands.   "Don't worry Leila, I'm really hungry too… Kai, can we eat yet?" Irene asks quietly as she exits the convoy. Both of them barely have their eyes open in a slouched position with their arms hanging lifelessly under them. It doesn't appear they rested well in the slightest.   "Yeah, we're here. We can eat and lodge at this place, according to the villagers," I answer as I walk towards the entrance, but stop when suddenly a heavy weight falls on my shoulders. I frown and turn my head around, finding Leila holding onto me.   "I'm tired… Carry me there Kai," she demands as she has her arms around my neck.   "What do I look like, your mule?" I stare at her puppy dog face inches away from my face for a few seconds, gradually feeling guiltier as time passes. I sigh loudly and sweep her off the ground with one arm while supporting her upper body with the other. She keeps her arms wrapped around my neck as she rests her head against my arm all while closing her eyes. My eyes meet with Irene's as she smiles and giggles. Damn, why do I have to do this so she can sleep for just a minute longer…?    I reluctantly walk to the entrance of the building and stop when I realize I can’t even open the door now. I open my mouth about to ask Irene to handle this matter, but I want to avoid waking Leila up. Instead, I turn around and gesture my head towards the door. Irene looks at me while frowning and cocking an eyebrow, but moments later a smile emerges from her face as she seemingly understands the situation. She walks forward and lifts her hand. I bitterly frown at her when she pats me on the head while her smile melts into a grin. I can almost feel my eyes popping out when I gesture my head towards the door again with narrowed lips. She giggles and opens the door soon after.   Don’t mess with me… I follow her while still bitterly frowning. Before I cross over to the other side, I ponder whether or not I should wake her up by "accidentally" hitting her head against the door hinge, but I refrain. My eyes focus on her face, lingering on her partially parted lips. I smile as I think back to a sweet memory.   A bell rings as I enter the tavern. There's a staircase directly in front of me along with a large room toward our left side. A young waitress greets us, "Welcome to the White Bison!"   She's shorter than me wearing a revealing black and white apron dress, black stockings, heels, and a white hair band. "How many…"   She cuts herself short and looks at me with a forced smile. The tavern suddenly becomes quiet. I blush, feeling like everyone's eyes are glued on me. "Yeah, that'll be three…and we also need a few rooms for the night. Actually, if you're too busy just one room is fine."   "Sure, come right this way," she says as she leads us into the large room. As we follow her, the rowdiness resumes, and she seats us to a round, empty table. I look around. The place is packed. I wonder if we'll be able to find a room here. "I'll have to talk to my boss about those rooms… Decide on what you want to order in the meantime."   She leaves the menu on the table and leaves.    "Hey, wake up," I say as I fold Leila's body into a sitting position on top of a wooden chair at our table.    She yawns again, stretches her arms, and rubs her eyes before declaring, "Alright, I'm wide awake now!"   I shake my head in disbelief as I take a seat next to her. "How can that be possible? You only got two extra minutes at most."   She smiles as she straightens her posture. "Elves are special, you know."   I shrug my shoulder as I shake my head and sigh. I don’t wanna argue with this woman anymore…   "Are you two lovers?" Irene suddenly asks, taking me several seconds to process in my head.    My head becomes stiff in the current position and heat radiates out from my cheeks. I turn my head slowly like a robot toward Leila. I wonder what she thinks…?   "O-of course not! Who would be in love with this shameless pig?" Leila answers in a harsh voice as she crosses her arms all while looking away from me. I don't know why, but I feel slightly disappointed, and I sigh.   "Yeah, we're not like that. We're just partners; that's all," I say with a forced smile.   "I see… Okay, I understand now!" Irene exclaims, smiling back, but I feel she's misunderstanding something here. I'm a little hungry here, myself, so I don't think much of it.   I grab the menu and glance through it. Hmm… bison, bison, bison… Oh, they have bison soup… I guess I'll get that. I glance over to Irene. "Irene, have you decided on what you wanna eat?"   "Yes, I think I'll have the bison burger. What about you, Leila?"   She doesn't respond even after several seconds have passed. I turn my head toward Leila. She's frowning while looking down on the table. What's up with her now…?   I put my hand on her shoulder. "Leila?"   "Oh right, uhh… I'll get bison fried rice," she finally answers.    An awkward silence follows, but luckily the waitress comes back to our table. "You three, you're in luck, my boss tells me that there are three single rooms available, one silver coin per room."   I smile and respond, "Ah, we only need two rooms. I'll be together with that beautiful young miss over there, and the other room can go to my com…"   I stop mid-sentence when I feel a strong force stepping on my left foot. I turn my head towards Leila, who has become lively again. She smiles as she glares at me. "Actually, he will be by himself, and us two will be together…"   “Well, if you’re sharing, it costs a little more…”   Leila takes out her pouch of coins and then hands three silver coins to the waitress. “This should be sufficient. I do not need change.”   “Yes, thank you very much!” she exclaims.   We also give our orders to her, and as she walks away, I ask, "Wait, can you also get me some beer?"   "Then… I will also have some wine as well!" Leila calls out to her after me.   "Sure, I'll be right back." I check out her entire back frame as she walks away. I start at her head and slowly go down, gluing my eyes on the back of her thigh where her skirt ends. I flare my nostrils and smile while hugging the air in front of me and getting lost in my fantasies. They end prematurely when the force on top of my left foot suddenly increases, and I reset my facial expressions.   "That hurts, you know."   "Huh? Oh, that was your foot? I didn’t know, sorry," she claims, eventually taking her foot off.    My lip twitches as I smile bitterly. "Is that so…?" What's with her lately…? I don’t understand her these days.   When there’s silence again, I clear my throat and turn my head towards Irene. "So Irene, can you tell us a little more of what you know about your father?"   "I don't remember that much…"   "It's okay, just try your best and tell us what you remember." Irene closes her eyes; I presume that she's recollecting her thoughts.   "I first met him ten years ago in my hometown, Maera. A man I didn't know came, and my mother told me it was my daddy… He lived with us for a few days, and he was really nice, I liked him. It was sad to see him leave, but he visited me once a month. When I turned 13, he stopped coming all of a sudden. My mother didn't know anything about it… He suddenly appeared again last year, but I don't remember much of that day… I recall my mom arguing with him, but other than that I can't remember. After that day, he never came back."   "I see… Do you think your father's a bad man…?"   "No! Not at all, he's a good person, like you Kai! I love him…" she says in a raised voice as she stands up, but sits back down shortly afterward, in low spirits. "When mister Dae came to get me, he told me that Daddy was in trouble… I wanted to go and help him, but my mother was strongly against it for some reason... I decided to go with him out of my own will."   Everything she said so far doesn't indicate anything too far off from the information I had… A rebellion would definitely indicate that the king is in trouble, but why would the people rebel against a good king? Irene seems to be excellent at judging people, but what if she… No, I can't doubt her, or I would doubt myself.   A large, bulky man sitting at another table stands up and walks toward us. While standing directly behind Leila, he says, "Hey you, the Elf."   Leila turns half her body around and faces him with her head before responding in an irritated voice, "What?"   "You're the first Elf I have ever seen… A very cute one at that." He explicitly licks his lips before continuing, "How 'bout you ditch that scrawny guy next to you and join me for some drinks, and have some fun with me later. Local women call me 'Quick-fingered Horith.'"   How lame…   Leila points her eyebrows downward as she frowns. "All of you Human males are the same, are you not?"   Hey… Don't compare me to that guy…   "How about you take that sword and shove it up your ass?"   Horith frowns as he narrows his eyebrows and draws his sword. "What the fuck did you say to me, you bitch?!"   Is it finally time to knock this guy out…? I sigh, but before I get a chance to stand up, someone else intervenes. He puts a knife to Horith's throat.   "Sheathe your weapon and you won't get hurt."   "Who the hell?!"   He puts the knife closer to his throat, cutting him slightly. Horith sheathes his weapon. "Okay, okay! I give up!"   Horith backs away, revealing a young male Elf behind him.    "Get out of here." Horith clumsily picks up his weapon and runs out the entrance. "Sorry about that, my name is Tariel, I work here as a bodyguard. It's rare to see another Elf here, may I sit?"   Before receiving an answer, he smiles as he sits down next to Leila. "What's your name, miss?"   "Leila."   "Don't you find it hard to be surrounded by only Humans? I'll join you for your meal."   As Leila converses with Tariel, I notice several men whispering to each other behind the bar. I try not to make eye contact with them while still focusing on what they’re doing.   Strange… Why's it seem like we're being watched here…? Even those villagers said that having travelers during this time of year is normal. Horith didn't even seem to put up a fight. I've seen his type before and they usually never go down quietly like just now…   "Order up!" While I’m lost in deep thought, our waitress arrives with our meals. She takes the plates on the cart she previously rolled over and puts them on our table along with our drinks. There seems to be one extra meal and drink. "Well, since we're closing soon, and we won't be serving anymore… I'll be joining you guys!"   What the hell is with this tavern? I cock an eyebrow as she passes me. Her hand lightly brushes the back of my neck, and she sits down in the seat next to me. She stares into my eyes as a suggestive smile appears on her face. My suspicion breaks its limit, and before everyone digs into their food, I stand up. "Leila, can you check with your magic if our meals and drinks are spiked?"   "What on earth are you talking about? This is crazy… We wouldn't poison our guests," the waitress rebuts, but Leila nods. She closes her eyes as she envelops her Mana around the table. The waitress fidgets with droplets of sweat appearing on her forehead. Everyone is stiff and silent while Leila checks the food. Was I right, after all?   I put my hand on my sword while preparing to draw it at any moment. Leila opens her eyes before informing, "There is nothing."   Everyone drops their shoulders and sighs.   "See, there's nothing wrong, now enjoy your meal!" the waitress exclaims as she pats me on the back.   I guess it was just my imagination… I sigh and finally relax my muscles. Wait… Does this waitress have the hots for me?   I watch her enjoying a bison soup next to me. She catches notice and smiles back while lightly bumping into my foot with hers. I smile lewdly as I play out more fantasies in my head. For now, I pick up the spoon and devour the soup in front of me. Time passes, and I end up slightly drunk from the beer.    Irene doses off on the other side of the table. I think about calling out to her, but something is rubbing my right thigh. I turn my head toward the waitress and get pulled into her penetrating smile. With a smile, I rest my hand on top of hers.   My eyes wander, eventually stopping on her glass of wine. I turn back to her and gesture my head and eyes toward the glass. She seems to understand immediately unlike someone I know and picks up the glass chugging it in one go. I cheer and clap my hands as she chugs. She slams the glass loudly on the table. Soon after, I hear another slam on the table. Leila also just finished her drink with her eyelids twitching for some reason. I face forward again when I hear the sound of a chair move.   "Leila, Kai, I think I'm going to rest now… Where's our room?" Irene asks with little energy and yawns.   "Oh, that's right I never gave you guys the keys! This one is for the first room on the right at the top of the stairs," the waitress informs and hands Irene a key.   "Leila, are you not coming?"   "I'll come soon, I still haven't finished eating. Go on without me." Irene waves and walks up the stairs.   "Hey~" The waitress suddenly slides her hand up my arm while bending forward. Her breasts are nearly bulging out of the dress. I blush and gulp as my eyes stare at her cleavage.   "What?"   "You have something on your cheek…"   "I don't have—" Her warm tongue touches my cheek, causing me to lean backward. A chair falls making a loud noise beside me.   "Wh-what are you doing, you shameless waitress?!" Leila demands while pointing at the waitress.    The waitress blushes as she puts a hand to her cheek all while tilting her head sideways. "Well, I couldn't help but overhear…you guys aren't lovers, right? So I've taken an interest in him instead!"   Leila's lips only shake, and no words come out. I snicker and exclaim, "That's right you said it yourself! I'm nothing more than a shameless pig! So, we will make the perfect match together!"   I feel my beast within me take over my brain completely, and I stand up grinning while holding onto the waitress’ hand.    "And so, I'll call it a night here. See ya in the morning!" I finish the sentence in a hurry as I drag along the waitress towards the staircase. Leila curses at me, but it sounds like her companion will keep her occupied. I frown. I’m gonna get an earful later…but…this is for the best, since Elves and Humans are not compatible… She said it herself.   We head up the staircase, and I stop at the top. I stare at the room towards the right for a moment, wondering if Irene has fallen asleep yet.   "Come on, let's go!" As the waitress pulls me towards the room we are going to stay in, a smile surfaces on my face again. She takes a key out and moves it towards the door, but I take the key from her. She cocks an eyebrow.   “Today, I’m the key, and you’re the lock,” I say as I insert the key into the door unlocking it. Her smile shakes as I open the door. I let her go in first as I have my hand on her back, then I close the door behind me. I hug her from behind, eventually sliding one hand up her inner thigh while grabbing one of her breasts with my other as my rod presses against her bottom. She lets out a small squeal as she breaks free from my grasp. I quirk an eyebrow before asking, "What's wrong…?"   "Oh, nothing… Umm… Let's save that for when we're in the bed…"   "Okay… Then…" I take both of my scabbards and then drop them on the ground. I quickly take off my armor and the shirt under it. She blushes and looks away. Intending to undress her, I touch her again, but she stops me.    "Oh, I can do that myself! So ca-can you turn around…? I don't wa-want you to see me undress…"   So cute! I smile before exclaiming, "Okay, but don't make me wait too long!"   I turn around and listen to her undress. First, her heels drop to the ground. Next, something unzips, presumably her apron dress. It falls to the floor. I can't help but flare my nostrils in anticipation and gulp. Her footsteps slowly approach me. I turn around while spreading out my arms wide in front of me. Huh?   She has undressed, but her bra and underwear remain. There's something in her hand that's rapidly approaching my face; a dagger. By reflex, I grab and squeeze her right wrist. She lets out a small sound as she loosens her grip on the dagger. I take the dagger with my other hand. I grin before saying, "Aha… I understand now, so you like it rough, right?"   She cocks an eyebrow seeming to be genuinely confused, but that doesn't faze me. I throw her onto the bed and pin both of her arms down with one hand. "Don't scream or else." She's a strange one… Is she really into this kinda role play?   She stares into my eyes as she nods her head while frowning, but she stops resisting at the same time. I gasp while I use my other hand to cut her bra down the middle using the dagger. I open my eyes wide as my heart beats quicker progressively. I toss the dagger out of the way and slowly slide my hand down her stomach when suddenly the door bursts open.    "Kai!" Leila's standing at the entrance with her jaws dropped. A cold chill goes down my spine. I crack a smile, but I feel her murderous intent, practically pouring out of her body. "Kai..."   She raises and clenches her fist as she frowns all while slowly walking towards me.    Oh shit, this time she's gonna kill me for real! Before I die, I'll… I slowly slide my hand, further down her stomach. I hear my heart pounding like crazy. Despite how close I am to the goal, I stop when I realize Leila's murderous intent disappears.    "Kai, there're more important things to do right now! Irene's gone!" Leila exclaims with an alarmed face. I regain my senses and reset my facial expressions as I take my hands off the waitress.   "What did you say?"

I knit my eyebrows, thinking what about what they said. We walk in silence for several seconds as their conversation dies out behind us.   "Umm… What'd they say…?" Hiro asks.   "They said team two beat team fourteen in two games," Drugo answers. "Weren't you listening, Hiroster?"   "That's what I thought! Nice! We don't hafta fight team fourteen!" Hiro exclaims. "So we're fightin' team two... Do we know anyone from that team?"   "You should remember one person in particular, Hiro," I answer, remembering when Hiro was in awe during the second phase of the preliminaries.   Hiro closes his eyes and interjects, “Hmm…"   I sigh and then ask, "Don't you remember the girl who won using only Water magic?"   "Oh yeh… There was someone like that… What was her name again?" Hiro asks.   "Hina. Her name was Hina," I answer, letting more air out than necessary on the ending of her name. I still can't pinpoint where I first heard her name. "You don't sound that worried, considering how frantic you were a moment ago."   "Why would I be? We don't hafta fight the opponents who woulda been our greatest challenge," Hiro says.   I sigh and then look toward Drugo. "Drugo, you take over."   After a few seconds, Drugo asks, "Hiroster, in a match between two equally skilled warriors, wittiness can be the determining factor of who wins, right?"   "Yeh," Hiro nods.   "Hiroster, why'd we win against the opponents we fought just now?" Drugo asks, but Hiro doesn't react at all. He continues to walk forward with his eyes pointing up.   "Oh!" he interjects into my ear. I twist the left side of my face like old times. "What do we do guys?! If they're stronger than those on the other team we saw in the preliminaries… I don't wanna fight 'em."   I sigh and then turn my head toward Drugo with my eyes opened widely. "No one said they were stronger, Hiroster. Remember how we won 'Convoy Escort' with minimal effort? We didn't utilize our magic at all, but we still beat them."   "Oh!" Hiro interjects right into the same ear. It doesn't sting nearly as bad this time because my ear drum was conditioned for it. "This is even worse than I thought! You're saying team two beat team fourteen without usin' any Mana, completely effortlessly?!"   I turn my head toward Drugo again. I display an open mouth with lips curved downward, but he doesn't make eye contact with me this time. Sitos shakes his head with a palm over his face while the girls chuckle.   "Yes, yes…" I say lethargically as I face Hiro. I continue in a monotonic tone, "You're exactly right. We're in deep trouble. I'm not sure what we're gonna do."   Sitos coughs and then says, "I hope everyone else knows where the hell we are going tomorrow."   "I don't.  We should probably find Moria or a referee-looking person," I suggest. We find out later the details of our match tomorrow. We train after eating lunch since we didn't expend a whole lot of energy during our games today.  The evening is spent resting as we retire early for the match in the morning.   We arrive at the front entrance of the Forest a few minutes before the appointed time. Our opponents are already waiting. A girl with blue twin-tails down to her shoulders says, "Well, well. Look who it is, the infamous Kai."   She holds a buckler in her left hand with nothing in her right. She asks, "Are you ready to lose another competition to us?"   I cock an eyebrow.   "Oh, don't tell me you don't remember…the test in our second year. Thanks to a certain someone, we took first place instead," she explains as she glances over to Hiro.   I slowly widen my eyes and mouth as I recall the past. "Lastly, first place, the group who will get these keys to the first large room 1A is…Hina's group with an average score of 98!"   "It looks like you remember," she says with a mischievous smile. "Beating your team will be a cinch. We'll just exploit the weak like we did against our last opponents."   She glances at Hiro. Hiro takes a step back and looks down. Hina smiles smugly. I point my eyebrows downward and exclaim, "You already have a large room! Why do you wanna win so badly for a room you aren't gonna use?"   "It's 'cause of you," the boy holding a mace and a large elliptical shield next to Hina says. "We hated yer carefree attitude in the past two years… Slackin' off, skippin' class, and passin' off the rest of us as inferior. Of course we're not gonna let you win!"   "Darling…" Hina says quietly as she hugs his left arm with her open arm. I relax my facial expressions.   Huh?   "It's not only for the room," she explains as she rests her head against his arm all while looking at me. "Our team's value will increase if we win the tournament… Besides…"   She stops for a moment and then blushes as she presses her face harder into his arm. My heart beats faster. "We agreed that if we won another room…we would use it to establish more privacy between us…"   "Pumpkin…" the boy mutters while wearing a lewd smile. He swings his arm around, bringing Hina toward his chest. I blush and look away as their heads move closer, coincidentally in Luna's direction. She smiles, and I look away again.   "Ahem," one of the referees says. "May I remind you two…that we are still in the middle of a tournament here."   The two lovebirds pull away from each other and then line up in formation again. "The first game you will play is called 'Trophy Hunting.' You may have noticed in the past few days the food supply has disappeared from the Forest. As a result, you were instructed to gather prepared ingredients at the pantry. Our Conjuration specialists have prepared the animals that you will hunt in this game. Throughout the Forest, there are five birds, ten boars, five squirrels, three bears, and a lion. Bears are worth two points, the lion is worth four points and the rest are worth one point."   During his explanation, I glance over to the rest of their team. On the far left, a boy is holding a slingshot. Next to him, is another guy holding only a buckler in his left hand. My eyes roll over to the far right, where a girl is holding a rapier and a buckler. Next to her, stands a larger-built kid wielding a large sword with one hand. I cock an eyebrow as several of them are talking among themselves. "To collect the points, you will use these magical items provided."   He points to a cart nearby. Another referee takes one and then brings it over. It appears to be a thin cylindrical-shaped device with a needle on the bottom side. "These are modeled after Crelos and Crulos, used to convert Mana and Affinities inside monsters into crystals. You will inject these into the animals and press the button after you have killed them. It will take a moment, but a colored crystal will appear on the other side. Blue ones are worth a point, yellow ones are worth two points, and red ones are worth four.   "You may use these pouches to carry any trophies you obtain. The only requirement is that the pouches must be visible if you carry it on your body. We have these clips to help with that. There is space available for you to clip on the trophy collection tool. The winning condition is to accumulate 20 points and deliver it to the referee on the opposite side of your starting position. They will only accept it if you have all 20 points. The referee at this entrance will be wearing red while the referee at the other entrance will be wearing green. You can also win by eliminating everyone on the other team. There is no time limit. Are there—"   "Yes!" Hina exclaims and raises her right hand in the air. "We'd like to start at the other entrance!"    I raise my eyebrows, understanding why her team is so lax. A referee points to a man wearing a green shirt and says, "Very well. After you have put on the leather garments and the items provided for this game, this man will take you there."   We spend the next few minutes putting the usual leather garments located on a cart nearby. We also attach the clips on the leather garments and then attach the pouch and magical tool on opposing sides. Afterward, the referee wearing green walks away. Their team follows him, but not before Hina smirks in my direction.   "Damn, this is bad for us," Sitos says.   "We knew that yesterday!" Hiro exclaims, but I ignore him.   "They've played this game before…" I add.   "We're doomed!"   I sigh and then say, "Stop being so melodramatic, Hiro."   "But ya said it yourself… They've played this game before… So they know how to win! I'm not stupid ya know."   "I'm not saying you're stupid, but this game isn't hard to figure out. As long as we collect at least 11 points, then we can force them to fight us to decide the game. So they can't use any cheap tricks."   "What Kai said! Don't be such a scaredy-cat, Hiro! Toughen up!" Luna exclaims, giving Hiro a few smacks on his upper back.   "Who're ya callin' a scaredy-cat?! I'm not scared! Let's go! I'm ready!" Hiro exclaims as he holds his weapon horizontally above his head.   "Calm down, Hiroster. The game hasn't started yet," Drugo says. We spend the next ten minutes chatting away before a referee talks into something in his hand. I can't see what it is. He approaches us.   "Get ready. The game will start soon." Everyone gets in their positions at the entrance to the Forest. We stand next to the referee wearing a red shirt.   "Begin!" the thing in the referee's hand exclaims. We run into the Forest.   "Do not fuck up the plan. Stay close," Sitos says.   I run off in a different direction as everyone else does too. I make sure Drugo's in my line of vision before moving farther away. There's something moving in the grass ahead of me. I stay put, focusing my attention where there's movement. I send out some Unrefined Mana, preparing to ambush it. Fifteen seconds pass. Crunching noises resound. The creature reveals itself to be a squirrel. I activate my Mana and then a ball of fire emerges. It bursts into flames as it collides with the squirrel.   I run over to the squirrel and then drop a sword on the ground. I grab the magical tool clipped on the bottom left side of my leather garments. I inject it into the middle of the burnt squirrel, press the button near the bottom side of the tool, and then wait. I check around me for enemies. A blue crystal, roughly an inch wide is present in the opening at the top of the magical tool. I loosen up the pouch attached to my waist, slip in the crystal, and then tighten the pouch again.   "Code yellow!" Luna shouts in the distance. I pick up my sword on the ground and then make my way toward Drugo.   "Hey, Drugo. Did you find anything?"   "No, but I heard Hiroster with a boar a moment ago," He responds as we run to meet up with Luna. Along the way, Marin and Hiro rejoin with us.   "Hiro, did you get the crystal from that boar?" I ask.   "Yeh! It was no match for me," Hiro exclaims. We rejoin with Luna and Sitos in the distance ahead of us. There's a brown bear on its hind legs against a tree. One of his paws reaches up to an apple on a branch. The sheer height of the bear right now is around nine feet.   "It is about time you slow asses made it here. Hiro," Sitos says.   "Right!" Hiro swings up his hammer and then lets it rest on his shoulder. He points his right palm forward. Sitos runs toward the bear. "Water ball!"   A sphere of water appears from his palm, heading straight toward the bear. As it collides with the bear, water splashes all over its back dripping down to his hind legs.   "Volt thrust!" Sitos exclaims as he pierces the bear. The bear's roar resounds as the wet parts of its fur sparks electricity. Sitos jumps back with his sword as the bear turns around with a swipe. Sitos jumps back again, removing himself from our crosshair. I point my right elbow toward the bear. It opens its mouth, bearing its fangs at us as it roars again. Marin shoots an arrow straight into one of its eyes before it charges at us. It lets out another cry.   "Fireball!" Luna and I shout at the same time. Slightly different sized balls of fire fly toward the bear, eventually bursting into flames on the bear. It charges at us as it roars again, still covered in flames.   Hiro, Sitos, Drugo, and I run toward the bear. Drugo is in front of us with his shield in front of him. He blocks the bear's charge with his own. Hiro jumps in the air from the side of the bear, slamming down his weapon on its spinal cord. The bear's legs give out. Sitos and I launch a barrage of slashes from opposing sides. The bear twitches its limbs with every strike. Eventually, the bear lies lifeless on the ground with a growing pool of blood forming. I toss away my right sword for now and then grab the magical tool. I inject it on top of the bear and then press the button.   "Good, no one has screwed up yet," Sitos says.   Nice work, guys. Bears are a little tough, but as long as we set up an ambush it won't be hard," Sitos says. "Kai, catch."   Sitos tosses me a blue crystal. Hiro holds a blue crystal in his hand and exclaims, "Yeh, it's probably safest with Kai! Take mine too!"   I smile as I store both of the blue crystals. A piece of wood resounds in the distance behind me. Hiro shouts, "Enemy team!"   I turn around. There's a guy with a slingshot standing on a branch. I pick up my weapon and then move forward in formation with the others. His weapon is already pulled back with a rock ready. He shoots the rock on a straight path toward Hiro. Marin shoots an arrow at the rock, but the arrow is deflected off the rock. I knit my eyebrows as I follow the rock with my eyes. Do they really think Hiro's that weak…? Or…   "I'm not so weak to be taken out by a rock!" Hiro exclaims as he swings his hammer toward the incoming stone. He smashes it easily, but a blinding light appears from the rock.   "Ahh!" several of us interject as we are all probably blinded with shooting pain behind our eyes. I squeeze my eyes shut as I take a step back.   Damn! They have someone with Hybrid magic?! It's gonna be bad if we're attacked now! Something rustles near me. The crystal!   I turn around, following the pool of blood toward the bear. Eventually, my foot hits the bear. I swing my sword randomly in front of me. The rustle resounds again directly in front of me. Another sound resounds after that, but it's farther away. The sounds only resound farther and farther away. About five seconds has passed since I was blinded. I force my eyes open. Pain lingers, my vision is double, and I'm nauseous. I ignore it as I examine the top of the magical tool. There's a yellow crystal inside. I sigh and then store it in my pouch.   "Is everyone okay?" Drugo asks.   "I think so…" Marin answers weakly.   "The roach got away," Sitos says.   "Looks like it," I answer. "Let's move together now that they know where we are. That guy's probably on his way to report back to his team."   "Sounds good. Only go for the one pointers unless you want to lose," Sitos says. We agree with his suggestion and then move in a random direction. Along the way, we end up taking out a boar and a bird, leaving us with seven points in total. Soon after that, we encounter the slingshot guy again. He launches his rock in the air above us where its trajectory would hit no one. I cock an eyebrow, then immediately look away from the rock.   "Don't look at the rock!" I warn immediately.   "Flashbang!" the slingshot guy yells. A bright light shines from behind me. No one screams, so I figure no one was blinded. Two roars resound in the distance. It sounds like the bear from earlier. The light disappears after three seconds. I turn around, finding that the slingshot guy has left.   "Damn, that dude is annoyin'!" Hiro exclaims. "Is he just gonna keep showin' up and doin' that?! The next time he shows up, I'm gonna chase 'im dead!"   "Calm down, Hiroster. We won't need to do that once we obtain four more points. His blinding tactics will suffer the drawbacks when his team's present too," Drugo says.   Roars resound again close to us. No one says a word and simply gets into formation with weapons ready. I gulp. About ten seconds pass, when suddenly, two brown bears appear from a line of bushes in front of us. These bears feel different compared to the bear from before. Their roars sound more ferocious, and their mouths stay open. Saliva from their tongue drips onto the ground. They charge at us at a speed faster than the weakened bear from earlier.   Luna takes the initiative and stands in the path of the two charging bears with her palms up. "Bonfire!"   Numerous flames come out of her palms that approach the ground in front of her. The flames travel in a circular motion, quickly increasing their height up to five feet before disappearing, but new flames are constantly being thrown into the upward spiral. The flames obscure the vision of the approaching bears. A moment later, both of the bears charge right through the flames. Luna stops emitting flames from her palms.   "Lunaster, watch out!" Drugo exclaims as he rushes in front of Luna, blocking one of the bears with his shield in front of him. I focus my attention on the bear still charging at us three on this side. I point my right elbow toward it.   "Fireball!" The bear doesn't dodge and takes the ball of fire head on. It bursts into flames directly in its face, but it doesn't even flinch. I jump back as it attempts to swipe me with its claws. Does it not feel pain?   Hiro's hammer is already in the air.  Bone crackles as his weapon smashes the right side of the bear's head. Blood from the wound dyes its brown fur red as some of it drips down its face. I relax for a moment as I expect the bear to change its focus to Hiro.   Oh shit! I jump backward again in a hurry, barely avoiding a serious injury. I grit my teeth as its claws swipe through my abdomen. It continues to charge at me. What the hell's wrong with this thing?!   I continue to jump backward and dodge. Marin shoots several arrows at the back of the bear, but it doesn't seem to notice them at all. My back is against a tree. I stand still, waiting for the next attack. I jump to the right as it throws back its right paw. It leaves behind a large scratch mark on the tree.   "Heya! Have another one!" Hiro exclaims as he jumps toward the bear's head. He swings his sledgehammer down in the same location he had struck earlier. A louder crackling noise resounds from the bear's head, and blood splashes onto the ground. I smile.   Did that do it? The bear turns its head toward me and stares at me for a brief second before it charges at me again. It seems the bear still doesn't notice Hiro.   "Whoa!" Hiro interjects as the bear pushes him down while it charges at me. Arrows come flying from the right into the gaping wound on the bear's head. The bear slows down and strays from moving in a straight path. It crashes into a tree, and one of its legs give out. I charge at it with the full intention of stabbing it through the wound on its head. I throw my right arm back preparing to finally end its life, when suddenly, it raises its right paw.   Shit! Judging by how fast my attack is compared to the paw, the paw will hit me before my attack. I grit my teeth as I prepare to take the blow.   "Kai!" Marin shouts. A moment later, an arrow flies past my face that pushes its right paw away from me. I stab through its brain with my right blade. The bear stops moving.   "Marin, you saved me," I say with a smile as she runs up to me a second later.   "I'm glad I made it in time."   "Damn bear didn't even notice me! Take that!" Hiro exclaims as he bashes the bear with his hammer.   "How're the others doing?" I ask as I turn toward the others. They're still fighting. "Come on, Hiro. We have to help the others!"   I run toward the others. Something strange resounds near me, and I stop running. It sounds like loud breathing and quiet growling coming from behind me. I raise my eyebrows and turn around, immediately running toward Hiro. He's not attacking a corpse anymore, but he's far behind. There's something in the shadows behind him.   "Kai?" Marin asks.   Should I warn him? No, there's no time! I point my right elbow toward him and shout, "Fireball!"   The usual ball of fire appears from my elbow, running its course toward Hiro's direction. Hiro's a little slow when it comes to thinking, but he should be able to react to this!   I pray while continuing to run forward. He manages to jump out of the way as I had hoped. The shadow behind him finally reveals itself to be a lion and collides with my magic. It bursts into flames. "Kai, what the hell?!"   Hiro turns around and notices the lion as it pounces where he was standing. The lion follows up with another pounce toward Hiro. Hiro puts up his guard and blocks one of its paws. The other paw slashes his right shoulder. "Gah!"   I slash my weapons at the lion though I don't land any attacks. I click my tongue as it jumps backward to dodge my next attack. Hiro's wound is not that deep. The lion's face has a minor burn mark. Is it resistant to fire…? Where're the referees, anyway?   I don't see any referees in any trees anywhere. I guess they're just hidden really well… Hiro would've been in trouble if I didn't help him. Do they have a medic nearby?   I drop those thoughts for now and focus on the lion. Its eyes are pointed toward Hiro as it roars. Hiro's body quivers as he takes several steps back. I knit my eyebrows. Taking into account the two ferocious bears that seemed to have specific targets…now this lion wants Hiro… There's only one answer.   I think back to the start of the game when I saw their lineup. There was another someone without a weapon besides Hina. He must not have been able to control this lion as well as that bear earlier…otherwise, it wouldn't have bothered to dodge my attack.   "Hiro, stay on the defensive. Let's stall until Sitos and the others can help us," I suggest.   "You do-don't hafta tell me. I ca-can feel its blood thirst…" I narrow my eyes at the lion.   The question is…when are they gonna ambush us? They could easily win by eliminating all of us right now…but they haven't appeared. I drop my thoughts as the lion charges toward us. I position myself next to Hiro and exclaim, "Hiro, you take the right side!"   I focus on its right paw. I block it with both of my swords. Hiro blocks its follow-up attack on his side. The lion alternates right, left, right, left, and we continue blocking every blow. It switches up the angle, but I keep my concentration up and continue to block them. An arrow zooms past me and then lodges itself in the top of its right leg.   "Kai!" Sitos exclaims as footsteps resound rapidly behind me. Drugo runs in front of me with his shield up while Sitos stands on my left side.   "Finally, you're here. Let's kill this oversized cat," I say with a smile.   "It looks like you cannot do anything without me. Drugo, let us do that again!" Sitos exclaims.   "Alright! Whenever you're ready!" Drugo answers with enthusiasm. I cock an eyebrow.   Sitos turns toward me and says, "I'll make an opening for you, and then it is up to you."   He runs forward and then stops positioned diagonally relative to Drugo. He stands there for a moment with a relaxed pose. He shouts, "Magnets!"   Nothing happens. He throws his left sword in the air in an arc toward the lion and then winds his other arm back. Meanwhile, Drugo is charging at the lion. A few seconds later, Sitos throws his remaining sword horizontally toward the lion and then runs forward. Drugo reaches the lion at the same time as Sitos' second sword. The sword seems perpendicular to the first sword that falls from above, with its blade pointed toward the lion. The lion dodges the second sword by moving over to the right.   "Activate!" Sitos shouts. The two swords that were next to each other sparks electricity and breaks apart rapidly. The second sword launches itself into the left side of the lion. Sitos catches the first sword and then throws it again in the air above the lion. I figure this is the opening he was talking about.   I run forward and exclaim, "Let's go, Hiro!"   "Ye-yeh!" The lion launches a flurry of attacks on Drugo, but he holds his ground. The sword Sitos threw up in the air a moment ago now accelerates its descent toward the lion. The lion lets out another cry as the sword pierces its back. The two swords in the lion seem to lodge themselves deeper with every passing moment. Drugo slashes one of its frontal legs with a single swing. The lion doesn't let up and tries to attack Drugo, but is not successful.   The lion leaps back a little and then charges in my direction. Drugo responds and moves in front of us. He stops the lion's charge. I jump over Drugo, slashing both of my swords at the lion. Blood oozes out of its neck. I immediately sweep past its hind legs, cutting one of them as well. Hiro jumps over Drugo and then slams down his hammer on top of the lion's head. The lion cries out one last time as it falls onto the ground. Drugo stabs it through the brain. The lion stops moving.   Sitos inserts the magical tool into the lion. He takes back both of his swords from the lion. Marin inserts her tool into the bear from earlier. I look around for Luna. She's running toward the other bear. She eventually turns back around and then runs toward us.   "Everyone, we have a problem!" Luna exclaims in a panicked voice. "The crystal's gone!"   I knit my eyebrows. Hiro exclaims, "What?!"   Hiro, Drugo, and Sitos run over toward Luna. I stand where I am and contemplate. So, instead of ambushing us…they took a single crystal from us when we already have 11 points… Could it be that they're trying to…   I raise my eyebrows and smile. Sitos says, "Come here so I can tell you my plan before the roach comes back."   I silently listen to his plan, knowing that it isn't a good idea, but it puts me in a better position to tell them mine. I collect all the crystals before we initiate Sitos' plan. All of us are in a tree while Hiro is by himself nearby.   "Where are y'all at?" Hiro asks with an imitation of a genuine voice, but it sounds forced. He looks toward our direction several times. I sigh and smile, glad I came up with the plan I did.   "Guys, actually…I have a better plan," I propose quietly.   "What is it? This idiot already ruined mine…" Sitos whispers.   "Well, you know how the enemy wants to exploit Hiro, right? We'll take advantage of that." I begin my explanation, continuing it for several minutes. We finish our preparations and then wait for the enemy to find Hiro.   "Hey, guys… Where are ya…?" Hiro asks, sounding more and more obvious.   It's only a matter of time… Leaves rustle nearby. Hiro yells, "The enemy! Where are ya'll?! I need help!"   I lose count of how many times Hiro has looked straight toward us in the past few minutes. Loud laughing resound a few trees down where we are. I jump down and then walk toward Hiro. "Kai, why aren't ya followin' the plan? You ruined it!"   I laugh loudly. "Kai, that's not funny…"   I continue laughing as the rest of the team jumps down from the tree.   "It must be hard having him on your team. Well, see ya! Thanks for the free two pointer!" the slingshot guy exclaims from atop a tree. He retreats.   "You bastard! I'm not letting you outta my sights!" Hiro exclaims as he runs after the guy. I smile and chuckle as we chase after him.   Well… So far all according to plan…but the next part could be dangerous as we are running into a trap. I quicken my pace to catch up with Hiro. I ask, "Hey, Hiro. Do you remember where we turn in the crystals?"   "Huh? Kai, and you said I was stupid… Of course, it's that way," Hiro says and points into the correct direction. I sigh as he's correct for once.   I point in a perpendicular direction and say, "No, it's that way, you moron."   "Huh? That's strange… I'm pretty sure, well never mind. We almost caught up with this guy!" Hiro doesn’t doubt me in the slightest. We catch up to the slingshot guy, who seemingly runs into a dead end.   "Wa-wait! I give up!" the slingshot guy exclaims as he unclips the pouch attached to him. "Ju-just don't hurt me…please…"   He tosses the pouch. Hiro catches it and then throws it at me. I catch it by cupping my arms together. I raise my eyebrows as the weight of the contents presses against my arms. This is…!   Hiro says, "Looks like there's enough in there to finish the game le—"   A stream of water suddenly bursts out from a nearby tree, pushing Hiro several meters across. He drops his weapon in the process. I turn around and then pass the pouch on my arms over to Luna. I turn back around. Hina drops from a tree. The others follow soon afterward.   "One down. Five more to go," Hina says as her boyfriend drops his stuff on the ground. Next, he picks up Hiro's weapon and then tosses it far away. He equips his shield and mace afterward. The path toward our exit is open. I smile and then stab the ground with my sword. I unclip the pouch attached to my leather garments and then toss it over to Hiro. Drenched in water, he stands up and then catches the pouch.   "Hiro, you're the fastest runner outta all of us. It's up to you! We'll hold them off here!" I exclaim. Luna tosses the pouch she's holding onto too.   "Yo-you're gonna leave it to me…?" Hiro asks in a genuinely touched voice.   "Yeah, you remember where the exit is, right? Go!" I exclaim.   "You can do it, Hiroster!" Drugo exclaims.   "Good luck!" Marin exclaims.   "Go, Hiro!" Luna exclaims.   "Do not fuck this up!" Sitos exclaims.   "Alright! I'm off!" Hiro announces as he sprints off full speed with the two pouches in hand. Two members of the enemy team move away from the group.   "You two are up," Hina says.   "We'll meet you at the goal," the girl wielding the rapier says. The guy with the large sword follows as they run off toward Hiro. My eyes linger on the pouches on their leather garments.   So it's there, huh…   "Hiro's the fastest runner here, and he isn't carrying any weapons! Do you think your teammates can catch him before he reaches the goal?" I ask as I grab the sword I put into the ground. Their entire team laughs.   "Did you think I really gave him a pouch full of our crystals…? It was just a bunch of rocks I put in there!" the slingshot guy confesses.   "What?!" I exclaim simultaneously with my team.   "Quick! We have to catch up to Hiroster and warn him!" Drugo shouts as he runs toward the direction the others went to.   "Landmine!" A burst of water comes out of the ground, launching Drugo into the branches above him. He crashes into one as he falls back down. I jump backward, rejoining with the rest of my team. Their Tank rushes toward Drugo with his mace in hand.   "Shock!" their Tank shouts, his mace now radiating electricity. He swings it at Drugo.   "Deflect!" Drugo shouts as he moves his shield toward the direction of the mace. Mana gathers at the front of his shield. Sparks of electricity from the mace go backward. The mace user backs off and then Drugo rejoins us.   "We can't have you do that now… Just admit your defeat. We win," Hina says confidently. I click my tongue loud enough for everyone to hear.   "Let's move toward our starting position! We can still stop them from winning!" I exclaim as I retreat from the scene. The rest of my team follows.   "Fine! Continue your pointless struggle!" Hina yells from behind us. I glance behind me. They're heading in the direction where the others ran.   Sitos laughs and then says, "Those dumbasses played right into your hands, Kai. We got them."   "Well, not yet… We still need to take their supply of crystals and turn it in," I say as we continue running toward the next part of our plan.   We eventually make it back to the area where Hiro tried to trick the enemy. I find the tree that we were on and then climb back onto the exact branch. Marin follows me as well. On the trunk of the tree, Marin's magic is still in place. She places a hand on it for a moment. She removes her hand, revealing a secret compartment. Our stash of crystals is still there. I sigh and then say, "It was a good thing none of them noticed that you were missing your pouch."   "Ye-yeah…" I attach the pouch to my leather garments again as we jump down from the tree.   "Alright, let's go over there," I say as I point in a direction. "Hiro should be somewhere in that direction. He'll probably be confused when he finds that the exit isn't there at all…"   We run in the direction I pointed in. After several minutes of running, we find Hiro backed up against the corner of the Forest. He's on the ground with his stomach side down. Moments later, the guy picks him up from the ground, holding him up by the waist. The girl takes the two pouches that he was protecting under him. Hiro kicks her several times with his legs. Marin shoots an arrow toward them. Before the arrow reaches them, the guy tosses Hiro aside.   "Scatter!" Marin shouts. Subsequently, a dirt cloud appears around the arrow, instantly disabling the two enemies. The girl points one of her open palms up before blowing some of the dirt away. Luckily or for the worse, Hiro gets back up. He tackles the girl.   "Give 'em back!" Hiro yells as he tries to force the two pouches out of her arms. She's pressing the pouches against her breasts. I frown.   "Wh-where—are yo—you tou—ching?!" the girl screams and coughs at the same time. My heart beats rapidly.   Damn it, Hiro! Don't get us disqualified! I hope the referees don't count that as harassment. Hiro finally grabs a hold of the two pouches and then stands up. I locate the pouch the girl has and then cut it from the bottom. Numerous blue crystals and a single yellow one leak out. I toss aside one sword and then take them. Drugo knocks down the unarmed guy down with his shield.   "Oh! Y'all caught up! Don't worry; I got back our stash. What're y'all doin'…?" Hiro asks, confused. Sitos is holding onto several crystals.   "There are four blue ones in here," Sitos informs.   "One yellow one and five blue. In total, we have 22 points," I say.   Hiro dumps out the contents of the two pouches he's holding onto, revealing that they're all rocks. He exclaims, "Ah! What the hell?! These pouches have only rocks in 'em!"   I can't help but giggle. Behind us, Luna announces, "Operation Hiro, success!"   "Kai, explain! To begin with, I was right 'bout the direction after all!" Hiro yells into my face. I laugh uncontrollably. I find it hard to believe that my plan actually worked.   "Now, now, Hiroster. We'll explain it to you after this game is over," Drugo says as he pulls Hiro away from me. I get back up and then store the crystals in the real pouch. Sitos hands me his too.   Sitos laughs and then says, "The other roaches are still running around in the Forest like the idiots they are."   Before leaving the scene, we destroy the leather garments of the two on the ground just in case. It proved to be unnecessary as we successfully reach the goal. We show the green referee standing at the back side of the Forest our crystals. Soon after, the end of the game is announced. They inform us that the next game will take place at the Arena at 10 AM. We head home.

"Wh-what’re you doing here…?" I mutter, still unable to grasp the situation.  "I could ask you the same question. What’re you doing here?" Marin asks. "I… I was…" I mutter, but unable to finish my thought. Marin looks at the two dead behind me. She closes her eyes. "It-it's a misunder—" "The information broker told us about this hideout," Marin answers and opens her eyes. I knit my eyebrows. "What?" "He told us you admitted to being a part of Cascabel. He followed you to this hideout yesterday. He showed us where today." What?! Impossible… We covered our tracks. Did they read us…? I grit my teeth, take a few steps to the left, and ask, "What else did he tell you?" "That you're the one who has been backing Osmir. That you've been holding Velyn and Seirus hostage…but we're too late." "An-and you believe him? Over me?"  "Are you saying he's lying?" "Yeah. None of it’s true. Whatever he's been telling you, it's all lies." Marin sighs and then says, "I want to believe you… I really do." I smile and then exclaim, "You can! Just trust me."  "I can't…when you've constantly been lying to me… When’ll the lies stop?" I frown. "I didn't need the information broker to tell me that you were a part of Cascabel. I already knew. I've known for a while now. Did you think I wouldn't notice?" I bite my lower lip and don't say anything for several seconds. There's an opening behind Marin and the others. "Maybe that part isn't a lie…but everything else! That old guy couldn't have possibly made any of those conclusions. The most he could've known was the location of this hideout." Marin cocks an eyebrow and then asks, "What're you talking about? He wasn't that old." I knit my eyebrows. She continues, "Hmm… Perhaps late 30's or early 40's?" I raise my eyebrows. I gulp and then ask, "Did he have short brown hair…? And a hooded white uniform? "Oh, so you did meet him." My eyes widen. My mind is finally grasping around everything. "Why'd you say he was old?"  I sigh and then furrow my eyebrows. I look straight into Marin's eyes. "Marin, listen very carefully. The only reason I joined Cascabel was to kill the man responsible for that incident. The man that led you here is Xedeus. He's the leader of Cascabel, and he's behind everything. We were here to set up an ambush, but he set us up with this trap instead."  Silence follows my confession. Marin, Jetia, and the guards burst into laughter. I relax my facial expressions and then quirk an eyebrow. Jetia says, "Oh how the great Kai has fallen." "Kai…do you think we'll really believe that?" I frown. "Why would your leader purposely set you up and weaken his organization? It doesn't make sense." "I…I don't know the answer to that either, but it's true! Bring me to that man right now. He's here, isn’t he? You can't let your guard down around him! Where's Ruby?" "You're not going to see that man again. You're coming with us, and he already went back to Byzia," Marin informs. I raise my eyebrows. "We only needed to wait for you to show up to catch you in the act." Wait… If Xedeus knew that we pulled that stunt at the information broker… I grit my teeth.  "Ruby is…" Footsteps resound in the hallway behind Marin.  "Marin~! They're ready ta talk!" Ruby enters the room while smiling and then licks her lips. Two guards enter behind her holding onto the two men we passed by earlier. Their faces are wrapped in ecstasy.  "I wanna fuck ya from behind next time." "I'm fine with those lips again." "Sure," Ruby answers with a smile. I avert my eyes, frown, and grit my teeth. "After you've done yer part." The men turn toward us. One of them says, "Those two are really cruel." I cock an eyebrow. "We could hear the screams… I don't know what they were doing with Seirus or Velyn, but it probably wasn't pretty." "They ordered us never to disturb them or ask questions. He communicated with Osmir with one of those Klams over there," the other one says and points to us. "You wanna listen to this? It has nothing to do with me. Take it," I say and then toss Marin my Klam. Leila tosses hers too. Ruby catches it. Marin presses the button. "We failed to deliver the girl. The man and woman guarding her took her back. No hard feelings, but we're keeping the 100 gold coins you already gave us." "Yo-you don't know this, but we were escorting one of the successors to the throne. Her name's Irene. Back in Neso, they tried to take her from us. We took her back. I'm the man they're talking about, and Leila's the woman. The other one proves our innocence." "Hmm…" Marin interjects. Ruby presses the button on the other Klam.  "Hey, Kai!" My heart skips a beat. "Did you kill those two yet? I can be the king now, right?"  "What the fuck?! That's wrong!" I exclaim. My eyes widen. Shit! Irene! "We knew Osmir has been working with Cascabel for years. You can't deny these allegations now, Kai," Marin explains. I grit my teeth as I look toward Leila. I give her a nod as I prepare my Mana. "Hey, we told ya what ya wanted to know," one of the men says. "Where's my reward?" "Oh, that's right… Let ‘em go," Ruby says. The guards shove them on the ground. "Hey, what gi—" A stream of flames bursts out Ruby's palms. "Ahhh!" I take a step back as they scream and squirm as hot flames scorch their faces off. They stop screaming and go limp after five seconds. Ruby's flames halt, revealing blackened faces. The smell of burnt hair and skin lingers in the air. "Marin, can I kill him now?" Jetia asks as he draws his weapon. "No, don't kill him. We're taking him in alive. You can kill the Elf, though." "That is rude," Leila says. I release Raw Mana without moving. My heart beats rapidly as I focus on the opening in the hallway.  Suddenly, a wall of Scrap Mana appears, covering the length of the entire doorway. My Mana can't go through. I knit and raise my eyebrows. "Were you thinking of leaving by using your magic, Kai?" Marin asks. "I already know what you're thinking." I click my tongue. Leila asks, "She knows about your magic?" "Yeah… I told her." "Kai…are ya gonna leave me again? Ruby asks with a pout. "It's 'cause of that Elf, ain't it? She brainwashed ya… I won't let ya go this time!"  She grins as she raises her arms. She points a palm toward Leila. "Fireball!" A large ball of fire flies toward Leila. Leila points her palm toward it and shouts, "Water ball!" A sphere of water shoots out of Leila. It's slightly larger than the ball of fire. They collide with each other. Steam rises in the center. After several seconds, the flames fade away. A small part of Leila's magic remains and flies toward Ruby. It wets her face. She frowns and mutters, "That's no good… Can't ya let me kill ya peacefully?" "Of course not," Leila answers. Ruby's silent for several seconds as she frowns. She grins and then bursts into laughter. I gulp as my heart beats progressively faster. I prepare instructions for my magic. Marin and the others are gone. She stops laughing, but she's still smiling. She raises her arms. I glance at the corner behind Leila. "I won't give ya a choice then… Minefield! Blaze! Inferno! Spiralin' flames!" Flames appear around the entire room. I exclaim, "Get into that corner, now!" I run toward the corner as Leila does the same and then release Raw Mana. I activate it immediately. Two purple portals appear, covering the ground all the way to the ceiling. They box us in the corner. "Who the hell's that crazy bitch?!"  The room rumbles. Ruby's laugh mixed with rocks crumbling and explosions resound. The ground vibrates. I look down. "She's…Ruby. Just someone I've known for a few years." "She's insane. Is she trying to kill us all?" "She gets outta control sometimes… Anyway, we need to save Irene!" "I'm already on it." Her hand is on the wall next to us. Did Reid betray us…? No… It was him. A part of the wall cracks and moves away from us. The opening it creates is about the size of a door. It's pushed all the way outside where it crashes into the ground. As I sprint into the hallway, I exclaim, "We can still catch up to Xedeus if we leave now! Haste!" "Swiftness!" The distance to the outside is only about 30 feet. Suddenly, a dirt cloud blasts into us as we nearly make it out of the opening. Some of it gets into my eyes. I close them and cough while continuing to run forward. Something pierces my right arm between my arm guards. "Argh!" A draft of air blows around me. The feeling of dirt hitting my face stops.  "Kai, watch out!" Footsteps resound progressively louder. I force my eyes open despite dirt still lingering in my eyes. Jetia's charging at me with his sword and shield in hand. I draw my sword with my right hand and then block his attack. He presses his sword against mine. "I've always wanted to fight you," Jetia says and then smiles. "But I never thought you would join their ranks." "I told you already. It's all to kill Xedeus." "Excuses. You were just a coward. Just like how you are now." I frown and grit my teeth. "Shut up, you don't understand anything." I yank out the arrow with my free hand and then swing it toward the hand holding his sword. He blocks it with his shield. "Still in denial, are we?" I draw my sword and then prepare to swing it at him. An arrow flies toward me from above. I jump back, rejoining Leila. There are five bodyguards surrounding Marin. Ruby walks out of a different opening in the mountain. She turns toward us, smiles, and then exclaims, "Oh, there ya are!" As she walks toward us, Leila says, "Hey, Kai… This girl…is she—" Several balls of fire appear in the air and fly toward us. We jump backward. The magic hits and ignites the plants on the grounds. Leila clicks her tongue and then says, "I'll take care of this lunatic. You probably can't fight her regardless." "Yeah… I'll leave her to you. Don't hurt her too much if you can." "While she tries to kill me? No problem. I'll teach her a lesson on my territory," Leila says. "Wave!" A wave of water appears in front of us that rushes forward. It extinguishes the flames on the ground. Marin, Jetia, and the guards form a line with Jetia in front. He puts his shield in front of him on the ground and then envelopes an area around the shield with Unrefined Mana. Ruby stands still and creates a wall of water in front of her. The wave of water moves around it and the shield.  "Sprout!" The ground shakes and the ground in front of me cracks. A stem emerges from the crack, eventually growing into a giant flower.  I don't wanna be caught up in this… I run toward the forest and shout, "Hey, Jetia! Come over here where we won't be disturbed!" "Fine!" Jetia exclaims and then follows me. "Pollinate!" Leila shouts. "Jetia, wait! Don't follow him!" Marin exclaims. Jetia continues to follow me. Hmm… I can't use my partial coating with these swords, and he's already seen my sword's length. I'll give him the phantom blades special. I stop running and then turn around. I hold my swords in front of me at an angle. "You want a fight? I'll give you one… Phantom blades!" I cock an eyebrow as he covers his eyes with Scrap Mana. His eyes widen as the entirety of my swords turn invisible. "Is this the magic Marin was talking about just now?" He doesn't know…? I smile gradually and then say, "Oh, so you guys aren't that close after all… This won't even take two minutes." He narrows his eyebrows and yells, "So what! Do you think I won't be able to tell where yer swords are?" "We'll see," I say with a smile. I charge at him and then attack with my left sword. He parries my blows. I swipe my right blade at him toward the right. He raises his shield. "Shock!" Lightning envelops his shield and then impacts with my sword. Only a few fingers tingle. "Discharge!” I widen my eyes as the lightning bursts out toward me. I jump back, but the lightning hits my right arm. I tighten my grip as a shock runs through my arm. I gather Rich Mana around my left elbow as he runs at me. I point my elbow at him and then release my magic as I shout, "Fireball!" A ball of fire comes out that flies toward him. He moves to the side and continues to run toward me. "What's wrong, Kai?!" I click my tongue.  I need to wait for this to wear off to finish him. I point my left elbow at him while continuing to jump backward. "Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!" More balls of fire fly toward him. I break down Raw Mana into Rich Mana while they're in the air. He dodges all of my Fire magic. I point my left elbow toward the ground. "Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!" The balls of fire ignite the plants on fire. I create a wall of fire in the process. He jumps over it. As he's in the air, I point my left elbow toward him and shout, "Fireball!" A flaming ball flies toward him. He puts his shield in front of him and envelops it in Rich Mana. My magic collides with his shield, bursting into flames. The fire clears up, and he takes no damage. He continues to charge at me. "I knew it! Running's all yer good at!" The tingling in my right arm has reduced to levels I can handle. I furrow my eyebrows and focus on him. I charge at him as I prepare instructions for Raw Mana. I slash with my left sword the same way I did previously. I reverse my grip on my right blade as he parries it the same way. He smiles and says, "And we're back to this." I attack him a few more times with my left sword as I release my Raw Mana. Afterward, I swing my right arm the same way as I did previously. He raises his shield in the same place as he exclaims, "Shock!" Lightning envelops his shield, but he doesn't impact my blade. His arm is now out of position. I flip my right hand around, take a step forward, and then stab my weapon toward his arm. It pierces it completely. He grimaces. As I'm pulling my sword out, he exclaims, "Discharge!" I jump backward and shout, "Open!" A purple portal appears between us while the other one is directly behind him. I immediately turn around and then jump backward. He lets out a scream of pain. I reverse the grip on my right sword back to normal. I hold my breath as I wait for my portals to dissolve in a moment. They disperse into nothing, and I'm behind Jetia. He turns his head a little to the left and then right. I lunge forward and thrust with both of my weapons. "Where—" I impale both of his legs in the center of his thigh. "Ahh!" I let go of my weapons and shout, "Strength!" Power surges through both of my arms. I tighten my grip on his forearm and bicep. I pull them apart, dislocating his arm from the elbow. He lets out another scream of pain as he falls onto his knees. He lets go of his shield. I cancel my enhancements and then pull out both of my swords. His body twitches as I do. I sigh and then say, "Not even two minutes." I sheathe my swords and then run back where we came from. Suddenly, Jetia chuckles and then breaks into a laugh. I cock an eyebrow as I turn my head around. There's a small pool of blood forming around his thighs. He turns his body around while still laughing. I ignore him and continue forward, until he stops laughing and says, "You may have beaten me…but yer still a coward. We both know the reason you left wasn't to join Cascabel." One of my eyes twitches. His laugh resounds until I run so far I can't hear him anymore. It continues in my head. I shake my head. Where'd Marin go? I was certain she’d back up Jetia… I hurry back to Leila and the others.

The sounds of wood clashing echo around the room until we both disengage simultaneously. Hot sweat drips down my face as I hold my stance with both wooden blades in front of me. While still panting heavily, I swallow the little amount of saliva I have in my mouth and feel slight discomfort as it trickles down my parched throat.    My eyes don't lose focus for a single moment as I stare at Sitos in front of me. He raises and drops his shoulders while open-mouthed. His left arm is in a lower position than his normal stance. Is his left arm tired…?   Since I know he's also observing me, I refrain from looking at it too much to not give myself away. My arms are almost at their limit too, but if I show any weakness he'll see that and take advantage of it… I don't see any other choice here… Okay, I can do this. Today, I'll finally win!   I tighten my grip on both practice swords in my hands immediately noticing that the profuse amount of sweat in my hand makes it difficult to hold a steady grip. I don't let this bother me, and I charge forward while holding my left blade up and my right blade in a defensive position. He tightens his guard on his right side. I throw back my right arm in preparation to horizontally strike his left side.   "Sorry Sitos, it's my win today!" I exclaim as I put power into both of my arms, when suddenly, a broad smile surfaces on his face.   "Not a chance, Kai!" he exclaims as he swings his left sword upward right before my blade hits him.    What?! I can only gape and watch helplessly as he knocks my right arm into the air. I lose my balance, and my other attack weakens, losing over half of its power. He blocks it with his dominant arm. His other weapon approaches my face. I close my eyes habitually and tighten my lips.   After a few seconds pass, I gradually relax as I inch my eyes open wondering why he hasn't ended our duel yet. Huh…? Where'd he go?   I fully open my eyes, only to close them again when something hard strikes the top of my head. "Ow!"   I drop both of my swords to the ground to cover my head with both hands. He sighs. "Idiot, how many times do I have to tell you? Never close your eyes when you are in a fight."   He looks at me with a disappointed look. "Mmm…"   I frown and tilt my head down while still keeping my hands on top of my head, even when he sighs again a few seconds later. "Well, you have definitely made some major improvements in the past few months…"   I raise my head. He turns his head slightly away from me.   "What I'm trying to say is…uh…goo-good job…" he says while turning his head farther away from me after every word. His volume decreases toward the end of the sentence.    Wow… Sitos complimented me! My frown transforms into a grin before exclaiming, "Thanks, Sitos!"   "Su-sure…" he mutters as he blushes lightly. I turn my head toward the sudden sound of a door flinging open.   "'Sup. Are ya two done?" Hiro asks as he walks into the room all while smiling. The others are following behind him.   "Hey!" I exclaim as I raise my hand.   "Kai, ya lost again…?" Hiro asks with a disappointed voice, shrugging his shoulders. He shakes his head. I narrow my eyebrows.   "Shut up!"   "What didja say earlier again…? I think it was, 'I'm gonna beat Sitos today!' right?"   "Uhh…" I rear my head back as I frown bitterly, but I melt into a grin again when I think back to Sitos. "That's not important! You won't believe what just happened! Sitos—"   "It was about time you slowpokes got here. Let us go—"    Sitos suddenly interrupts me with a loud voice, but the desire to tell the world overwhelms me, and I continue, "Complimented me!"   I don't hear anything for several seconds while everyone wears blank expressions. The room bursts into laughter, even Marin, who generally doesn't express her feelings at all.   "That's a good joke, Kai!" Hiro exclaims as he holds his stomach with both hands. Sitos' head is down, but his face is flushed red.   "What were ya sayin' earlier, Sitos?" Hiro asks as he's still laughing a little. Sitos is still unresponsive staring at the ground. "Sitos…don’t tell me…it's actually…true?"   Sitos shakes his entire body slightly.   "Is that true, Sitos?" I turn my head towards Luna, who chimes into the conversation.   "Ye-yes…" Sitos quietly mutters.   "It's great that you two are getting along so well now!" Luna exclaims.    Hiro cocks an eyebrow. "How the heck didja get Sitos to do that, Kai? That's amazin’ ya know."   I respond to Hiro by giving him a broad grin. Standing by the exit, Drugo says, "Friends, we should start to head back, it's getting late."    "Yeah, you're right," I say. I knit my eyebrows as Sitos walks toward the exit like nothing happened. Sometimes I don't understand him…   "Kai, are you going to stand there like an idiot or are you coming with us?" Sitos asks with his back faced toward me.   "Ah, yeah!" I hurry and catch up with everyone else in the hallway. We begin walking towards our home.   "Let's review a little bit as we're heading back."   "Ehh…but I'm tired…" Hiro complains.   "Good idea Drugo. Start us off with something since it was your idea."   "Sure thing, Sitoster. Someone tell me what the categories of magic are."   Marin, who has been quiet this entire time, quickly answers, "Evocation, Enhancement, Conjuration, Healing, Alteration, Abjuration, and Runic, right? Umm... A question… What… What's the purpose of commanding Mana?"   "As expected of Marin, you answered so fast!" Luna exclaims as she smiles before continuing, "To answer your question, that's because without issuing commands to our Mana, it would rapidly diffuse into the air. So we need to give our Mana instructions before we release them from our body or else it serves no purpose. Basically, we have to do it if we wanna use magic! Hmm… What are keywords?"   Everyone puts on an amazed facial expression as Luna answers Marin's question. "Brilliant answer, Luna. Keywords instantly recall a list of programmed instructions that you have defined for it. However, even if it is a shortcut to commanding Mana, you still have to prepare the Mana within your body so that when you shout it, it can take however much Mana it needs to follow the instructions. Now, tell me what trigger words are, Kai."   "Ugh, why me, Sitos…?" I ask lethargically with a frown. "Uhh… Trigger words are the same thing as keywords, except that they activate inactive Mana you released outside of your body… I think you can also define them to a word without shouting it out beforehand…"   Since I can't think of a question, I leave it at that. I hear nothing but the chatter of other students and our footsteps for several seconds. "What the heck Kai, don't break the chain!"   "Kai, ask us something."   While ignoring Hiro, I turn my head towards Luna, who is smiling. Hmm… If she says so…   I narrow my eyes as I think of a question, and then I turn towards Hiro. "Hiro the Great, how do Magic Affinities affect our magic?"   "Hah, that's too easy of a question for the great me to answer, why don'tcha answer instead, Drugo?"   Drugo laughs lightly before responding, "Just answer the question Hiroster, and ask me anything you want afterward."   Hiro crosses his arms, smiles, and says, "Tch… Magic Affinity determines how strong a spell is right? So if someone has a high Affinity for Fire magic and uses the same magic as someone with a low Affinity for Fire magic, then the one with high Affinity has more attack power. I hafta think of a question so gimme a sec, wouldja?"    I knit my eyebrows as he begins to answer the question. I frown the entire time. Everyone is silent, seemingly giving Hiro time to think of a question, but I just remember that I'm the one who asked him in the first place. "Bzzzzz…  That's wrong, Hiro the Great."   "What?!"   "Magic Affinity generally determines how much of that element you can utilize at once. So people with higher Affinities can use larger scale spells, and they can manipulate free elements available from the environment," Drugo responds correctly.    "Damn, I must've skipped over that detail when I studied… I could've answered all the previous questions right, though!" Hiro exclaims while still appearing confident. "I thought of my question! Why—"   "That is enough reviewing. It seems all of us are prepared for the theory portion. More importantly, let us discuss what we are going to add to our new room once we win the contest."   "Sitos, what ‘bout my ques—"   "I want some couches for the common room!"   "Kai, sto—"   "I think a bigger refrigerator and freezer space would be great!"   "Even you, Lu—"   "And more…cooking mediums…"   "Ma—"   "We can also use—"   "Hey!" Hiro exclaims into my ear after interrupting Drugo. I immediately twist the left side of my face as I shut my left eye. I turn toward Hiro as I point my eyebrows downward.   "You bastard, don't yell right into my ear!"   "Don't leave me outta this conversation! What're y'all talkin' ‘bout?"   I sigh before answering, "Weren’t you paying attention in class? Moria said that the theory and practical exam scores will be averaged for everyone in a group, and the group with the highest score wins the first large room in the last hallway, room 1A. The additional prize is that we get to request some extra amenities."   "I am kind of worried about you, Kai. I know you train hard on your sword, but I never see you train Mana control. You are not going to screw us all over by failing, right?   "I'll be fine, don't worry Sitos. You should be more worried about him…" I say as I gesture my head once towards Hiro. A moment later, everyone frowns with worrisome expressions on their faces.   "You are right. He is really du… He is not very bright…" Sitos says.   "I'm worried too…" Luna says.   "Maybe the test will be easy…so he can pass," Marin says.   "Friends, have more faith in him!"   "Then why're you sweating, Drugo?" I ask, but he doesn't respond.    No one says a word until Hiro says, "Hello… I'm right here ya know… I can hear ya…"   "Don't you know that we know that you can hear us? This is why we're worried…" I say as I look at him, only to look away and sigh while shaking my head.   "Do not waste too much energy, Kai. You will only tire yourself out. I am going to sleep," Sitos says as he opens the door to our home. We say our goodnights and head into our rooms.   I take the book Emdos gave me from the shelf, and I look down on it. I flip to the middle of the book where I never figured out how to bypass. A strange piece of paper is wrapped around the second half of the book. I examine all of the sides again, but I still can't figure it out. I sigh as I put the book back on the shelf.   I haven't learned anything new for over six months now… I learned everything Moria has been teaching this year last year… When will I learn something new…? I'm still worried about that too… I undress and tuck myself in bed, but don't fall asleep. Instead, I stare at the ceiling and think back to my second day here.    After waking up, I exited my room and found everyone eating breakfast.   "Kaister, you're up late. By the way, I've been wanting to ask you… What happened yesterday?" Drugo asked as he was chewing something.   "Uhh…it was nothing, really… This is kinda a weird question, but was I wearing a backpack yesterday or did you see one in this room?"   I only heard various slurping and crunching noises before Drugo responded, "I don't think so… By the way, breakfast is served outside the hall—"   "I'll be back!" I rushed out the room and saw many of the students walking around. In the hallway leading to the exit, I noticed many tables set up with food served on them. My stomach grumbled, but I ignored my hunger for now and ran out of the building.   I don't understand… Since I didn't have the backpack to begin with that means the guards had it! I'll ask them what they did with it. I ran straight into the Academy and headed for the entrance. I got there and saw two guards standing by the entrance. "Hey, excuse me…"   They turned around after I called out to them, and I cocked an eyebrow. What…? They're different…   "What, a student? What is it?"   "Umm… What happened to the two guards stationed here yesterday?"   The two guards glanced at each other before looking back at me. "We do not know… Sometime yesterday evening someone reported that they were missing, and we searched for them, but we did not find them. It is strange because they worked here for several years without a problem to leave without a trace…"   "I see, never mind…" I said as I turned back around and slowly walked back towards the dormitory building. What does this mean…?   In the end, I never found out how my backpack appeared in my room, and I stopped thinking about it until now. Is there someone watching me…?   I shiver slightly, despite feeling warm in my blanket. The only person who knows about this book is Emdos…so was it him…? Maybe that was him when I felt that chill in the lecture room… He told me never to show anyone my Mana…   I grab the blanket and lay on my side as I wrap the blanket tightly around me. Maybe I should try tossing this book somewhere random and see if it comes back…   I shake my head. Forget it. I'm gonna rest for tomorrow's test…   I fall asleep without a problem and then wake up in the morning. I brush my teeth and then shower, before dressing and heading into the common room. Luna and Marin are preparing our breakfast as usual in the kitchen. Sitos says, "Holy shit you are awake… I do not know why that still surprises me considering you always sleep in."   I smile as I walk over to the table. All the guys are sitting here already.   "And I never understand how you guys sleep so little," I say as I pull back an empty chair and sit down next to Hiro. He rests his head on the table. "Hiro, I hope you're ready for the test today…"   "Huh…? Oh, it's you, Kai… Yeh don't worry, I got this." I cock an eyebrow when Hiro responds quietly.    "Kai, you're just in time for breakfast! Marin and I baked some banana-nut bread!"   "I poured some milk…for everyone." The girls hand out our plates and cups of milk. Luna brings the fresh loaf of bread and lays it down on the center of the table. Sitos takes a knife and evenly cuts the bread into 12 slices. We each take two pieces and enjoy our breakfast while chatting about random things.   We leave, lock our door, and head to our usual lecture room. It seems Teacher Moria is not here yet, so we talk in the meantime. Luna asks with a smile, "Kai, which magic bonding lesson are you gonna attend after the exam?"   Ergh… I don't want Luna to know about more of my poor test results…but I can't lie to that face… I stare at the floor next to Luna before answering, "Umm… I only have low Affinity for Fire magic…so I have to go to that one."   I sigh. Luna suddenly claps her hands once right next to me face. My heart skips a beat as I quickly turn my head toward her. "That's great! Actually, I have a high Affinity for Fire magic, so I'm planning on going to that one!"   So, I'll be with Luna… I blush lightly and smile.   "Lucky you, Kai. You have the most talented person here to mentor you…" I stick my head out looking past Luna, and I realize that Sitos was listening to our conversation. His arms are crossed, and he's turned away from us.   "Sitos, I'm not…" Suddenly the sound of a door resounds behind us. Moria walks down the steps.   "I assume that everyone is here, yes?" Silence follows his words. "I have the written portion of your test with me. Your time limit is one hour. Come hand it in to me when you're done and wait in your seat for the practical portion afterward. The instructions for the Mana test will come after the theory exam. Remember to wait for the results of the test before heading off towards a Mana bonding class of your choice. Good luck, everyone."   And with that, Moria hands out the tests and sits in a chair in front of the room. I stare down to the exam in front of me on a desk attached to my chair. Hmm…this test is easier than I thought…   I instantly write down the answers to everything as soon as I read them. The types of Evocation magic? That's easy…Fire…Water…Lightning…Earth…Wind…Light…Dark…   When I'm done with the test, I stand up, walk to Moria and hand him my paper. As I'm walking back, Luna walks toward me. I smile, and she reciprocates as we make eye contact. I glance around the room. Everyone seems to be working on the test. Was I the first one done…? That can't be right… It's been nearly…half an hour?   I sit back down on my seat and restlessly move my heel up and down. Is it over yet?! I wanna take the Mana test!   Luna walks back to her seat. I rest my head on the desk and stare at Luna sitting beside me. Initially, she doesn't notice, but then she quirks an eyebrow at me. I smile broadly, and she reciprocates it. Maybe waiting here a bit longer won't be so bad…    I think Sitos sneaks a few glances toward me, but I ignore it.   …   Soon enough, Moria announces, "Alright, time is up! Anyone still have their test?"   My eyes wander around the room. Silence follows his words and no one moves. Moria continues, "Now it is time for the practical. Over here there are two magic items prepared about two feet spaced apart from each other. Your task is to stand on this line over here…"   There's a faint line drawn on the floor. "…and supply some Mana to both of these devices from a distance. You will have to command your Mana so that it reaches the magic item. When a sufficient amount of Mana is absorbed by the device, it will release a ball of water into the air. Make sure to activate both of the magic items at the same time for no deductions in that category. You're allowed to use both arms for this test, and that's all the rules."   What…? That's it…? I sigh and rest my head on the desk, but then I raise my eyebrows in light of an idea. I raise my head to listen to Moria again. "… I have the names of all the leaders in this jar, and I will pull out a random name to decide which group will go first…"   Come on… Let it be our group! I clench my fists as I bounce both of my legs up and down. Moria sticks his hand into the jar creating crumpling noise that echoes around the room.    After shuffling for several seconds, he takes out a small scrap of paper and reads, "Luna… Your group will go first."   A grin surfaces on my face as he reads the name. Yes! I need to ask Moria a question…   Before I get a chance to ask, Luna stands up and walks forward. "I'll go first!"   "Very well." Moria sits back in his chair as Luna walks over to the line. Luna places both of her arms straight in front of her, with each palm facing the magic devices. She stays in that same position for a second. Scrap Mana comes out of her palms in a straight line toward the devices. A steady wave of faint light blue supplies the magic items for several seconds. Both magic items release a ball of water in the air. It travels fairly fast reaching the ceiling in just a few seconds and hits the stone ceiling, splashing water down below that gets Luna, Moria, and those sitting in front of the class a little wet.   "Well done, Luna! You get a perfect 100!" Moria exclaims as he claps his hands. The crowd around the room claps and whistles.   "Amazing!"    "So that's the genius, Luna, everyone talks about right?"   "Yeah, don't you remember the first day last year? She scored the highest on the Mana capacity test!" Various students comment as she sits back in her seat.   "Good job, Luna!"   "Thank you, Kai. Good luck on yours!"   "Okay, but don't be upset when I beat your score!" Suddenly a feeling of déjà vu hits me. I cock an eyebrow, thinking back on my first day here.    Luna laughs lightly. With a smile, she responds genuinely, "I won't be surprised… You're actually hiding your real strength, right?"   I blush and gulp. Next, I'll go!   But again, someone beats me to it. Sitos stands up and takes his test. Subsequently, he scores a 95. Drugo receives a 90 and Marin gets a 92. This is where Hiro will interrupt me forcing me to go last… I might as well wait here until it's finally my turn…   Several seconds pass. No one makes a noise or goes to the front of the room. On my left, Hiro is staring at his desk next to Sitos. I stare at him as I knit my eyebrows together.    "Excuse me…who is next?"   "Hiro? Are you gonna take the test now?"   "Huh? Oh, yeh… I guess the great me will hafta show ya how it's done!"   He gets up and makes his way to the line, but he trips on nothing and falls. I put my hand to my face and frown. Oh, god…   By the time I look, he already has his chest puffed out, already pouring out his Mana. Soon after, he receives his score.    "98! Good job!" I smile as Moria announces his score.   Oh, I was worried for nothing… Finally, no one will interrupt me! My heart beats rapidly as I get up and walk toward the line.   "I don't expect ya to beat my score, Kai. Just make sure not to fail," Hiro says as he pats me on the back when he walks past me. I force a smile and then reset my facial expressions as I face forward.   "Your name is Kai, right? I do not know how hard this test will be for you since I have never seen someone with all E's in the Academy before…"   Light laughing echoes around the room. "This guy is Kai! Remember from the first day of class?"   "Haha yeah, the talentless guy who's scared of carrots right?"   "What kinda show will he give us this time? Maybe, he'll show us his true power this time!"    I ignore the remarks I'm used to hearing by now. The light laughter explodes into more intense laughing. I turn around. Sitos and company are smiling with crossed arms. I raise my head as I point a finger toward the middle of the room. "Yeah! Today, you'll witness my real power! I didn't want you guys to feel bad on the first day, so I didn't show you!"   I turn around and face Moria again, but not without people throwing offensive comments at me. I only smirk, not letting any of them faze me. "Moria, I have a question."   "Hmm? What is it?"   "This test is too easy for me… Can you make the test harder so I can get bonus points?"   "My… I was thinking of making this test easier for you, but you want to make it harder?"   I furrow my eyebrows and stare into his eyes. "Yes, please give me the hardest test you can."   "It looks like you are serious… Sure, on one condition… I will score more harshly, and if you score less than a perfect you automatically fail…but if you score a perfect, then I will add some more points for you depending on how much you impress me. Do you still want to proceed?"   "What the hell Kai! What're ya doin'?!" Hiro exclaims.   I ignore him and respond, "Yeah."   For some reason after hearing my answer, Moria walks towards the two magic devices.   "Shut up and watch, Hiro."   "Ow, that hurts, Sitos!"   "I am going to add an obstacle for you as well." Moria puts his hands on the ground and soon after, a stone wall appears all around the two magic items, leaving only the space above the magic items open. While walking toward his seat he says, "Now, take the test."   I stand on the line and raise my right hand in front of me. I keep my palm facing the stone wall as I point all of my digits towards the space above the magic devices. Hmm… I'll break down some of my Mana and release it.   A new idea sparks in my head. Oh wait… I should be fine as long as they don't see my Mana, right…? That wall's gonna work toward my advantage. I smirk while letting out a few giggles. While deeply focusing on the two magic items, I continue to program the instructions into my Mana before letting it out. Finally, I release it, turn around, and then walk back towards my seat all while smirking.   My group gives me strange looks as I sit back down on my seat. I cross my arms as I look at Moria, who has his mouth open wide. He doesn't say anything when he suddenly stands up; knocking the chair down while blankly staring at the walls he created. I'm satisfied…with this…   "What? Why didn't you do anything?"   "Hey! Why don't you show us yer power, Kai?"   While still smirking, I ignore them as I stare at the two magic items in front of the room.   "He's obviously just too shocked of being a fai—" The Mana I released finally activates, subsequently triggering the devices. A roaring burst of noise can be heard, and soon after, two enormously oversized water balls simultaneously appear and take off towards the ceiling at a speed at least three times as fast as before. They're so colossal that the diameters of the spheres overlap each other. They rocket and finally collide with the ceiling, releasing another deafening explosion as the entire room begins to shake.    Screaming and chaos erupts as a large amount of water violently splash across the room, probably capable of drenching the furthest seated students wet. I gawk at the wave of water heading my way. Whoa! I didn't think it would be this powerful!   I close my eyes and mouth as the wave of water hits me. When it completely passes, my face melts into a grin, and I laugh loudly. The screams have ended, and I only hear myself laughing. I stop laughing and look around me. Everyone simply gapes in silence. I feel uncomfortable with the silence, so I exclaim, "Hahaha! You see, this is my true strength! So, what score do I receive?"   Moria is still standing in the same place as he was, still gaping at the space above the magic items. Several seconds pass before I ask again, "Teacher Moria…?"   "Oh, yes…umm…that was…" He finally moves from his position and faces me, awkwardly shaking his head as he rubs his forehead with the tip of his fingers. "Ahem… I did not think you would be able to even activate the devices; you have well exceeded my expectations… You deserve 200 points."   "Yeah!" I yell as I clutch my fist and raise it into the air all while grinning.

"…and with that this concludes this lesson. Make sure to grab these red tickets when you are ready to leave. There are six of them; one for each of you," Moria explains and points to the table at the front of the room. "Your next task is to run around the building three times. You will find Fulharm waiting for you at the entrance. Good luck tomorrow."   He walks up the stairs and exits the room.   "Who was he even talking to…?" I ask while skeptically curling one side of my lips upward and narrowing my eyes.    "Beats me…" Sitos says as he shrugs his arms. The others make similar motions with confused expressions on their faces. Sitos looks at Hiro and hypothesizes, "I would assume this idiot right here…but…"   Hiro is sleeping peacefully on the desk. I say, "Yeah…so he probably was wishing us good luck…"    "You are probably right. We are going to need a lot of luck," Sitos agrees and nods. Everyone else does the same, when suddenly, Hiro yawns.   "Ahh… Mmm… That was a good nap…" Hiro mumbles in a low energy tone of voice while rubbing his eyes with his fingers. His eyes dart around the room. He stands up while raising both arms in the air and exclaims, "Moria's gone! We're free! Why're we still here? Let's go home."    I clench my fists and grit my teeth, feeling veins protruding from my forehead, but I relax shortly afterward. Instead, I lightly laugh to suppress my frustration and anger. Hiro cocks an eyebrow and asks, "What's so funny, Kai?"    "Oh, nothing… We actually have to run around the building three times for the yellow ticket. Our red ones are on the table over there," I answer, pointing to the table at the front of the room.    "Ehhhhh…but I'm tired… Why do I have to?" Hiro complains and then pouts. I laugh harder. "Kai, you're creepin' me out… Is somethin' wrong?"   "Not particularly… I just remembered a funny joke; that's all… We should get going because we have a long day ahead of us…" I say while grabbing a red ticket. I leave the room, and the rest follow me to the entrance of the Academy. We give Fulharm our red tickets before starting our laps. We start around the same time, but as time goes on, the distance between us changes. I finish my last lap. Panting, I ask, "Instructor Fulfarm! What's my time?!"    "Oh, you're done, Kai? You took about 35 minutes. You were about five minutes slower than Sitos and ten minutes slower than the other boy," he responds as he points to Hiro and Sitos. I bitterly frown at Hiro's smug smile.   I can never understand how Hiro beats me every time… It doesn't make me feel good to be worse than him at something…   I wipe my face with my shirt when drops of sweat burn my eyes.   "Well, it looks like you still have to wait for the rest of your group. Take this." Fulharm hands me the yellow ticket. I sit next to Sitos and Hiro while waiting for the rest of the group.    He finishes first, yet he barely works up a sweat… It perplexes me… Nearly an hour passes before Marin finally finishes her third lap. She pants heavily as she limps over to us with her yellow ticket in hand.   "Haa… Sorry… Did you wait long?" she asks, leaning forward with her arms on her knees while trying to catch her breath.    I reply, "It's okay Marin… You tried your hardest, unlike someone I know…"   Marin's face turns a little red. Hmm… It'd be best if she takes it easy for a while…   "Marin, you can rest here while we exchange the yellow tickets into food supplies. Meet us back at our room when you're ready," I suggest.   A smile emerges on Marin's face as she looks up towards me. "Thanks…"   She hands me her ticket and then sits on the ground. I start walking towards the front of the Academy. Behind me, Luna says, "I think I'm gonna stay with Marin… I'm kinda tired too… You boys can take the supplies back to our home!"   "Don't worry Lunaster, leave it to us." Drugo takes Luna's ticket before we make our way to the pantry in the cafeteria area. We reach our destination in about three minutes.   "Hey Kai, doesn't this bring back memories?" Hiro asks from behind.   "What?"   "We were sittin' over there just a few months ago…"   "But we walk past this cafeteria every day…"   "Yeh, but I just remembered!" Hiro laughs uncontrollably. "Remember that one time? I chased ya with a carrot in my hand, and ya ran around forever!"   A horrifying memory resurfaces in my mind that sends a chill down my spine, but I refrain from showing a reaction. "Did something like that happen? I can't remember that far back…"   Hiro runs up to my right side, stares at me, and then asks, "What, really…? Are ya sure?"   I close my eyes and pretend to think. I open them after a few seconds and respond, "Yeah… I have no idea."   Sitos suddenly appears on my left side and asks, "More importantly, do you remember when Hiro face planted the floor? That moron was not watching where he was going and slipped on a banana peel. It was hilarious! I cannot remember when it happened, though."   I smile and break into a cackle without thinking too much of it. "I remember! It was the third month of the year, week three, and on Monday!"   Sitos stares at me blankly for several seconds. Suddenly, he smirks and then says, "So you do remember… That was the same day Hiro chased you with a carrot…"   The smile on my face freezes in place. Crap, I messed up!   "What, Kai, ya liar!"   "Ah, look we're there already! Let's hurry and exchange our tickets and not keep Marin and Luna waiting too long!"   I run toward the pantry to avoid prosecution from Hiro and Sitos. There's a guard standing outside of it as usual. I walk up to him. "Mister, we wanna go inside to get our supplies!"   I hand the two yellow tickets that I'm holding to the guard.   "You need four more if you want to get inside."   "Yeah, my friends over there are on their way here now," I explain as I point in the direction I came from. I turn my head and see no one. Huh…? Where'd they go?   I turn back towards the guard and nervously smile. "Umm…they must've gotten lost… I'll be back!"   I run back where I came from while looking everywhere for Sitos and company. What, how did they get lost…? We practically go here every day.   I run in circles around the cafeteria area and hallways for fifteen minutes straight. I can't find them. When I start sweating again, I walk instead, eventually passing the guard by the pantry again. He calls out to me, "Hey, you. I thought you already went back to rest?"   I turn towards the guard and cock an eyebrow. "What?"   "Your friends came by about fifteen minutes ago and gave me the rest of the tickets needed to get supplies. They told me you were tired and went to go rest in your room."   I blankly stare into the guard's face for several seconds, before I frown and clench my fists and teeth. Those bastards…!   I break into a full-on sprint towards the living quarters despite being somewhat tired from the pointless goose chase I was sent on. I arrive at the entrance of my dormitory room in just under ten minutes. While still panting, I grab the handle of the door and open it.   "Sito—"   "Kai, you should know better!" Luna exclaims while narrowing her eyebrows. I frown and knit my eyebrows together. "Just because you got a high score on your test doesn't mean you can abandon group responsibilities and do whatever you want!"     "Pardon?"   "Don't play dumb with me. You wanted to go train while everyone else transported our food supplies back home, right guys?"   She turns her head towards the guys who betrayed me, where I find Sitos' and Hiro's smiling faces. Sitos points at me and says, "Yes, look how sweaty he is. It is all the proof you need."    "What?! No, they're lying! I'm sweaty because I ran around looking for them!"   "He's guilty! Just give 'im the punishment already!"   I narrow my eyes on Hiro, who seems to be in high spirits despite what happened earlier. Damn traitor… Every single one of them… Wait…where's Drugo…?   I look around the room while pursing my lips. Drugo and Marin are nowhere to be found. Focusing my ears, the sound of running water is barely noticeable. So that's how it is…   When I smirk back at Hiro and Sitos, their merry expressions fade into worrisome ones. "Hey Luna, why don't you just ask Drugo? You won't believe me, but Drugo always tells the truth, right?"   My suggestion stops her frown, and she cocks an eyebrow. Drugo's door opens, and then he walks into the common room. Luna turns her head toward Drugo and inquires, "Oh, good timing Drugo. Can you explain why Kai didn't come back with you three?"    "Oh, that. Sitoster and Hiroster wanted to play a prank on Kai and pretended to get lost. While Kai was running around, we went into the pantry and came back here. Why do you ask?"   "I understand now. Thank you, Drugo," Luna says, turns her head back, and then walks toward me.    "Sorry, Kai…for not believing you… Can you forgive me…?" she asks as she clasps one of my hands with both of hers near her chest. She stares at me with puppy-dog eyes. I blush, looking back and forth between her teary eyes and my hand. My heart pounds.    She's…she's so cute… My lips are shaking before I respond, "Yeah…it's okay; I forgive you…"   I smile, and then her face melts into a grin. "Really?! That's great!"   Either Sitos or Hiro clicks his tongue. After looking in their direction, I find Sitos looking away with a frown. Luna turns toward them too and then says, "I don't have anything to say to you two."   I gulp as I stare down at my hand. She's still holding onto my hand…   The sound of another door opening resounds. Marin walks into the common room. Luna finally lets go of my hand, turns toward Marin, and exclaims, "Ah, Marin! Let's make lunch now!"   "Sure." Luna makes her way into the kitchen. Marin follows her and smiles as she passes me along the way.    "Well, aren't you guys lucky? You don't get a punishment," I say as I take a seat at the table.    "I thought she would be furious when she found out…" Sitos says as he takes a seat opposite side of me. Hiro sits himself between us at the end of the table. Drugo takes his seat next to Sitos. "More importantly, I think it is time you told us about Emdos. Who is he, really?"    "Yeah, tell us!"   "Mmm… There's not really much to tell… Let me think…" I close my eyes as I try to recollect my thoughts. I open them and say, "Well… According to Emdos, he was good friends with my parents, and they were adventurers together. Emdos later told me that they died in an accident a year after I was born. So, he quit being an adventurer and raised me."   My eyes follow Luna walking past the table and into her room before I continue, "And later, Emdos started teaching me Mana control when I was six."    "Hmm, I see… But you still have not explained how Emdos knew you were special and would not be in danger of manipulating Mana at a young age."   "Uh…actually… I don't really know either… Maybe my parents were really talented, and he just knew I would be too… Either way, I trust Emdos… He raised and took care of me, after all."   "Hey, is he strong?! What does he look like?" I don't answer Hiro's question immediately while my eyes follow Luna going back to the kitchen area.    "Uhh…yeah, he's really strong! I haven't seen him fight a lot, but I've watched him effortlessly take care of thieves and stuff! Umm… He has short brown hair, a mustache, and a beard. Now, tell me about your parents, Hiro!"   "Oh, actually… I don't have parents and neither does Drugo," Hiro explains as he points to Drugo with his right thumb. "We're both from the same orphanage in the poor part of the Residential District here in Drosera."   "Oh… So you know some of the other kids from the orphanage that go here?"   "Not exactly. We were the only two same-aged kids at our orphanage. There might be some first years that we recognize, but we haven't seen them," Drugo explains.    "Luna, what are you doing…?" Marin asks in a barely audible voice. Luna whispers something to Marin, but I can't make anything of it.    "Sitos, tell us ‘bout your family now!" Hiro exclaims.   "As you guys already know, I am from the Royal District. My parents are pretty wealthy, and we lived in this huge mansion. I have an older brother, an older sister, and a younger brother. There were also a lot of servants that did work around my home. I think my dad is one of the king's close aides, but I am not sure. Two years ago, my dad hired some weapon specialist in the army to train me."   "He's close to the king? That's kinda cool…" Hiro says and then directs his voice toward the girls. "What ‘bout ya girls? Everyone else has shared their stories already."   Marin glances at Luna before turning to us. "Umm… My parents are A-class adventurers…so they didn't raise me by themselves… They usually visited me once a week."   She smiles widely and continues, "But I became really good friends with the maid they hired to take care of me. She's almost like a second mom!"    "Wow!" Hiro exclaims as he jumps up from his seat. "Ain't that the second highest adventurer class? Your parents sound amazin’, Marin! How strong are they?"    "I don't know… I haven't seen them fight or anything like that… What about you, Luna?" Luna is stirring something in a pot on top of the stove. She doesn't show any reaction to Marin's question. Several seconds pass. "Luna?"    "Huh? Oh… A friend of my mom raised me in a village called Lycorias in Drosera, near the border to Elbar."   "Oh? What happened to your parents?" Hiro inquires.   "I didn't have a dad, and my mom died when I was six," Luna explains in a cheery voice with a strange smile. I quirk an eyebrow. Afterward, she snickers.    What's wrong with Luna…? The others sitting at the table return similarly confused looks before looking back at Luna.   Marin asks, "Luna, what's so funny?"    "Nothing," she responds and then stops laughing but continues to smile. She grabs a ladle and an empty bowl and announces, "Lunch is ready! It's Kai's favorite; soup! I'll serve everyone, come here!"   Everyone receives their own serving of soup, and we sit down at the table.   "Hey, Luna… Why is my soup the only one that looks…different…?" Sitos asks. I stop slurping my meal for a moment and stare at his.    He's right…there're carrots and other stuff in there…   Luna smiles and asks, "That's because you like carrots right? There're all kinds of stuff in there that you like! By the way, I expect you to finish it all."    "That is nice of you. Well, then I will start enjoying this!" Sitos scoops up the contents of the soup and puts it into his mouth. I think he chews it no more than three times before he suddenly gags. He opens his mouth widely and then empties the contents of his mouth onto the table. He stands up from his chair and yells, "Bleh! The fuck is this?!"    "It's soup made especially for you!" Luna exclaims with a smile that sends shivers down my spine. A terrifying memory resurfaces from my mind. I understand his pain.    "Haha Sitos! I get normal soup!" Hiro gloats.    Sitos narrows his eyebrows, points at Hiro, and exclaims, "Why does he not receive this inedible soup too?!"   "He comes tomorrow."   "Eh?" Hiro's care-free expression disappears.    "I don't want him feeling bad when he has to study for his test tomorrow… We need to get started on that so hurry up, won't you?"   "Fine… I just have to eat it, right?" Everyone enjoys their soup while Sitos bitterly consumes his. He covers his mouth, holds onto his stomach, and says, "I cannot believe I just ate this… I do not feel too good…"    "Isn't that great, Sitos? I think I can forgive you now."   "Can you at least tell me what that crunchy thing was…?"   "Crunchy thing…?" Luna asks as she points her eyes upward. "Oh… That was probably Mister Fluffy."   "Mister…Fluffy…?"   "Yeah…  There was this spider that made himself cozy in the corner of my room. I named him Mister Fluffy," she responds and then giggles. Sitos stands up suddenly, subsequently knocking down his chair on the ground. He runs into his room. A gag and water splashing resound.    I chuckle. I'm glad nothing's wrong with Luna… She was probably just excited about this little prank.    After our meal, we all get our notes for theory class and help Hiro understand the material. The studying continues for the majority of the day with a break during dinnertime. Sitos, unfortunately, doesn't have any appetite despite having a normal meal this time. We continue late into the night and finally call it around midnight when everyone retires.   The fated hour arrives tomorrow in the lecture room. Everyone silently watches Hiro as he takes his retake exam. Miraculously, Hiro finishes in just 30 minutes; half the time allotted to take the test. Moria takes his test and immediately looks it over. He stands up and says, "Okay, I have finished grading Hiro's test."    Did he pass…?   "I passed right? I'm pretty confident this time," Hiro says with his chest puffed out in front of him and arms crossed. I gulp as I focus my eyes on Moria.    "He failed," Moria states while displaying a dire look on his face. I only open my mouth and silently gape.   Are you…serious…?   "Well… I will let it slide this time… He was only a point shy from passing. I can tell he worked hard to get this score," Moria says as he changes his grim expression into a more light-hearted one. A deep sigh leaves me as I put my hand on my chest.   "Hiro the Great, you finally did it…"  I say as I walk up to Hiro and then punch him in the shoulder.    "Good for you, Hiroster," Drugo says.   "Now that this idiot finally passed, we can move to magic bonding classes…"   "Technically, he didn't pass, though…"   "Don't muck over the details, Kai!" Hiro exclaims while having his usual care-free laugh. I force a smile in response.   "Well, this is all great, but I really wanna attend classes I was supposed to go to yesterday! See ya all later!" I declare in a hurry as I run up the steps towards the exit of the room.   "Kai, wait!" I look behind me and find Luna running after me. With a smile, she says, "I'll come with you. We're both going to Fire magic bonding class, right?"    Oh yeah… Luna's going there too! I wait a few seconds for Luna to catch up before leaving the classroom, and we head for the second floor of the building. Hmm… What room number was it again…?   I aimlessly pick a random direction to walk in while looking around on both sides of the hallway.   "Kai, where're you going?"   I stop and turn around. She's pointing in the direction of another corridor I passed a few seconds ago. My face burns up. I put my hand on the back side of my head and say, "Oh, um… I wa-was just testing to see if you knew where we were going!"   I follow Luna, eventually going into a room on the left side of the corridor. Inside, there are other students emitting fire from their hands. An old man walks toward with robes similar to Moria, and he's bald. "Ah, you must be part of the group that failed the exams yesterday, right?"   I smile bitterly and laugh. "Yeah, I guess…"   He laughs and responds, "I'm just messing with you, boy! I know who you are. Moria informed me about the results of your test yesterday. You were the cause of that rumble two days ago right? Well, you two are a day late, but for now, just take this."   He hands Luna and me some kind of scroll with a strange, complicated-looking design on it. I knit my eyebrows as I examine both sides of the piece of parchment realizing that one side is blank. I intently stare at the side with the symbol on it. This symbol looks kinda familiar…   "What's this for?" I ask.   "That's a Magic Scroll. Specifically, it contains the keyword for a Basic Fire spell meant for training purposes. Basically, you can instantaneously learn the keyword to this magic, and then you can get a feel for how to bond the fire element to your Mana. Truthfully, you can learn how to manipulate fire given that you have the innate talent without using a Magic Scroll, but it greatly decreases the steep learning curve," the old man explains.    I raise my eyebrows. Wait a minute…! This looks really similar to that page I couldn't get past in the book Emdos gave me!   A smile emerges on my face, and my heart rate speeds up.   "Well, give it a try. To use the scroll, pour your Mana into the scroll. This is a Basic spell programmed using Scrap Mana, so you only need Scrap Mana to activate it." I hold the scroll with symbol-side up with my left hand while I put my right palm on top of it. I pour out Scrap Mana as the man instructed into the symbol. The symbol disappears, and then the scroll disintegrates into thin air while something appears in my head like I knew it all along.   "Everyone, get back! He's going to blow up the room!" a random boy exclaims. Other students back away from me after his warning. I cock an eyebrow and frown.   Why's everyone so scared of me…?    The old man turns toward them and says, "Don't worry everyone, as I mentioned before, the spell is programmed using Scrap Mana, so it is impossible to have such an effect."   Hmm… So the keyword's scorch… I guess I'll try it out… I recall from theory class that I have to gather a sufficient amount of Mana at the designated exit before shouting the keyword… I see. The exit is the right palm… I raise my right arm in front of me with the palm facing forward. "Scorch!"   A small amount of fire exits my right palm, and it goes forward about a foot before disappearing into thin air. Strangely, I don't feel any of the heat anywhere near my right palm, but I can feel some of the heat on every other part of my body. I attempt to change the direction of where my palm is facing and the fire comes out from the same angle in the direction I point my palm in.   "Magnificent! You got it on your first try! I suppose you are as good as Moria said you are." The fire stops coming out of my hand after about five seconds.   Hmm… There are a lot of stuff that happened in that short time period… I think some Fire element bonded with the Mana I gathered to the inside of my palm…and at the same time, they were instructed to leave in a straight direction at a given speed uniformly… And other stuff too…This is so complicated… My smile gradually transforms into a grin. I can't wait to practice this later! More importantly, that page in the book!   "Scorch!" Luna shouts. I turn to her, finding the same phenomenon in front of me.   "Nice, Luna!"   "Thank you, Kai," she answers with a smile.   We spend the remaining class time trying to bond our Mana with the Fire without the keyword. It is hard as I previously imagined, as I have no idea how to do it. When class ends, we obtain our red tickets and go off to do the usual endurance training for our yellow tickets. After lunch, I hurry into my room while locking the door. I think the book's still in my backpack…   I walk towards the closet and open it. In the corner, I find the backpack where I left it, grab it, and then open it. I toss the backpack aside and then walk toward the bed while flipping to the page with the strange symbol. I sit down on the bed as I stare down onto the page in question. I grin while putting my right palm on the page. This is it…! I'll do the same thing as earlier and put Scrap Mana into it…   I do just that, but nothing happens, so I quirk an eyebrow. That's weird… Oh, wait…this means that this spell uses Mana of higher quality than Scrap Mana, right…? I guess I'll try Unrefined Mana next.   Nothing happens again as I pour Unrefined Mana into the scroll. My forehead gets slightly damp from sweat. Could this be…? I need to use my Mana to do it? I might as well try Rich Mana first…   I attempt it with Rich Mana and the same result occurs. I gulp before releasing my Mana into the book. The symbol finally disappears and then the paper disintegrates. The information enters my head and the page behind is revealed. I put down the book and put my hand out in front of me while also gathering my Mana inside my palm. "Gate!"   A dark-purple gooey thing appears in front of me. I knit my eyebrows. What the hell?   I move around it, realizing that it is nearly flat in the vertical direction. I hesitantly move my hand toward it. I gulp, before finally mustering the courage to touch it. I skeptically curl one side of my lips upward as I don't feel anything despite putting my entire arm through it. I'm so confused… What's this do? I can't see through it, and it doesn't appear to do anything…   I sit down on the bed and pick up the book again. I immediately look at the eye-catching words on the current page. I gape at it for nearly ten seconds. Void…magic…? What's that…?   I shiver despite it being warm in the room. I jerk back in a jerking motion when a sudden knock on my door resounds. Drugo asks, "Kaister? I heard you yell something, is everything good?"   "Yeah, I'm just practicing some magic!" My heart beats like a drum. Calm down, Kai… The door is locked… I definitely can't let anyone know about this. I'm already so far ahead in the learning process compared to everyone else; if people knew I don't know how they will react…    I look more closely on the page and the words written on it. This page looks a lot older than the pages before it…and the handwriting's completely different… I guess I'll keep reading it.   To my son, Kai, this book is dedicated to you, our last hope… This book contains all of the knowledge of Void magic, the manipulation of time and space that we have accumulated…   It takes several seconds for me to process what I just read.   To my son, Kai… This was written by my father...! I'm not sure what the rest means. I purse my lips as I narrow my eyes, thinking about past events. Is this what Emdos meant when he said I was special…? Maybe he knew that my parents had a magic no one's heard of… I have so many questions I wanna ask him now. I'm gonna keep reading!   I continue to smile as I prepare to flip the page, but then I remember; the frightened reactions of my classmates yesterday and today. What should I do…? I don't wanna be ostracized by everyone… I was even given the option to skip a year…   I close my eyes to think long and hard. I have some kinda unique Mana no one else has… That's enough, right…?   I open my eyes and close the book. I put it back into the backpack, store it in the closet, and then lay down back on my bed. The strange purple thing has already disappeared.   "Hey Kai, I am going to go train. Come with me." Sitos says from outside the door.    "Yeah, sure!" I respond, run to the door, unlock it, and then continue my day like any other day.

We sit around the campfire Marin and Luna set up with the glowing books in hand. I spend several minutes flipping through a book while the others do the same. Sitos flips the page from the diary on the ground. Hiro exclaims, "Hey! I wasn't done with that page yet!"   "You are too slow. Find another book to read, dimwit."   "You're the dimwit, dimwit! Why don'tcha do that instead? I wanna read this one," Hiro says as he turns the page back. Sitos sighs. I chuckle and close the book I'm holding.   "Kai, you're done with that book already?" Luna asks.   "Yeah, I think I got the gist of it. This is a history book on the Leps, who I think these people were called. Apparently they were frequently at war with other races for a long time, and they finally decided to travel across the ocean in search of a new home. The book ended there."   "Travel across the ocean? Outside Sholoth?" Luna asks. "Doesn't that mean…"   "Yeah, they came from the 'Cursed Territory.' Maybe these other races are the reason why no one came back from any expeditions across the ocean…" I answer as I toss the book aside and then pick up another one.   "The Leps must've been really strong! They came from the 'Cursed Territory,' yet they survived and came to Sholoth. According to this book, the Leps separated their race into six different groups: Arius, Selenas, Giso, Melle, Tuluin, and Bigelis," Luna informs while still reading. "They each have their own set of values."   Drugo turns a page. "I'm still reading this book, but it's about the techniques of the Arius clan about digging and building new habitats."   "Hiro, you're being pretty quiet over there. Did you guys find something interesting?" I ask.   "Shh! Quiet, Kai! We're getting' to the good part!"   I cock an eyebrow. Hiro's interested in a book? Now I really wanna know what they're reading in that diary…   "Marin, you look focused over there. Is there something interesting in that book?"   "Yeah, it's a cooking book."   Luna immediately drops her book and exclaims, "Oh! Let me read that with you too!"   She scooches over to Marin's side and then reads alongside her. I pick another book from the pile of books Hiro tossed aside and then open it. Hmm… Looks like this one's about weapons. I guess I'll read some of this.   Several minutes pass. Sitos quietly says, "We just finished this diary…"   "And? What was it about?" I ask while still reading the book in my hands.   "It's too much to explain! Just come read it yourself."   "That will take too long, dimwit. Everyone, stop what you’re doing and come here. Read the first-day entry, and I will summarize the rest," Sitos says. I close and set aside my book while others do the same. We gather around the table and then gaze down on the first page of the book.   To my fellow Lep, A week ago, we sent a group out to Vorgium to propose the underground tunnel plan, but they never came back. And a few days ago, I and a dozen other warriors set out at midnight toward Vorgium to discover what happened. The place was completely and utterly destroyed. Multiple large craters opened up the village underneath, and everyone lay lifeless on the floors of Vorgium. It was eerie to find so many of our brethren dead on the ground, yet there were no signs of what or who they were fighting…   That's kinda like what we found here…   On our way back to Sestai, we encountered something.   Is that the name of this place?   It hovered in the air above us, despite that it didn't have any wings. Its entire body was covered in metal or some kind of rock while it held onto a large mysterious weapon.   I knit my eyebrows, thinking about what I saw earlier.   We tried to communicate with it, but it attacked us immediately. Magic and physical attacks proved ineffective. In the end, my brothers sacrificed their lives in order to let me escape. I came back to the capital and informed everyone what I had witnessed. We immediately sent out messengers toward the villages where we had already implemented the underground tunnel plan though it may have been too late. Only one of the five messengers we had sent out came back, and only half of the village arrived while the rest apparently were dead. We caved in all of the connected tunnels and prepared for possibly what may be our last battle. I assume every other village has fallen as I write this diary that may log the last moments of the Arius clan.   I finish reading. Everyone else finishes up within fifteen seconds. Sitos says, "Okay, I will summarize the rest.   "They prepared for battle after day one. They were desperate and equipped every Lep, trained in battle or not. The less experienced were put in the backline. On the 19th day, a scout notified them about it coming during the night who they named the 'Harbinger of Death.' They sacrificed over a thousand warriors to the surface to intercept it, leaving the best fighters behind for the second line of defense. It's weapon shit on every kind of magic and physical attack the Leps threw at it. They—"   "Fought valiantly the entire night!" Hiro exclaims. "Then they retreated back inside their base. But the 'Harbinger of Death' didn't let 'em. They continued their battle inside their village underneath, which eventually led into the coliseum, where their best fighters stood. They battled for 12 hours straight and finally brought him down at the cost of thousands of lives. Their population reduced to mostly women and children with less than a hundred capable fighters left. For the next seven days, they note the passin' crisis and how they're rebuildin’ the place…but the diary entries mysteriously end there… I bet that 'Harbinger of Death' or whatever wasn't actually killed and came back to life and killed them all!"   "Nah… I think we found it in that coliseum room earlier. I saw some statue-like thing in the middle of the room," I mention.   "The room you said with those corpses pointing toward the middle?" Sitos asks.   "Yeah. Let's go back up there and take a closer look at that statue… Maybe we'll discover some—watch out!" I exclaim and shove Sitos aside as something falls from the ceiling.   Sitos falls on his butt and mutters, "Kai, what the…"   No one says a word as some gooey slime drops onto the floor where Sitos stood previously, a foot away from several of us. The color of it matches the glowing blue text on the books. We jump back as it starts to move.   "What is that?!" Hiro exclaims.   "Stand back, I'll use my magic!" Luna exclaims. "Fireball!"   A flaming ball of fire with a diameter a little over a foot comes out of Luna's palm that flies toward the mysterious blue slime. It bursts into flames, covering the entirety of the slime. It stops moving as it burns. I gather some Rich Mana in my right hand and prepare the instructions just in case. A moment later, the flames die out, revealing that the slime looks exactly the same. Hiro picks up a book.   "Take that!" he exclaims as he throws it at the slime. Some of its body splashes apart as the book slowly sinks into the slime. The parts of the slime that separated move toward its main body. They combine together and then glides along the floor toward Drugo beside me, leaving the book behind. I point my right palm toward it.   "Fireball!" A flaming sphere with a diameter of a foot comes out of my right palm toward the blue slime. I break down more of my Mana into Rich Mana and then pool it in my right hand. "Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!"   All of them hit the slime directly and burst into flames every time. The flames continue to burn with no signs of anything moving. I rear back when the slime emerges from the flames unscathed despite still on fire. It continues to move toward Drugo. Sitos shouts, "Hiro!"   "I got it! Water ball!" A ball of water comes out of Hiro's palm that splashes on the blue slime, extinguishing the flames from my magic. Sitos charges at the blue slime with one sword.   "Lightning!" A yellow bolt of lightning comes out of Sitos' left palm toward the blue slime. Electricity sparks on the surface of the slime. He slams down his weapon on the slime from above, cleanly bisecting it. The slime instantly moves again, rejoining into one while creeping up Sitos' sword. He drops his weapon, jumps backward, and yells, "What?!"   A moment later, Sitos shouts, "Look out above!"   There are more slimes dropping from the ceiling on the others. Luna, Drugo, Marin, and Hiro jump back before they fall on them. One of my weapons is near a slime. I ignore it and only pick up my sword nearby. I walk backward toward the other hallway we haven't explored. I exclaim, "Let's get outta here!"   The others gather around me, Sitos arriving last. He has abandoned the sword he dropped earlier. I illuminate the dark passage with fire coming out of my forehead. I lead the group at a speed everyone can keep up with. Hiro exclaims, "We're screwed if this is a dead end!"   "Stay positive! We don't know if those things are dangerous yet," I say.   "Then why're we running?"   "I don't wanna stay to find out."   "Friends, there should be an emergency exit near the bottom of this place," Drugo informs.   "How do you know?" I ask.   "It was mentioned in the book I was reading. I figured I might find something like that in there, so I kept reading."   "Nice one. If only the dimwit found something too…" Sitos says.   "Who's the dimwit, dimwit? You coulda left to read another book…"   "What are you talking about? I am the one who found that book."   "Guys, stop bickering!" I shout.   "Yeah, Kai's right! We need to work together and leave this place!"   "Didja hear that, Sitos? Mom and dad are mad at us now." My face burns up. I fantasize about marrying Luna one day.   "Shut up!"   "Ya don't need to be that mad about it…" Suddenly, I lose my footing, snapping back into reality at the same time. The floor below me breaks. I fall into the darkness below.   "Ahh!" I interject.   "Kai!" Marin exclaims. I let go of my sword. Marin barely grabs a hold of my fingers. Her hand slides off and then falls down too. Drugo catches her from behind. I fall for several seconds. I grimace as I hit the ground below me.   "Kaister, are you okay?" Drugo asks.   "Yeah, I'm fine!" I inform. It looks like they're over 25 feet above me. "I'll catch up with you guys eventually! We just need to keep going down, right?"   "Yep, be careful!" With that, Drugo and the others move away from the hole I dropped into. I locate my sword, pick it up, and then get up from the ground.   What is this place? I look around. The walls and ground aren’t made of stone anymore. There's dirt everywhere, like in the cave we were in earlier, but the width of this passage is much smaller. I walk in the same direction as everyone else. There are small holes along the edges of the wall. I flinch as something appears in my vision. A small white lizard stays still in front of me. It doesn't have any eyes. What is that…? Luna and Marin would probably be excited if they saw this. Maybe I'll kill it and put it in my backpack.   The lizard crawls away into a nearby hole. I sigh and then continue onward. Eventually, the passage breaks into three possible ways; one continues forward while the others branch left and right. I choose to follow straight. Something squeaks. I turn around to check. A rat runs into the intersection from the left. Oh, it's only a rat…   I stare into its eyes. Several seconds later, it turns back into the passage on my left. It squeaks again as I'm facing forward again. The squeaking is much louder, as if it's in pain. I gulp as I slowly walk toward the intersection. Suddenly, blood splatters toward the center of the intersection. I stop, my heart pounding hard. I prepare myself to run at a moment's notice. I gulp again, slowly creeping toward the corner. I take a peek around the adjacent passage with only my head. I widen my eyes. A familiar blue slime oozes across the floor. It disappears into the darkness, leaving the bloody dead rat behind.   Holy shit! Okay, blue slime, dangerous, confirmed! How'd those things catch up so fast…? At least it didn't notice me… I turn around and then continue forward, hoping to find a specimen to take home. It doesn't take long before the path splits into three paths again ahead. Suddenly, the path on the left becomes progressively brighter. Two seconds later, Luna comes out with fire coming out of her right palm. "Luna, what're you doing here alone…?"   "Oh, hi Kai! We got separated after you fell…"   "What happened exactly?"   "Well… Marin suggested that we carry around torches in case we get separated in the future, so I don't have to be the only source of light. Marin created a few sticks, and I lit them on fire. At some point, the floor around broke apart, and Marin fell. But we continued forward after she had said she was fine. I fell down too because I'm a klutz…"   It feels like her voice entrances me as we stare into each other's eyes. "I see…"   "I think Marin's this way…" She points toward the path on the right.   "Let's go this way then," I say with a smile as I walk in that direction.   "Wait!" She runs directly in front of me and then turns toward me.   "Wh-what?" I ask. My face burns up as she presses her breasts together with her arms.   "Can you wait here for me…? I promise I'll come back in a bit."   I knit my eyebrows and answer, "Uh, sure."   "Thanks, Kai! You're the best!" she exclaims as she runs deeper into this passage.   Something feels off about her… Maybe she's not afraid to show her charm when she's alone with me! I fantasize about her for an entire minute. The blue slime comes to mind, and I stop smiling. Wait… The direction Luna's heading in now…is in the same direction as that slime…   I gulp as I stare into the darkness Luna headed into a minute ago. "Hey, Luna! Are you there?!"   There's silence. Several seconds later, a high-pitched scream resounds. I immediately sprint into the passage. Did something happen to Luna?!   I find myself in a large open room after about 45 seconds of running. The room is filled with vegetative plant growth of those I've never seen before. The trunk of a tree goes through the ceiling of the room. While walking around, I ask, "Luna, where're you?"   The ground below me is mushy; it's mud. Is there water running down here…?   A drop of water hits my head. There are drops of water leaking from the ceiling. "Luna!"   I continue exploring the room for several minutes. There's someone on the ground ahead. I run closer, discovering Marin. I drop my sword. "Marin!"   I kneel down near her, lift her head off the muddy ground, and then lightly slap her cheeks. "Marin! Hey, Marin!"   Her eyelids twitch several times. I sigh as she slowly opens her eyes. She quietly asks, "Kai…?"   She widens her eyes. "Kai?!"   She quickly sits up. A moment later, she grips one side of her head with her hand, grimacing. "Marin, are you okay?"   "Yeah… I'm fine…"   "What happened to you?"   "I don't really remember… I remember I got separated from everyone else when I fell into a hole like you… After that, I found this room and… I think I screamed when I lost my footing. I probably hit something with my head as I fell…" I look around. There aren't any rocks nearby. There's only a stick near her with one end burnt.   That's right… Where's Luna?!   "Marin! Kai! Are you out there?!" Luna exclaims in the distance behind me.   "Yeah! We're both over here!" I yell as I stand up. I offer my hand and ask, "Can you stand?"   "Thanks…" She takes it and then gets up while looking away from me. Something about her face makes me lose concentration.   Was she always a beauty…?   "Um… Kai?" she asks. I'm still holding her hand. I snap back to reality and let go.   "O-oh, sorry… Le-let's go!" I exclaim as I quickly pick up my weapon and turn around, heading in the direction of Luna's voice. What's wrong with me? Why am I nervous when I have Luna...?   I shake my head. Eventually, we rejoin the rest of the group, and they lead us to the stairs they found. I think back to the moment I was with Luna alone. I walk next to her and then ask, "By the way Luna…are you hurt at all from when you fell?"   She turns her head toward me and quirks an eyebrow. "What're you talking about?"   I knit my eyebrows and then say, "You know, when you found me at that intersection not that long ago. You said Marin suggested making those torches everyone else is holding…and you told me to wait at the intersection for to explore the passage on the right."   She continues to give me the same confused expression. "It's true Marin suggested that…but…"   "Kai, have ya gone crazy? Luna's been with us the entire time," Hiro informs. An ominous, cold feeling creeps down my back as I look down.   What? Did I imagine Luna doing all of that?   "Have you been drinking enough water? Dehydration can cause hallucinations…" Luna informs. I close and open my mouth repeatedly. The inside of my mouth is incredibly dry, and my lips are chapped.   "I haven't been, actually… Maybe that's what's wrong with me," I say weakly.   "Be glad that I can use Water magic!" Hiro exclaims. "I'll make ya some right now."   "Dimwit, do not do that. He cannot drink the water you make," Sitos says.   "What's that supposed to mean?!"   "Calm down, Hiroster. He's just referring to any kinda water created by Water magic. It's unhealthy to consume magical water as it's not the same thing as consuming actual water," Drugo informs.   "Oh, alright then… Sorry 'bout that, Sitos."   "I am used to it."   "Then what 'bout earlier? Well, never mind." We reach the staircase they mentioned a moment ago. They are made of the same stone as the rest of the structure we were in previously. We take the stairs down.   "By the way, I encountered the blue slime again earlier… We can't let it touch us at all," I say.   "Did it touch you? Are you hurt?" Luna asks as she grabs my left arm. I pull it away immediately.   "I'm fine! It didn't touch me at all, but I saw it touch a rat, well, I didn't see it, but it definitely did."   "Did you see it or not? Explain clearly," Sitos says.   "So I saw this rat… Then it started squeaking frantically after I lost sight of it around a corner. Several seconds later, blood splatters all over the ground. By the time I checked to see what happened, the rat's bloody corpse was on the ground, and I saw the blue slime going deeper into the passage," I explain.   "That sounds scary…" Marin says.   "Seriously? Holy shit. It almost got to me when it started creeping up my sword earlier…"   "What're those things anyway?" Hiro asks. "I don't think I've seen 'em in any book at the Academy."   "I don't know, but maybe one of the teachers will! When we get back, we should tell them everything!" Luna suggests.   "Don't you think it's weird we haven't seen any of them since?" I ask as we ignore another floor we come across, going only deeper down.   "They are just slowpokes," Sitos says.   "Yeah, but there was that one I found creeping around. There might be more around here."   "You are worrying too much," Sitos says. We eventually reach the bottom after hundreds of steps, but there's no exit in sight.   "Where's that exit you were talking about?" I ask.   "Hmm… It should be around here…" Drugo says as he goes toward a nearby wall, banging on the wall with the hilt of his sword. I nod my head and then go to a separate wall to do the same thing. Sitos and Hiro do the same thing on another wall. A noise resounds from Sitos' direction.   "It is here," Sitos informs. We gather near the wall in front of Sitos. Drugo and Sitos attack the wall with their weapons repeatedly at the same time. The wall eventually crumbles, revealing a secret passage. It feels like something is coming behind me. I turn around and then widen my eyes.   "Guys, we need to leave, now!" I exclaim as several of the blue slimes drop from above. They're combining to form bigger globs of goo. We hurry into the secret tunnel. The walls and ground are made out of rough stone, but the color is brownish rather than smooth gray stone in the place we were just in. The ceiling is just a few feet taller than me, and the width is only wide enough to comfortably fit the four of us running next to each other.   I turn around and then shoot a ball of fire from my left palm ahead using Scrap Mana. It illuminates the path behind us, revealing a wave of blue slime approaching us. As I continue to run behind the rest of my group, I exclaim, "Guys, it's catching up really fast! We need to do something!"   "Do what? We can't do anythin' to it, remember? I wish it stops followin' us instead," Hiro says.   "Wait… That is it! Hiro the Great, you said something useful!" Sitos exclaims.   "What'd you get from what he said?" I ask.   "Yeah, what'd I say?"   "We can make it stop following us…by creating a wall between us."   "You aren't suggesting that we…" I don't finish that sentence, aware of the dangers that it may bring.   "It is our only shot here. We have to take it. Bring down the ceiling," Sitos says. I stop running and then turn around. I point my right palm toward the ceiling with an underhand position. Luna stands beside me on my left side pointing toward the same point with both of her palms with underhanded positions too. Marin stands on my right and puts her hands on the wall next to her. I break down my Mana into Rich Mana.   "Fireball! Fireball! Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!"   "Twin flamethrowers!" Balls of fire fly out of my palm that bursts into flames on the ceiling. At the same time, a large amount of fire comes out both of Luna's palms toward the same point on the ceiling. The flames are constantly flowing out in a cylindrical-shaped fashion. I assume Marin is doing something within the ceiling. The blue slimes are closing in on us up ahead.   "Okay, Hiro the Great will assist you!" Hiro exclaims as he lunges forward with an underhanded swing. His weapon impacts with the ceiling. The force of his blow breaks the head of his hammer, but something vibrates and rumbles around us. Luna and I both stop using our magic and take several steps back. Hiro does the same after he tosses away his broken weapon. I close my eyes and put my hands in front of my face as small particles blow against my face.   "Kaister, get back!" Drugo exclaims. Someone pulls me back. Loud rumbling continues to resound for several seconds. I open my eyes. The path is completely blocked off by rocks.   It looks like those things aren't coming now… I sigh.   "Looks like the crisis is over. Good job, you four," Sitos says.   "You guys did good too. Drugo for discovering this passage, and you for coming up with the plan," I add.   "Wow! That's the first time Sitos ever complimented me!" Hiro cheers.   There are pink marks covering the back of Hiro's hands. I ask, "More importantly, are your hands okay? You were pretty close to the fire…"   "Oh… Ow!" Hiro exclaims as he shakes both of his hands.   "That's just like you, Hiro," Luna says and then laughs. We all laugh. For some reason, Hiro's laughing too.   "Why're you laughing…?" I ask with doubt.   "I was just remembering that time I chased you around with the carrot again."   "That was hilarious!" Sitos exclaims. The laughing switches to me. I frown as I pinch my glabella between my thumb and index finger for a moment. I walk past everyone, continuing down the passage.   "That's enough standing around. Let's get out of here!"   "It's okay, Kai! I still like you," Luna says. I blush.   "Yo-you like me…?"   "Yeah, I do! And I like everyone else too!" She says with a smile. My heartbeat races as I reciprocate her smile.   "I see… I li-like you too…and everyone else, of course," I say as my eyes wander between her eyes and the wall behind her. Sitos suddenly walks between us.   "Let us leave. We have been standing here for too long," he says and then continues down the path. We follow him, going down the passage for nearly 20 minutes before there's an exit ahead, accompanied by the sound of rushing water. We stand at the edge of the exit. Apparently the exit leads to the back of a waterfall several hundred feet in the air.   "Uhh…" Hiro interjects. I chuckle at first, but I break into an uncontrollable laugh as I stand behind everyone. Everyone slowly turns their head around, saying nothing for several seconds.   "Umm… Kai…?" Luna asks.   "Wait, Kai…do not…" Sitos mutters. I don't let their words phase my determination. I stop laughing, but I grin at them and spread out my arms in preparation.   Hiro exclaims, "Kai, wait! I need to mentally pre—"   I run while jumping and pushing forward with all my strength. I laugh loudly as I fall along with everyone else who is screaming their lungs out.

I jump off the bed and then run to the main door. Screams resound outside. I open the door and then walk a few steps outside. I widen my eyes and drop my jaws as my eyes wander around.   The building across from me is on fire and crumbling. People are running in every direction. My eyes linger on a man wearing a white mask. He chases an unarmed man and slashes his back with his sword. The unarmed man falls forward. A bolt of lightning appears above the masked man and shocks him. The masked man drops his weapon and falls. A group of four runs up to the injured man. One of them casts Healing magic on his injury while the other three protects them from more masked men.   The smiling faces of Luna, Sitos, Drugo, and Marin flash in my head one after the other. My body instantly breaks into a sprint. I run past the chaos unfolding in front of me, heading toward the Adventurer's District. My heart pounds rapidly. The masked fighters are clashing with everyone near them.   "Mommy!" A young boy cries, standing still in the middle of several fights going on. A woman is being dragged toward an alley by a masked man leaving behind a trail of blood. I unsheathe my weapons while following him.   "Let her go!" I yell. He drops her and turns toward me. The cloak he's wearing obscures my vision of anything he's carrying.  I slowly walk toward him with my weapons ready. He backs away with every step I take. Suddenly, he jumps toward the wall. I knit my eyebrows as he kicks off the wall and then jumps to the other. Repeating until he disappears onto one of the roofs nearby. I sheathe my weapons and kneel down to the woman. "Hey, are you alright?"   Her eyes are open, but there's no response. A pool of blood is quickly forming around her stomach. I close my eyes for a moment, sigh, and shake my head. I close her eyes before standing back up. The least I can do is save the boy…   I turn back to the streets. There are already two people talking to the boy. I sigh. They look reliable. I'm glad he's safe now.   I resume running toward the Adventurer's District. I avoid the corpses littered on the ground in the area. There aren't any masked people here anymore. Suddenly, an explosion resounds behind me followed by more screams. I turn around and gape, my eyes losing focus. There's a cloud of smoke and dust around the spot the boy and the two other were. Someone yells, "Kai, look out above you!"   I look above me. There's someone falling about to attack me with an axe. A burst of water appears and pushes them away toward the other side of the street. They crash into the wall. I find Hina running toward me. "Hina…"   She stops in front of me and asks, "Kai, what're you doin' just standin' there absentmindedly? Where's the rest of your group?"   I focus my eyes back on the situation. "That's right… I need to meet up with them! Thanks, you saved me!"   "And I need to meet up with mine," she says and then starts running in the direction opposite of me. "Stay alive out there. It's every man for himself!"   I resume running toward the Adventurer's District. I grit my teeth and avert my eyes from the carnage in front of me. The masked attackers are everywhere. Smoke rises in the distance all around the city. I recall Hiro's last moments again and squeeze my eyes shut for a second. I try to mute out the screams for help around me. It aches my heart to do so when I have to power to save them. Even so, I run past everything, somehow avoiding most of the skirmishes. I think about the good and peaceful times with the others. Everyone, please be safe!   Panting, I arrive at the Adventurer's District. It's quiet. The only thing I hear is the sound of crackling buildings on fire. I widen my eyes while continuing to run toward the Adventurer's Hub. There isn't a living thing in sight. There are only the dead bodies of civilians, masked people, guards, and adventurers; mostly the latter. I slow my pace a little, not wanting to find out what awaits me at the end. A cold chill goes down my spine. I gulp and then quicken my pace.   I stop running as the Adventurer's Hub is in sight, widening my eyes. Hiro the Great and Company's caravan is parked outside of it. Flames cover the entire transport. I grit my teeth, sprint toward it, and prepare my magic. I cover my hands in Fire magic using Rich Mana. I firmly grasp the door handle of the caravan with both hands and pull. It doesn't open. Damn door!   I plant my feet on the wall next to the door and push while still pulling on the door. The door suddenly bursts open.   "Ahh!" I scream as a gust of hot smoke blows me away. I cough and stand back up. Hiro's body is still inside. I run forward and yell, "Hiro!"   The caravan crackles and part of the ceiling falls. I stop running as a piece of it blocks me from entering the transport. It doesn't look like anyone else is inside. Shit! I told Hiro I would bring him home! I can't—   The whole caravan collapses. Hot flames repel me away. Shit!   Tears flow down my eyes as the caravan continues to burn. I clench my teeth and fists. Damn it… I'm sorry, Hiro… I'll get you out later. That's a promise.   I stop emitting flames from my hands and turn toward the entrance to the Adventurer's Hub. I have to let everyone else know. You guys are inside the building, right?   I walk toward the building, my eyes unfocused. I smile. That's right…everyone must have taken shelter inside. That's a good idea. People did the same thing in other parts of the city. Good thinking guys.   I go into the dark building, finding Drugo face down on the ground near the entrance. I smile, walk toward him, and say, "Hey, Drugo. I knew you guys were okay. You can get up now. It looks like all those masked people left this area already. Where're—"   I step in a puddle. What's water doing here?   I look down and lift up my foot. It's blood. Huh…?   Suddenly, the smell of blood enters my nostrils. I stop smiling, focus my eyes, and look around. There's blood everywhere. More than a dozen bodies are littered across the room. Chills course through my entire body. I look down on Drugo again. I drop my jaws and widen my eyes. A massive pool of blood is around him. There's a hole in the back of his armor.   "Hey, Drugo!" I yell as I shake his body. There's no response. I check his pulse, and there's nothing. My entire face twitches as tears well up in my eyes. I look down and cry. Damn it… Did I make the same mistake…? All because I decided to visit Emdos…   Luna's smiling face as I left the caravan appears in my mind. I sniff up the snot dripping down my nose. I look up. Luna…   I widen my eyes. Luna's on the ground on the other side of the room. She’s near the brightest part of the building with weak rays of light penetrating through holes in the ceiling. She appears to be unharmed. I stand up and yell, "Luna!"   I take no more than one step forward before another footstep resounds near me. I gulp as I turn toward the noise. A masked attacker stands there, his entire body shrouded by a cloak. He's dual-wielding swords. I raise my eyebrows. Those look like the swords we discovered in those ruins…   Something is dripping down one of his swords. It's blood. I frown and grit my teeth into a snarl, tears still flowing down my eyes. "You… Are you the one who killed Drugo?"   He doesn't answer. I draw both my swords and charge at him. "I'll kill you!"   He throws both of his swords at me and charges forward too. I hold my blades in front of the sword's path, deflecting them. I prepare to swing my blades, when suddenly, his weapons find their way back into his hands. I parry his blows one after the other. I widen my eyes as a crack appears on one of my weapons. I parry his next attacks using a different part of the sword. I grit my teeth. An opening!   I kick him back and then throw my left sword at him with full strength. I point my left palm toward the center of his body as he stumbles backward and deflects my weapon. I charge at him and shout, "Fire bolt!"   Fire in the shape of a fat arrow appears out of my palm and flies toward him. He throws his right blade at me and then puts his cloak in front of my magic's path. I dodge his sword and continue to charge forward. My magic instantly burns his cloak to ashes. It lands in the center of his armor, scattering the flames forward. He screams as the center of his armor steams and melts partially. I throw my arm back and yell, "Die!"   I swing my weapon down with all my strength. He takes a step back at the last moment. I take a step forward and prepare a follow-up attack, his back now against the wall. This is for Drugo!   His mask falls, cut into two pieces. I stop my sword at the last second and gape. My heart skips a beat. No…no way…   Sitos is the one behind that mask. He's frowning, his eyebrows are narrowed, and his eyes devoid of any light. A small amount of blood leaks from a vertical cut on his face. My arm shakes, and I loosen my muscles in my entire arm. Suddenly, he knocks the sword out of my hands with his. He screams, "Kai!"   When I realize, it's too late. His weapon slices through my armor and cuts diagonally across my chest. I scream and stumble backward. His right arm is extended forward. I turn around toward my left. His other weapon is spinning in the air toward me. It cuts me through my left shoulder. It feels like something pushes me backward before his weapon cuts through the rest of my body. I scream again as I fall backward. Sitos catches his weapon. I try to move, but I'm unable to. I can't even turn my head or move a finger.   "Sitos… Why…" I mutter. He doesn't say anything as he walks toward me. I can't see him since my head rests on the floor on my left. Clapping and footsteps resound from somewhere else in the room, steadily growing closer. Another masked attacker appears in front of me.   "Fantastic performance, Sitos. Just in time for the main show," the masked man says. I raise my eyebrows.   "You…! What’d you do to Sitos?!"   He laughs and then answers, "I didn't do anything. He did all of that on his own will."   "Liar!"   "It is not a lie, Kai," Sitos responds. I relax my facial expressions.   "Wh-what're you talking about, Sitos?" I ask, my eyes and lips quivering.   "Is it not obvious by now?"   "Th-this is-isn't a good jo-joke, Sitos. Stop me-messing around."   "How can you be so ignorant of everything around you? That part about you annoyed me."   "Huh?" I ask and knit my eyebrows.   "I hate you!" he yells and then spits on my face. "I have always hated you!"   "Th-that can't be true Sitos… This guy must've done something to you…"   Sitos laughs and then responds, "I do not understand how you can still be so trusting of me. Drugo did not doubt me even at the very end. Look at the good that did him. A shame Hiro kicked the bucket before I got to gut that idiot."   I widen my eyes. "That's a lie, Sitos! Stop lying! You wouldn’t say that about Hiro and Drugo's your friend. I'm your friend. Why—"   "Friend? I can hardly believe you still think I am your friend in this situation…but you are not my fucking friend."   "I'm—"   "Shut up, shut up, shut up!" he yells. "What kind of friend… were you Kai? You took everything I have ever wanted from me. You ended up with the girl of my dreams. If that was not enough, you surpassed me in swordplay without even trying.  If that was not enough, you got my father's acknowledgment! You did not even notice any of that like the ignorant piece of shit that you are, Kai!"   I hear his panting. There's anger in his voice, but there's also sadness. My eyes tear up. I don't know how to respond to that. "Sitos I—"   "You cannot possibly be that stupid, right Kai? You pretended not to notice. You actually did everything on purpose to hurt me, did you not… Kai?"   "What? No, I—"   "Now I am going to show you how it feels when I take something from you," Sitos says and then walks away. I knit my eyebrows.   What's he talking about…? I raise my eyebrows as his footsteps resound toward Luna's location. "Sitos, no! You can't kill her! If you hate me, then kill me! Didn't you like Luna? You can't kill her! She's your friend!"   Sitos laughs and then says, "Do not worry, Kai. I am not going to kill her. You really are ignorant."   I grit my teeth and stare at the masked man in front of me. There's a black snake on the left side of his mask that curves around the top toward the center of it.  Everything's his fault… If I kill this guy, Sitos will go back to normal.   I prepare instructions for my magic. The masked man laughs and then says, "Kai… I'll say this just in case you're planning something. If you try anything, I'll end that girl's life."   I knit my eyebrows as he takes out some kind of contraption. He continues, "You saw that the girl's wearing a collar, right? Well, just watch…"   Seconds later, Luna screams. With tears welling up in my eyes, I shout, "Luna! What happened?!"   The masked man laughs and then says, "See? You'll just have to enjoy the show."   I cancel my instructions and yell, "You fucker! Emdos won't forgive you for this!"   He doesn't answer for several seconds. He laughs loudly. "Emdos won't forgive me? Emdos won't forgive me?"   He continues laughing. "What's so funny?!"   He chuckles a few times before replying, "Nothing… So, where is this Emdos character?"   "Th-that is…"   "Kai! Help me! I can't move! Sitos' gonna kill me…! He killed Drugo!" Luna shouts with a tearful voice.   I grit my teeth and try to clench my fists. My fingers don't move, but my hands tense up. I yell, "Sitos, stop!"   I hear something being cut. Luna screams, "No!"   Sitos laughs. "Luna! What's going on?!"   The masked man laughs and then says, "Oh, that's right. You can't see anything from that angle. Let me help you with that."   He turns my head the other way. I widen my eyes and gape. No… He wouldn’t…   Sitos is mounted on top of Luna, her upper half completely bare. Luna's eyes meet with mine. "Kai, don't watch! Close your eyes, please!"   Tears flow out of her eyes. With of a smile on his face, Sitos grabs her breasts and buries his face in the center of them. Luna screams, "No, stop!"   "Sitos, you bastard! You fucking bastard!" I yell. Sitos lifts up his head and turns toward me. He grins.   "You already cannot take any more? I am just getting started…" he says and then turns back. He cuts her shorts in half and then removes the last piece of clothing on her body. I can't stop the tears from coming out of my eyes.   I squeeze my eyes shut and yell, "Sitos! You've made your point! I'm sorry! Please, stop! I'll do anything!"   "N-no! St-stop it!" Luna screams. I open my eyes, finding Sitos' head buried between her legs. He jerks his head back and gags. He spits on her. A pale yellow liquid gathers between her legs.   "You stupid bitch…" Sitos mutters. "I will put you in your place!"   Sitos loosens his belt and then pulls his pants down. He spreads her legs apart. Luna tearfully says, "Please, don’t… That's reserved for Kai… I made a promise…"   "Sitos, stop! Please! What do you want?! I'll do anything!" I scream, but Sitos ignores me. He penetrates her.   "No!" Luna screams and cries. I bite my lip so hard it bleeds.   "Sitos, I'll fucking kill you!" I yell. A dull pain radiates from inside my chest and the back of my throat. Sitos laughs and takes his erect penis out of her. Blood leaks out.   "What is this, Kai? You two did not do it yet? This is perfect!" Sitos exclaims then penetrates her again. He repeatedly thrusts with her breasts in his hands.   "Stop! No! Kai, help me!" Luna screams with tears constantly coming out of her eyes. It feels like my fingers might break from the pressure I'm putting on them. My teeth puncture my bottom lip completely. I squeeze my eyes shut and try to block out Luna's screams for help.   Shit… I'm so fucking weak… So fucking useless… I can't do anything to help her… Sitos…that fucking bastard… I open my eyes, only to find the same scene in front of me, Sitos thrusting himself into Luna. Sitos grins broadly. "Fuck… Shit…"   I recall my first meeting with Sitos. I'll kill him.   I recall another memory with him. I'll kill him.   I recall so many good memories with him. I'll kill him.   I pant as hot puffs of air escapes me. I can't stop the tears and snot from coming down. I'll kill him.   Before I know it, Luna has stopped screaming. She smiles and says, "Daddy, you came back!"   What the hell's she saying…?   She frowns and then says, "I'm sorry, I was a bad girl! Don't give me that look!"   A few seconds later, she continues, "Okay, I'll do everything you say this time."   "Luna, what's wrong?!" I exclaim. A few seconds pass with no answer.   "I got it… I understand. I was a bad girl. I know…" Luna mumbles.   Sitos laughs and then asks, "Is she broken? What do you think, Kai?"   "Sitos, I'll kill you! I swear! Shit!"   He laughs. "How can you kill me while on the floor when you cannot even move a finger? Well, if you could move, then Luna's life might be in trouble."   I grind my teeth back and forth. He's still thrusting. I squeeze my eyes shut. The masked man laughs. His head is right behind mine. He whispers, "Weak…too weak, Kai. But I know you want to be stronger so I'll teach you a trick… The secret is rage… Let it consume you and you will become much stronger…"   Rage…? I open my eyes and stare at Sitos. He's still grinning and thrusting. My chest and throat feel sore from the yelling, but it intensifies gradually. I'll wipe that smile off his face… I'll kill him… I'll murder him…   I think nothing for the next few minutes except ways I can possibly kill Sitos. I go through every possibility to give him a painful and slow death. I clench my fingers into a fist. I'll kill him. I'll kill him. I'll kill him.   "I'll be a good girl this time… I'm sorry… I'll do it right this time. I'll complete the contract, so forgive me," Luna mumbles and then smiles.   I'll kill… I relax my facial expressions as Luna's arms and legs wrap around Sitos. I widen my eyes. What...?   She moves her body in rhythm with his thrusts and moans with a look of ecstasy on her face. Sitos' thrusts quicken. In a seductive voice, she says, "Just a little bit more, Sitos. You're almost there."   "Ahh," Sitos interjects and stops thrusting. Luna lets go of him. I raise my eyebrows.   Wait…she can move? I lift up my arm like normal. I flip my body around. The masked man isn't there, and the contraption he was holding is now on the floor next to me. I quickly stand up and then charge toward Sitos, his euphoric expression on his face now gone. I clench my fists and teeth, snarling. "Sitos!"   He turns toward me with a blank expression. "Kai…wait—"   I tackle him and push him to the ground several feet away from Luna. I mount him. Tears drop out of my eyes onto his face. I think about the moment he was first on top of her and punch him. I think about the time he removed all of her clothes and punch him. I think about the countless times he was inside of her and punch him. He doesn't defend or fight back. Tears flow out of his eyes.   "Kai… I do not expect you to believe me, but let me explain…" he says. I punch him again.   "There's nothing to explain! You hated me and wanted to hurt me. Well, you got it! Now I'm gonna kill you!" I yell while continuing to pummel his face. This isn't enough…   I pant and look around. I grab one of the swords Sitos dropped on the ground. I raise it above me, preparing to thrust it into his neck. "Kai, wait! I did not really hate you. I was just—"   I thrust the sword down. "—jealous!"   I stop. The blade is only an inch from his neck. "Ju-just let me explain. You can do whatever you want to me after that."   My lips twitch. I only stare at him. "I hated you out of jealousy. It was not from malice.  Sure, I did hate you for a brief moment in time because you had everything I ever fucking wanted, but then I accepted it and forgot about it. Do you remember that day I disappeared for nearly two weeks? Our duel? I conceded everything to you that day. I accepted that you were better than me and moved on. I knew you did not know about any of my struggles. I did not blame you. The only thing I could do to appease my father was to marry Sofiel, so we got engaged.   "At first, I was still disappointed that it was not Luna…but in time I really grew to really like Sofiel. Soon, I forgot all about my jealousy and desire to compete against you. But it all came back to me three weeks ago. All my jealousy and hatred for you suddenly came back. It was not just that, but a load of negative emotions about everything around me. Even my feelings for Luna…but it was not pure. It was only lust. It was just a few days after a suspicious masked man appeared in front of me with an offer. He said he would grant me a wish in exchange for a few favors. I ignored him because he looked shady. I thought he might have done something to me, so I tried to ignore these feelings I had. But I could not stop. The feelings grew stronger by each passing day. I thought about the lie you told me on the day I left, and I only spiraled downward after that."   "Lie? What're you talking about?"   "I asked if you were hiding anything from me… You acted as if you were not, but you were hiding something. I saw it. That day we were in the prison cell. You did not know I was only pretending to still be passed out. You used some kind of mysterious magic and got out of the prison cell. "   I raise my eyebrows. "You saw that…? Why didn't you say anything?"   "I figured you had a reason you could not tell any of us. I thought you would reveal it to us eventually, but you never did. I forgot all about it until three weeks ago. A week later, that masked man approached me again. With my rekindled hatred for you, I did not even think twice about it. I took it the offer. Time flew by really fast after that like I was inside a dream… It feels like I just woke up a moment ago."   More tears flow out of his eyes. He shuts his eyes for a second before opening them again. In a tearful voice, he says, "I would never try to hurt you, Kai…because you are my best friend. I did some unforgivable acts against you…but…I did not mean it, I swear! Kai, please forgive me!"   My arm holding the sword shakes. I squeeze my eyes shut while thinking about the time I spent with Luna this morning and then everything Sitos did to Luna moments ago. I grit my teeth into a snarl. I clench my grip on the sword and my fist on my open hand. I clench it so hard my nails break the skin in my palm, leaking blood out of my hand. Unforgivable, unforgivable, unforgivable!   He has to take responsibility for his actions… Kill him, Kai. No, wait… Based on his story, the masked man should take responsibility… But what if Sitos' story's complete bogus…? No, it doesn't sound like he was lying… No, wait he might be trying to catch me off guard that way…but...Drugo… Drugo, he…he trusted Sitos… I can't let that go to waste.   I want to believe his story. But at the same time, I want to kill him for what he did. I think about what the masked man said a moment ago. Shit! I won't do what he says.   "Ahhhhh!" I scream and then throw the sword across the floor to my left. I pant, tears still coming out of my eyes.   "Kai… Does this mean…you forgive me?"   "Yeah… You're my best friend too. From your story, it hardly sounds like it's your fault. It has to be that masked man's fault."   "Kai…" Sitos answers with a shaky smile. "What about Luna…?"   "I'll talk to her," I say and then turn toward her. She's not there anymore.   "Do you think you can get off me now?" Sitos asks.   "Oh, sorry. Sure," I answer as I turn back toward him. Luna's bare feet are behind Sitos' head. I look up and say, "Lu—"   Luna swings down something with the full momentum of her body. I hold my breath as a disturbing noise resounds. I look down slowly, widening my eyes. I gape. Luna struck Sitos in the center of his face with her spiked mace. She continues to strike him again and again while exclaiming, “Die, die, die…”   My mind zones out a bit with only some ringing in my ears. Blood splatters on me with every blow. My body’s completely frozen. No…this is a dream…   My tears flow out. That’s not Sitos. It’s not him. He doesn’t look like that. I avert my eyes from it. He raises his arm slowly despite the beating. His lips move. The ringing comes to a halt.   Censored, but still graphic image Click to see uncensored gore art [collapse]   “…die, die, die, die!”   Sitos mutters, “Kai, I…so…”   His arm goes limp. Luna finally stops bashing his head and drops the mace on the floor. A clang resounds as the mace hits the floor. Luna laughs manically.   I finally register what unfolded in front of me. This is reality. My eyes burn up, tears waterfalling out endlessly. Sitos' extremely disfigured face lies in front of me. It’s worse than I thought. His nose broken and dented. Part of his upper lip torn off. One of his eyes hangs outside of the socket while the other one is caved in. The brains are practically visible. Blood everywhere. I scream, "Ahhhh—"   I gag, vomiting on his chest. This can't be real…   "Daddy, I did good, right? I did it the way you taught me!" Luna exclaims. Speechless, I look up. Her head is turned toward the right. I look in the same direction. There's no one there. "Why're you still giving me that look?! I did exactly as you said!"   I turn back to Luna. She's still naked covered in blood. Some kind of collar is around her neck. "That was only one time! Go away! Leave me alone!"   She turns toward me and smiles. "Kai, are you okay?"   My entire body quivers. I rear back and fall on my bottom. She walks toward me. I want to tell her to get away, but no words come out of my mouth. "It's okay now, Kai. We made a promise, didn't we? I'm ready."   She stops in front of me and crouches down. She reaches for my belt and then loosens it. She starts pulling my pants down, but I find the strength to grab a hold of them. I pull my pants back up. Luna cocks an eyebrow and tugs on my pants harder. I say, "Stop it! Ho-how can you act this way in this situation…? Do you know what you just did?"   "What're you talking about?" she asks in a sincere tone. I point at Sitos' lifeless body behind her.   "Si-Si-Sitos! Yo-you killed him! Why?! Even though it was the masked guy's fault!"   "What're you so panicked about? We fulfilled our contract. He got what he wanted, and then I got what I wanted. That's how it works."   "What do you mean that's how it works?! I don't understand!"   "Hmm…" Luna interjects. "I don't know. It just does. Why do we have to exchange money in return for goods?"   I open my mouth, but no words come out. My entire body shivers. Tears have stopped running down my eyes, but snot continues to drip down my nose. "Kai, are you okay?"   She reaches an arm toward me. I slap it away and exclaim, "Monster…! Who are you…?"   Luna drops her arm and looks downs with a frown. "Are you gonna abandon me too…? Just like how mom did…"   She looks up a few seconds later and mutters, "This happened because we didn't complete our contract… That's why daddy's still giving me that look…"   She jerks her head toward the right and exclaims, "Isn't that right, daddy?!"   What the hell's she talking about…? She doesn't have a dad… She's gone crazy… This isn't Luna… I have to do something… That masked guy must’ve done something to her. She needs to wake up.   She turns back toward me and says, "Come here, Kai… Let's complete our contract."   She crawls toward me. I scoot backward in a panic. "Stay away from me!"   She stops and then sits up. She looks at me with tears welling up in her eyes. "Is this because of what Sitos did to me…?"   I knit my eyebrows as she stands up. She picks up Sitos' other sword and walks to his corpse. "This is all your fault!"   My heart skips a beat as Luna thrusts the sword into Sitos' already deformed head. What the fuckl?!   A splattering noise resounds every time the blade pierces his head. I bury my head in fetal position and cover my ears. Make it stop… This has to be a dream!   I chuckle and close my eyes. This is all a dream… I'll wake up once I open my eyes.   Still chuckling, I open my eyes and look up. Luna screams, "Why'd you have to ruin everything?!"   I grin, cry, and laugh simultaneously for several seconds. But soon, I stop laughing and grinning. I recall the time I spent with Luna this morning and then look at her now. I shake my head and frown. My entire face twitches uncontrollably as the hot tears flow out. I have to make her stop… How do I make her stop…?   I gulp and stand up. "Luna… I'll do it with you."   Luna stops stabbing Sitos' head and looks at me. With a broad grin on her face, she asks, "Really?!"   I look away and answer, "Yeah…but first, I need you to do something for me."   She walks up to me and asks, "Sure! What is it?"   "Give me that sword you're holding, turn around, and sit on the floor," I say.   "Okay!" she responds immediately. I take hold of the bloody sword she's holding onto. She turns around and then sits down. I stand behind her and look down. "How long do you want me to stay like this?"   With a twitching frown on my face, I kneel down and raise the sword up with the blade side up. I slam it down, striking her in the back of the head with the hilt of the sword. She falls on her side without making a sound.

I still can’t believe with all the places we’ve traveled to, we’re back where we started. It’s funny how it always seems to come full circle for everything. I have a feeling this has something to do with my true purpose. It’s connected with my father’s will. I know it.   What he said echoes in my mind, “Stop dwelling in the past and prepare your strength for a bright day.”   Gibberish without context, but with the riddles that we’ve solved and secrets we’ve uncovered, it makes sense. It must mean that he’s figured them out too. Has he known everything from the beginning? It annoys me that we might’ve been dancing to his tune this entire time. But that’s fine because the truth is what it is. I’ll discern for myself whether the truth is fact or fiction.   With that in mind, his actions don’t add up. There has to be more, much more. If our theory is correct, there will be a load of information at our destination. We’ve been there before and saw nothing. There’s already only a few who know of that place. It must mean that someone managed to stash a large amount of knowledge there. That’s what I want to believe. Otherwise, we’ve traveled to over a hundred different villages for nothing. It might be everything that the Humans hid, but who knows.   I arrive at ‘The Simple Forge’. Popular as usual; the place is completely deserted. He should thank me for staying a loyal customer, but he’s earned that much.  I’ve always received fast, quality service from him. A part of that might be due to having few customers which is convenient for me. I owe him for setting me on the right path in the past too, so I want to support him whenever possible.   He stands up from a chair and says, “Oh, it’s my favorite customer, Kai. It’s been a while. What brings you to Byzia?”   “Following a lead. It’s a long story,” I answer. “I can’t stay that long.”   “Well, you can fill me in another time. What can I do for you?”   “Maintenance on my weapons. Hold on,” I say and set down the sack of fish on the ground.   He walks over and takes a look. “What the hell are you lugging around a sack of fish for? That can’t be all for your adventurer group. That’s too much.”   “Oh, yeah. This is mostly for our…companion. He eats once every few days. Anyway, here are my weapons,” I say while unclipping my swords. I set them on the table.   “Companion? Don’t think I want to know,” he says and stares at the blades on the table. He knits his eyebrows. “All of these are your weapons?”   “Yup,” I answer with a smile.   “Two more than last time…” he mutters and briefly unsheathes them one at a time. “All Mithril nonetheless.”   He laughs and then asks, “You don’t possibly use all four of these at once, do you? The two new ones are lighter and shorter in length. It’s a different fighting style isn’t it?”   “I use all of them at once. Wanna see?”   He widens his eyes and stares at me for several seconds. His eyes point down and then up. He answers, “Nah, I think I’m good. I don’t want to know that either.”   I laugh. I want to know what thoughts ran through his mind. How does he think I hold all four at once? One blade inserted between my toes for each foot? Or clenching a sword with my teeth and the other between my legs? I’ll let it go.   He asks, “How soon do you need this done?”   “A day’s probably fine. Plenty of time. We’ll be here for a few days. I recommended your shop to a friend of mine too. He’ll stop by after a few drinks.”   “Oh, one of your team members? So, is he the dirt-loving midget, backstabber, moss skin, or the—“   “I’m gonna stop you right there. We changed our team name recently, so forget our old one,” I inform. I don’t need him to remind me of our awful team name. The only change was the addition of another name, but he doesn’t know that. I’m cursed with bad team names forever. Is an ordinary name too much to ask for? I don’t want the name to spread any more than necessary. “It’s another long one. I don’t remember it. By the way, have you heard any rumors about Cascabel lately?”   “Not much about them these days.”   I figured. They haven’t been very active. Not since he’s made a public appearance. We don’t know whether or not he stepped down from Cascabel either. He’s bound to make another showing soon. That’ll be our cue.   “That reminds me. You could probably give the Phantom Swordsman a run for his money, considering you use four swords at once.”   I chuckle. “You’re right. I could. I met him, that’s how I know I could take him out easily.”   “You’ve me-met him?”   “Pretty much. I know him really well. Wanna know more?” I ask. He stays silent. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss. He knows that. I’m teasing him too much. I’ll ask him something else that matters. “What do you think of the Queen?”   “Hmm… At first, I thought she was too pure, innocent, and inexperienced to do the job well, but she has an eye for people. It reminds me of her father in his early days. With the help from Osmir and her advisor, I’m sure she’ll do well for the foreseeable future.”   “I see.” That’s good to hear. I’m sure she’s doing a good job, but having the people’s approval is important too. It’s one opinion of many that make up a whole. I pick up the sack of fish. “Well, I’ll be back later to pick up my weapons.”   “Sure. Take care.”   I walk out the door. So, it was her that was following me. A familiar face is hiding around the corner. She always manages to slip the guards and find me on the same day. I sigh. She never learns her lesson.   I think to the day we met. Now that I think about it, everything started on that day. He was responsible for putting me on that path too; beginning with the assassination of General Dae. A chain of events transpired that led to discovering my purpose. Did he play a role in every one or was it just a coincidence…? Or was it fate?   I would never have imagined that I would put revenge in the backburner back then. But, there are more important things to worry about. The world is at stake. All life could end as we know it.   I shouldn’t keep Rocky waiting too long. At the same time, I can’t ignore her now that I’ve seen her alone. I’ll have to bring her with me for her safety and educate her on how to hide from someone properly. I walk over to her and say, “Hey…”

Marin (Princess Irene) Leila (Cascabel)   First Year Frame   Post Academy Frame     Scenes: Chapter 1 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 21 Chapter 39 All drawn by Yioshu   Credits: Semi-Real style: arvent (anonymous) Anime style: Yioshu - https://www.artstation.com/yioshu    

I bury my emotions as I glare at the waitress. "Explain this, now."   "I do-don't know wh-what you're ta-talking about…"   Her eyelids twitch as she looks down to her left. Staring into her eyes, I know she's lying. I grab her right hand and hold her pinky with the fingers on my other hand. As she turns her head toward me, I snap her pinky in half. Before her body reacts to the pain, I promptly cover her mouth with my hand while pushing her down at the same time. She makes a muffled noise, "Nghhhh!"   As she squirms on the bed, both parts of her bra falls off. It doesn't affect me. Her left hand grabs her other hand as fresh tears flows out of her closed eyelids. I locate the dagger I tossed away earlier at the end of the bed, and I pick it up.   "Do you feel like talking now? Next, I'll cut your nipple off…" I say as I grab and squeeze one of her breasts, subsequently moving my knife toward the nipple.   "St-stop, stop! I'll ta-talk, so please, just stop!" I let go of her, and she takes a few seconds motionlessly staring at her broken pinky while still crying. She sniffles as she looks down all while attempting to cover herself with her left arm. "My jo-job was to distract the man who was with the female Elf and young girl wea-wearing a pink dress… Apparently if it went well, our town wou-would be rewarded with a lot of gold."   I put the dagger to her throat. She shrieks as she lifts up her head and freezes in place while speaking no words. While peering into her eyes, I ask, "What else aren't you telling me? When were you given the orders? Why didn't you think this request was suspicious at all?"   I push the dagger just far enough into her neck that causes a small drop of blood to trickle down her neck.    "Wa-wa-wait! I think…um…we…our town has been having an economic crisis ever since the king tremendously raised taxes a few months ago… Last month someone su-suddenly gave our village 100 gold coins and told us that there would be more in exchange for a fu-future request… Then we were told yesterday to take a young girl with long, brown hair wearing a pink dress co-coming from the south trail to Byzia… Th-that's all I know, I swear!" she exclaims while waving her arms around and gasping.   So everything was an act…? It did seem strange when Horith mentioned that Leila was the first Elf he had ever seen, but he looked like a regular from the village, and it would be ridiculous if he had never known Tariel, who worked there as a bodyguard… I see now, so the Elf was supposed to distract Leila, and the waitress wore a revealing outfit to seduce me… What she says about the taxes bothers me.   I back off, drop the dagger, and then get dressed. I take out a pouch of coins from my pocket containing at least 50 gold coins and toss it to the waitress. "Here, this will help."   "Eh?" she asks and catches the pouch. After opening it, she widens her eyes. "Th-this is?!"   Leila sighs and walks over to the waitress. "Let me see that hand."   The waitress is still staring at the pouch of gold with sparkling eyes when Leila grabs her right hand, snaps the pinky back into the normal position while immediately casting Healing magic on it. The waitress drops the pouch as she forcibly squirms away.   "What're you doing?! That hurts! Huh…it doesn't hurt?"   "I fixed it for you."   "Let's hurry, Leila. By the way what happened to Tariel?"   "Oh, he's taking a peaceful nap on the first floor." I skeptically smile, feeling sorry for him. I equip my scabbards on my waist, and head out the door.   "Wait!" the waitress calls out to me. After turning around, a small, red piece of cloth flutters in the air. The waitress smiles while sitting on the edge of the bed making a sexy pose; her eyes are stretched back emphasizing her bust while her legs are spread apart. "Thank you, come again!"   Blood rushes to my head, and I blush. I grin while giving her thumbs up. However, Leila drags me away by my left ear before I can fully ogle her entire body. "Let's go, you pig."    We head towards the staircase where the guards are already waiting at the bottom. "There they are! Get them!"   I run in the room Irene was in, going toward the window on the right. "Let's escape through the window and head to the north gate."   "I'm right behind you."   After drawing both of my swords, I make two cuts the shape of an X in the center of the window. I jump through, keeping my arms in front of my head to protect myself from the glass shards. While still in the air, I sheathe my swords. As my legs touch the ground, I perform a safety roll. I get up and sprint on the road towards the north gate.   Damn… It would be more convenient to have horses right now, but we wasted too much time getting information from… A salacious grin appears on my face, but I shake my head to focus on the task at hand. "We're not gonna make it at this speed, let's enhance our legs until we catch up to them."   Leila nods, and I shout my keyword, "Haste!"   "Swiftness!"    I feel the power surging through my legs as we double our previous speed. I narrow my eyes. More importantly, who paid these villagers to do this? If their goal is Irene, then it must be to get to Velyn…but how did they… The culprit must be an advisor of Velyn or a high ranked officer because only they would possibly know that Irene would be in that convoy at that time. Still, they even knew her attire… How is that even possible?   There are four guards at the inner entrance of the northern gates ahead of me. The convoy is passing through it. Briefly turning my head around, I find that guards riding horses are closing in behind us.    There's no other choice now… There's no way we can blast our way through that door, so I'll have to reveal my magic if we wanna catch up to the convoy. I look toward Leila before asking, "Leila, can you handle our landing? I'm gonna get us over the wall."   "Leave it to me." I reach out my left hand, and she grabs it firmly with her right. Her hand is moist and warm, probably anxious about Irene as well. Up ahead, the gates are closing as I prepare the commands for my magic. I estimate the height of the wall is about 30 feet. I continue to run forward, carefully making other calculations at the same time.   I put my left palm in front of me and release the inactive form of my Mana. The gate is less than 40 feet away, and we would run into it in just a few seconds. Before long, my Mana reaches the designated destinations and immediately activates. The usual purple portal appears in front of me, slightly above ground in front of the metal gate while the other one appears just over the peak of the gate.   "What the hell is that?!" a guard yells near the northern gate as he backs away from the portal I created.   "Who cares! Just stop them!" The guards move around the portal and approach us, but it's too late; we already have reached the portal. I jump through while still holding onto Leila's hand.   I instantaneously appear at the location of the other portal falling down past the village walls. The wind blowing against my face causes me to squint my eyes. I exclaim, "Close!"   After dispersing my portals, I turn around. Leila is already preparing for the landing. Half a second passes before she releases a gust of wind below us from her left hand. The force behind the gust is just enough for us to land without a problem and continue running forward.   We spot the convoy ahead of us about 200 feet away. I say, "Somehow we're closing the gap, but not fast enough at the rate we expend our Mana for the enhancements."   "True, I can easily stop the carriage at this distance, but I don't want to hurt Irene in the process…"   "It can't be helped. I'll stop the carriage. Save your Mana and catch up later." I let go of Leila's hand and gather four times as much Mana than before. I release it all angled above the carriage.  I glance behind me, finding that Leila has deactivated her speed enhancement and is gradually getting farther away. I draw my swords in a reverse grip and narrow my eyes focusing on space above the convoy. This should be about the right time…   "Warp!" I shout and instantaneously appear at the location of the Mana I just released several feet above and in front of the convoy. On my way down, I notice two unarmed men in front of the carriage. A split second later, I manage to pierce the top of the transport with both of my blades. I slip, but I hold onto my swords, using them as a crutch to get my balance back.    "What was that sound?!" one of the two guards shouts. With minimal noise, I pull my swords out, sheathe them, and go into prone. I slowly move toward the front of the wagon. "It sounded like something fell on top of the convoy… Do you think they caught up?"   "Don't be crazy, we were several hundred feet away when they closed the gate. I bet they're still stuck in Neso."   "You're right… I'm just paranoid because we're getting paid so much for this."   They laugh. As I stare at the back of their heads, I think about how I should take them out. Hmm… I don't wanna kill them…so I guess I only have one option… I should hurry so Leila can meet up with us… I hope the guards from Neso didn't catch up yet.   I jump down and immediately hit the back of their necks with a swift chop, one with each hand. I catch them before they fall off and rest them against the convoy. I pull the reins back signaling the horses to stop. When the carriage has reached a full stop, both convoy doors open. Damn, there were more inside… Will I be able to avoid killing them…   "Hey! What's wrong?! Why did you stop?!" one of the two guards shouts. Footsteps appear on both sides.   There're only two…but there could be more inside. The tip of a spear comes into my view on my right side. A split second later, I leap out and tackle that person.   "Argh!" We both fall and his armor makes clanking noises when he hits the ground. I grab his weapon while I still have the element of surprise and take it with force. After getting up, I throw the spear into a tree high enough so he can't recover it. "You fiend, my weapon!"   "What happened?!" the other guard yells. Irene is in the center of the convoy, tied and gagged.   Well, this is convenient. I'll just wait for Leila, and we can simply leave and head towards the capital with this convoy. The other guard comes around the left side.   "You…you're that guy who was with the girl! How did you get past the gate?!"   "Well you know…I teleported through a portal that I made."   "That's obviously a lie, don't mock me!" He approaches me with his spear in hand. I turn my head towards the unarmed guard.   Huh? Where'd he go? I check Irene again and find that she's safe. I turn back left, and a  spearhead approaches my face. I dodge by only bending my head towards my left shoulder. I look at him and smirk. He frowns and furrows his eyebrows as he begins to shake his entire body. He draws back his spear and thrusts it forward again. I toy with him for a while by dodging using the most awkward body maneuvers. Hmm? He's not tired yet…? Impressive.   He continues to launch his assault of thrusts on me, but I dodge all of them while I barely have moved from my current position. I yawn as I move closer to him while continuing to evade all his attacks. I avoid them all, and soon enough, his thrusts stop coming when I'm directly in front of him. I grin and say, "It's my turn now."   His entire body quivers before I finally knock him unconscious with a blow to the temple. I use this chance to grab his weapon and throw it into a nearby tree, meeting the same fate as his partner's weapon. Suddenly, horses neigh and stomp. Shit is the other guard moving the convoy?!   The convoy doesn't move at all. I run towards the front of it, finding the horses not connected to the wagon anymore. The guard hides behind the left side of the convoy and smiles.  "Our reinforcements will arrive soon, and you won't be able to evade us for long!"   I close my eyes as I look down and frown all while pressing my index finger against my glabella. How could I have made such a blunder…?   Feeling the sudden urge to kill the person responsible I draw my sword with my right arm, and walk towards him. "Your reinforcements will have to pick up your dead body first."   "Uhh… Wa-wait a se-second…" he says with a voice growing gradually quieter as he slowly backs away, trembling. I kick him down and reverse my grip on the sword. I begin to slam down my blade with all my strength aiming for the middle of his face.  "Ahhhh!"   An image of Irene suddenly pops into my head. My sword sways, landing a hair away from his face. I gasp as I rest my weight against the hilt of the sword. My heart beats rapidly. That's right, I promised Irene… I need to control myself better.   I narrow my eyes on the guard. He passed out. Apparently my sword gave him a small cut on his left cheek. A drop of blood trickles down his wound and tears flow out of his eyes. I sheathe my sword before going into the convoy. Irene is lying down on the seat while completely tied up; her mouth is taped, her hands tied with rope behind her back, and ankles are tied with rope as well. She looks at me while making small muffled noises.   I should probably untie her… Wait… I should have some time before Leila gets here, right? I smile lewdly as I leer at her and sit across from her. "Today, you will learn that I'm not a good person…"   She cocks an eyebrow as she looks at me. I lean forward, grab the hem of her dress, and then slowly lift it up. My heart beats faster with every passing moment. She narrows her eyebrows and squirms around while making loud muffling noises. I pant as I move closer to her realizing that I'm a split second away from the jackpot.    I drop my jaws as I widen my eyes. She sports a light green lace thong. I stare at it for a while, generating large amounts of saliva in my mouth as it also excites my lower half. With my nostrils completely flared, I slowly slide my other hand up her leg. Her futile resistance is only adding to the raging fire within me. Suddenly, Leila shouts, "Kai!"   There're only so many times you can interrupt a man… Not this time! I finally reach her lady passage, lightly brushing over it with my fingers. She makes a muffled squealing noise while jerking around more intensely. With rumbling noises in the distance, Leila shouts, "Kai! Are you there?! We need to leave, now!"   I let go of Irene's dress as I grunt. Damn, what's so important?!   I peek my head out while looking in the direction I came from. Oh, shit!   My lips form an "o" as half a dozen of people on horseback follows Leila not too far behind. Damn! There's no time!   I pick up Irene, who is still glowering at me. I hold her up horizontally, carefully leaving the convoy making sure that I don't bump her head anywhere. "Leila, follow me into the forest! They won't be able to chase us in there! Sorry Irene, you might not be too comfortable."   I gently move her head first, over my head and towards my back. I squeeze my head between her legs so that her flower presses against the back of my head while firmly grabbing onto her ankles in front of me. I run into the forest, being vigilant not to bump Irene's legs into anything. Leila catches up in a few seconds. "Ka-Kai, are you al-alright? Wh-why is I-Irene still tied up…?"   I cock an eyebrow. Leila's face is flushed red, and she avoids eye contact. She has frequently been doing this to me lately… I guess it's a normal thing now.   I sigh before responding, "There were some…complications… It's not important right now."   We continue running deeper into the forest, eventually reaching a stream. Leila rests on the ground while panting for air. Irene makes more small muffling noises. Oh, I should let her down… How do I do that from this position?   I sigh as I reverse my grip and switch my hand, grabbing her left ankle with my left hand and vice versa for my other hand. When I move her in front of me, I drop my jaws, forming a "0" with my lips. I widen my eyes as I hold my breath. I freeze and become stiff when Leila asks, "Kai, you still haven't untied Irene?"   I gulp and take a split second glance towards Leila, realizing that she isn't looking this way right now. I feel deprived of oxygen more so now than when I ran from our pursuers. I gently put her down on her back. She gives me a furious glare. It's no good if I just untie her… What should I do?   I think for a moment before saying, "Shh… Listen, don't tell Leila about… I'll make it up to you… I swear."   I smirk and chuckle. "In addition, I won't tell her about your little…accident…"   Her face completely flushes red. Seeing how negotiations are over, I untie her, but she wears a resentful pout as she crosses her arms. A cold air approaches behind me. I breathe as normal as possible and slouch over a little. "Irene, are you okay? Kai, I think it's time you explain the complications you mentioned…actually…Irene, can you tell me what happened?"   I widen my eyes and glower at Irene. A broad smile appears on her face. With a blush and a frown she answers, "Well…you see…Kai…he…"   My heart beats like a drum progressively louder with each consecutive word. Sweat forms on my hands and face. Leila stands beside me. I look away and close my eyes, feeling murderous intent materializing from her.   "…saved me from a hostage situation! Thank you, Kai! I won't ever be able to repay you!" Irene exclaims as she grabs my hand and grins.    I relax my facial muscles. Huh…?   "Oh, so that's what it was… I thought Kai did something stupid again…"   Sh-she got me… Leila and I both sigh. Leila makes a small confused noise as she turns her head towards me. I smile. Without warning, crackling noises resound across the stream behind some bushes. We turn our heads toward the sound.   Many large, gray wolves leap out in a stream in front of us on the other side of the water. They glare at us while making grunting noises. There are at least 20 of them.   This is bad… I'm low on Mana…and Irene's dead weight. None of us moves a muscle while we stare at the wolves. Nearly ten seconds pass when one of the wolves begins to charge towards us. I immediately get up and draw both of my weapons.

I slowly open my eyes when I hear the sound of cicadas chirping. I grimace from the ache in my head, my hand applying pressure to try and alleviate the pain. Argh…my head… It seems I'm still alive…   As I open my eyes again, I regain my senses and feel something heavy on top of my stomach. While lifting my head, I shift my gaze toward it and find Leila asleep with her head and arms there on the right side. I smile, also finding Irene in the same position on my left. My eyes linger on her sleeping face. I shake my head and then relax my facial expressions when I start to see her reflection again. I rest my head on the ground. I close my eyes.    I have no idea how we're still alive… That Anomaly's behavior was really strange when it decided to leave us instead of finishing us off… I close my eyes as I think back to that moment. The wolf's red eyes stared into mine, almost feeling like a sense of familiarity. What if the wolf's actually a reincarnation of…   I shake my head to rid myself of absurd thoughts. As I open my eyes, a realization hits me. I narrow my eyebrows and purse my lips. Wait… The first time I encountered an Anomaly…didn't something similar happen? It mysteriously disappeared before I even noticed… Given its capabilities, it should've had plenty of time to ambush me… Maybe I'm the reincarnation of one of their friends, and when they stared into my eyes, they realized who I was and left me alone…   My mind becomes blank for several seconds. Afterward, I let out a few giggles realizing my stupidity.   "Uhnnn…" Leila mutters as she sluggishly lifts up her upper body with a yawn. She rubs her eyes with her finger and asks, "Kai… You're…awake…?"   "Oh sorry… did I wake you…?"   "I think so… We should probably get going soon anyway… How're you feeling?"   "Ah, perfectly fine now as you can see, thanks to your magic," I say with a smile and shift my gaze toward the bloodstained hole in my armor with my body left perfectly intact.   "Be a little more serious… If I delayed healing you any later you really would have died, you know…" I can tell that she's serious, and a shiver goes down my spine, my smile disappearing. I think about the possibility of the potential unfortunate outcome in silence, but soon break out in laughter.   "Well, I'm still alive, though. So it's fine isn't it? You…" I stop talking and smiling. Leila wears a solemn expression on her face with tears welling in her eyes.   While darting her eyes around, she quietly says, "I was really worried…that you wouldn't wake up…and before I could tell you…that I…"   She blushes. My heart beats progressively faster. I gulp while attempting to maintain the same expression on my face. Could this be…?  A love confession?! From Leila…? That's impossible…   "I…" she suddenly says in high volume, but she doesn't finish her sentence. I cock an eyebrow at her open mouth with no words coming out. Her eyes are focusing on a single point now. I turn toward it and then find Irene. Her eyes are open. It appears that she's been awake for quite some time.   "That you what?" Irene asks. Leila's face is flushed red, and her lips twitch in place. I think of a probable possibility of her hesitation.   Hmm, maybe it could be that…? I think back to when I first met her and verify, "That you think of me as a great friend, right?"   "Huh?"   There's a dumbfounded look on her face. With a smile, I continue, "When we first met you told me that you really hated Humans… And I know now that you're not too honest in expressing your feelings, so you just had a hard time telling me that, right?"   Leila's expression lightens up, and she answers, "Oh, yeah... That's it. You really know me well…"   She laughs lightly and then sighs. I quirk an eyebrow. Afterward, I turn my head towards Irene when she clicks her tongue. "What's wrong, Irene?"   "Nothing…"   I'll never understand women… I sigh before saying, "Anyway… We need to get going to Byzia."   I stand up. Leila and Irene do the same. "Yeah, let's go. It seems we slept for too long; it's already past dawn."   I survey my surroundings while turning my head towards every possible direction we can go in. I come to a standstill when I realize I have no idea where I am. I skeptically curl one side of my lips upward and ask, "Uhh…which direction's Byzia again…?"   "Jeez… You really are hopeless, aren’t you?" Leila sighs and then opens her backpack. She shuffles through it and then pulls out a parchment. She kneels down, lays the map on the ground, and says, "Good thing I bought this magical map when we were still in Drymo."   She pools some of her Mana into the piece of paper. Subsequently, a red dot appears on the map in the forest located east of Byzia. The dot disappears after a few seconds. She rolls up the map, stores it in her backpack, and then stands up.   "Okay, based on our location and the position of the sun…" she says and then points in a direction. "We go this way."   We encounter some monsters on our way there, but Leila easily takes care of them with her magic. Unfortunately, since I don't have my weapon I can't help much because I also need to conserve my Mana. We reach the east outer walls of Byzia in just under four hours.   "I can't walk anymore…"   "Just hold on a little longer, Irene. We are almost there."   "Hey, we should go that way towards the southern entrance instead of the northern entrance in case our pursuers notified the guards here," I suggest as I point toward our left.   "Hmm, good idea, but Irene still stands out too much."   "Ah, we'll just think of a plan when we get there." We continue walking, and the southern gates are within our sights within half an hour. We hide at the edge of the forest behind some trees for the time being because we notice something strange. There are dozens of people heading into the city; many looking like villagers.    "What’s going on here? Could it be something happened in their village?"   "Beats me…but we can work this to our advantage. We'll just casually head in with these crowds of people. We can walk a little distance apart so we can ask different people about what's going on," I suggest. We take a short detour south toward the trail so that it looks like we're coming from other villages in this direction. Now all there is to do is ask someone what's going on…   I look around trying to find a suitable informant. I lock my gaze on a middle-aged man traveling by himself. I quicken my pace toward him and tap the back of his shoulder. I walk at the same pace as him. With a smile, I say, "Excuse me."   He frowns as he scans my appearance from head to toe. His eyes bounce up, and he knits his eyebrows before saying, "Who are you?"   Noticing his suspicious tone of voice and facial expressions, I quickly respond, "My name's Kai, an adventurer. This is my first time here in Xantho, and I'm headed to Byzia to find some new work, but then I saw all these people headed toward the same direction. Did something happen in one of the villages?"   "Ah, I'm not sure if anything actually happened, but everyone's probably here to hear Osmir's speech… You're an outsider, so it's no wonder you don't know anything about what's going on…"   "Osmir…?"   "That's right. You've heard of him, right? He's the hero who has been defending villages against Velyn's attacks for several months now. He also led a group of mercenaries two days ago and raided the castle, usurping the throne."   I knit my eyebrows as I think back to what Irene said about her father. "Velyn has been attacking villages…? That seems hard to believe…"   "Not as hard as believing as that you're an adventurer… I mean, look at you. You're carrying two sword sheaths, yet you have no swords, and you have a massive hole in front of your armor. You look sketchy to me…" I blankly stare at him with a forced smile as he points to the areas of interest with his finger. My lips twitch. He narrows his eyes at me.   "If you're an adventurer, then you must have a license, right? Show it to me," he demands in an insolent tone of voice. I try my hardest to keep a calm level head and think of an appropriate reply. I laugh lightly.   "Oh, you made the same mistake as most people! I actually specialize in magic, watch,” I say as I place both of my hands palm up and then emit Rich Mana from both hands for several seconds.   "Ho…" he mutters a low energy sound.   "Actually, I was in a huge battle on my way here…and as a result, this happened," I explain as I point to the hole in my armor. In a demoralized and gradually more lethargic voice I continue, "And I lost my backpack on my way here, so I don't have my license with me…please don't remind me…"   I look down and sigh. Afterward, he sighs too. "Alright, alright, I got it… To answer your question, I couldn't believe it either.  I've lived here a long time, and he has been a great benevolent king for decades, but he completely changed when he announced higher taxes at the beginning of this year…  He said that consequences will be paid for villages that don't meet the requirements. A month later, I heard rumors about how villages that couldn't afford to pay were raided by the army… But I never believed them for a second…until I witnessed it myself two months ago…"   I gulp before asking, "You mean…you personally saw Velyn commanding an army that pillaged a village…?"   "Hmm… I'm having a hard time remembering, actually... What did I see, I wonder…" I force a smile, feeling like he's mocking me. My eyelids twitch. I cock an eyebrow when he sticks out an open palm. "I think five silver coins might help me remember…"   This guy… I frown before I calmly reiterate, "Well, like I said… I lost all of my belongings…"   "Goodbye," he says quickly as he turns his head away. He starts to walk away at a quicker pace.   "Wait!" I exclaim only a moment later.   "What do you want?" he asks. He narrows his eyes into my eyes and says, "I have no business with moneyless liars…"   Afterward, I cock an eyebrow and stare at him like I have no idea what he's talking about for several seconds. But then, I relax my facial expressions and smile back.    "Oh, was it obvious…? Well, if its money you're after, my partner back there can supply you with it before we part ways," I say and point my thumb behind me. He glances behind for a moment before facing forward again.   "Oh… an Elf and a girl, huh… An interesting trio, but it's none of my business as long as we have a mutual understanding…   "Yeah, you have my word," I say light-heartedly, but afterward, I narrow my eyes on him as I scrunch my eyebrows together. This guy… He knew I was lying, and just now he pinpointed Leila and Irene outta the crowd in just a second… Who is he…?   "Hmm, yes I remember now… It was just by coincidence, but I was on my way to Riodor when I saw smoke rising from where the village was located, and I took a detour, eventually hiding behind some trees. From there I had a good view of everything going on in that village…" He shivers as he recounts his experience. I'm slightly doubtful if he's actually trembling or pretending, so I don't feel any empathy for him. He continues in a morbid voice, "I had a hard time believing it even though I was witnessing it before my eyes…   "I can still remember the screams of all the villagers… I saw armored men cutting down unarmed villagers, sparing no one. Men were the lucky ones, who met their fate swiftly, but women were not so lucky…  The savages forced themselves on them with no shame…even the younger ones… When I saw all of their faces twisting in ecstasy, I actually thought that the identities of these beasts were bandits, but then I saw him…  Someone who wore armor bearing the national symbol of Xantho in the middle of all the chaos… It was Velyn… He sat there on his horse, apathetically watching the brutality unfold."   "You're sure it was Velyn…?"   "Yeah, I know it was him… There's no mistake." I focus my eyes into his and realize that he's telling the truth, but I don't want to believe it. I gulp before asking another question to confirm a thought.   "Did he participate…? In any of the violence…?"   He thinks for a moment before answering, "I don't know… He might have before I arrived, but he's just as guilty for watching."    "I see… That's disappointing to hear." I knit my eyebrows thinking about the reason behind this. "Were his motivations for the attack just the taxes?"   "Hmm… I'm not sure… I may have heard other rumors about it…" he says with doubt. I frown, knowing he's just teasing me.   "Other rumors…? Like what?" I ask while narrowing my eyes. He only holds out an open palm again. "Five silver again…? Whatever, my partner will supply you afterward."   My impatience is probably showing through my voice. He smiles and then nods his head before replying, "Well, someone saw someone that looked like the prince's fiancée, Aurora, leaving the country and the prince, Seirus, has not made any public appearances since then. The consensus is that they eloped. So people say that Velyn is taking out his frustrations on the villages while looking for concubines since he doesn't have a successor now."   He pauses for a moment and then raises a finger. "Actually, I heard they actually found the missing women who were supposedly kidnapped in the last couple of months. They discovered them locked inside cells when they raided the castle… Those poor girls…"   "What happened? Don't tell me…they're dead?!" I exclaim as I unknowingly get absorbed into the information. When his hand is out again, I only narrow my eyebrows and make a shooing motion with a hand towards him. "You don't need to keep asking… My partner will cover it."   "I have your word…? Great," he says suspiciously, but I ignore it thinking that it's only a handful of silver.   "I heard they were alive, but I also hear that most of them carry children now."   "Is Velyn the one who assaulted them…?"   "I don't know… I only told you what I heard yesterday when the news was announced in Byzia and spread to all the villages in Xantho."   I widen my eyes and raise my eyebrows when I make a connection.   "Liar!" a loud voice resounds behind me. I know the voice belongs to Irene without looking. The man beside me looks behind him.   Irene... Any of this information would be hard for her to take in… I wonder what they have been told so far? I suddenly remember an important key figure in all this and then smile. "I have another question…"   He turns his head back to me. "Did you see any high ranking soldiers guarding Velyn when you saw him in Riodor? For example… General Dae?"   He closes his eyes momentarily while grasping his chin with his fingers; presumably giving my question some deep thought.    "No… I didn't see anyone like that… " I sense certainty in his answer despite the slow response. In a skeptical voice, he asks, "How do you know about General Dae anyway? I thought this was your first time here?"   I know he's just making fun of me again, so I play along. I respond with enthusiasm, "This is my first time here, but I heard stories about many of the heroic deeds accomplished by Dae in the past... I grew up admiring him… What has he been up to lately?"   "You too? I really admired him too because he was truly an individual who cared about his country… Despite working under Velyn for nearly a decade, it's a shame his good intentions were betrayed by Velyn, though. I heard that he's working together with Osmir now," he reciprocates with a tone matching the passion I displayed in the previous statement.    I raise my eyebrows and open my mouth widely. "Say, is Velyn being held prisoner now?"   "No… Neither Velyn nor his advisors were found in the castle at the time of the raid, according to Osmir." I think silently for nearly thirty seconds while still walking alongside the man. Then the man suddenly stops walking, and I do the same. "It seems you have no more questions for me. Now, where is my payment?"   I do a 360-degree turn around me and then realize we're inside Byzia already. "Ah, one moment."   I locate Leila and Irene standing about 25 feet away from me. I wave the fingers on my right hand signaling that they should come over. Soon, they catch up. Leila cocks an eyebrow. With confidence, I inform, "Hey Leila. I promised this guy I would pay him for the information he provided me… I think he was charging around five silver coins for each piece of information, so probably around 40 silver coins will cover it."   "Actually, it's ten gold coins." It takes me several seconds for me to process what he said. Afterward, I gradually knit my eyebrows as I curl my lips into a narrow frown. Suddenly, a strong force falls on top of my left shoulder. Leila's hand is on top of it. A shiver goes down my spine, and I'm scared to turn around. A murderous intent creeps closer and closer to me.    I only look ahead at the man in front of me who is smiling broadly. I gulp, before finally managing to utter, "Uhh… Ho-how do you fi-figure that?"   "Five silver coins for the first time… but I never specified how much it would be the second time or after that…and adding up everything, it's ten gold coins. You gave me your word, right?" he asks with a smirk.   "Is that true, Kai?" Leila asks, her hand pressing down on my shoulder harder. Still afraid to face Leila, I stiffly stand in place, but I'm unable to stop my head from shaking.   "Ye-yeah…"   Leila removes her hand from my shoulder and then sighs. "It cannot be helped… We do not want you to be making trouble for us…" Leila says, removes her hand from my shoulder, and then sighs. Ruffling noises resound behind me; probably Leila opening her backpack. A few seconds later, she holds out ten gold coins in front of the man. "Take it."    "Oh… Thank you for your business," the man says as his smirk melts into a grin. "Well then, Kai… Good luck in your new life as an adventurer."   He walks away laughing loudly. When I finally summon the courage to turn around, I find Leila's narrowed eyebrows and distorted smile. I glance over to Irene for a moment. She's pouting with her arms crossed. In one of her deepest voices, Leila demands, "Well, Kai… It's time you filled me in on what you discovered…at the cost of ten gold coins…."    "Ye-yeah…" A drop of sweat forms on my forehead. I gesture my head to Irene and suggest, "But let's find a resting place first… Irene must be exhausted…"   Leila's facial expressions relax as she glances over to Irene too, nodding her head at the same time. "True, let's do that."   After asking a few people, we settle in a place called 'Bolt's Inn.' We pay for our room, receive the keys, and then head upstairs. After unlocking our room, we close the door and then lock it. We exchange information. Apparently, Leila discovered the same information minus the fate of the village, Riodor. After learning she paid ten gold coins just for that piece of information, she goes on a 15-minute rant on how useless I am. The whole time I don't respond and only stare at the ground. Eventually, she calms down and there's a brief silence.   Leila suggests, "Let's go over the possibilities on who paid Neso off... The first possibility is that Osmir is the culprit."   "Yeah, but that's probably not likely because he was already using Dae to get to Irene. Neso wasn't even equipped with anyone strong. If Osmir paid them off to try and accomplish kidnapping Irene under the noses of Dae and his subordinates, it wouldn't go as smoothly as with us. So that crosses off Osmir… If Velyn is the culprit, then that must mean he's against the marriage between Osmir and Irene. So that either implies that Osmir is a threat to the country or…" I pause for a moment and look towards Irene, who is resting on the bed.   "All the things people have been saying about Velyn are true, right?" Leila finishes my sentence. Irene doesn't flinch.   It seems she's calmed down… At least she's not throwing a fit every time we mention bad things about her father… I turn back to Leila and say, "Yeah, which also would imply Osmir is as good of a person as everyone claims."   "Basically, we can't rule out that Velyn paid Neso. We need to be careful around this Osmir character."   "Yeah, we should find out more about him before we deliver Irene to the castle. You said his speech would take place outside of the castle at 6 PM, right? We still have over five hours until then to collect other information."   "Could it be Osmir and Velyn might not be the only ones to consider in all of this? There could be another force driving this other than those two. A force that wants to use Irene for money, power, fame, or pleasure. There might be something special about the royal bloodline so even dining on her flesh is a possibility."   "I'm not too sure about that last bit…" I mutter.   "It must be someone or an organization with a lot of wealth considering the large donation to Neso. Would a successful tradesman or high ranking adventurer be responsible? No, only people close to Velyn would know about Irene, so that makes any high ranking official suspicious."    "I agree. And then we have someone who paid the bandits to take Irene as well. They knew of Irene in addition to how many were transporting her. I can't see how Osmir  would have any motives for this…especially with a chance to receive damaged goods… And I don't see any sense in Velyn being a part of this, or even any high ranking official. They wouldn't turn to bandits for help. The way I see it, the mercenaries working under Osmir might have their own motives."   "There's no fallacy in that assumption. We can also both concur that Velyn wasn't responsible for any of crimes he's being accused of."   "Yeah, a good egg doesn't suddenly go bad after decades of being a king. It doesn't add up, and taking into account Irene's testimony about her father's character; it's safe to say that he's being threatened or held hostage… And the only person to profit is…"   "Osmir.  He's suspicious no matter how you look at this. But something still doesn't make sense to me… Why wasn't Neso notified about the successful raid on the castle…?"   "Considering how fast the news was delivered to other villages, I assume that they used Klams to communicate with the other villages…and I definitely saw them using Klams to communicate with each other in Neso when they were planning something against us. Well, that could be the only pair they have, and they might not have a Klam that connects to Byzia, but I find that hard to believe. That a village, which is desperate for money, can afford an expensive magical item, like the Klam…"   "So, you're saying…" Leila locks her eyes with mine, seeming to reach the same conclusion as I have.   "Someone intentionally didn't notify Neso…and the Klams that connect to the villages all should be in the castle. Therefore, it's Osmir or a mercenary working with him… Either way, it's probably the same person as the one who paid off Neso."   "That's not completely true… You said it earlier…that Osmir shouldn't have a motive for trying to get villagers to kidnap Irene. You forgot to consider another possibility about the Klams. What if the Klam that connects to Neso wasn't in the castle?"   "I see! So you're saying that Velyn might have taken it or hid it somewhere, right? If that's the case, then it would make sense for him to pay off Neso!   "Yes, and now we just need to collect more information. We should split up again and meet back here in three hours," Leila says as she walks to the door, unlocks it, and then opens it.   "Wait," I state as I walk toward Leila. I turn my head around for a second to glance at Irene. She's still asleep or at least not paying attention to us right now. I turn back to Leila and whisper in her ear, "Try to find and question one of the kidnapped women found during the raid. We might learn something interesting if we do, and if Velyn really touched them or not. Are we just gonna leave Irene here?"   She whispers back, "I'll keep that in mind. It should be fine, right? We didn't sense anyone following us, and we'll only be gone a few hours. We'll lock the door after we leave. If Irene wakes up, she should know by now to stay put considering she's been kidnapped already."   "Hmm… I suppose," I agree and then walk into the hallway. Shortly after, Leila closes and then locks the door. We go downstairs and then exit the inn together, before splitting up in different directions. I should probably use this time to get some new swords…   I grip both of my sheaths and walk down a street. I recall that I don't have any money and then sigh deeply.

"Leila, get Irene somewhere safe!"   "Got it! Don't do anything crazy by yourself!" The wolf in front leaps at me, opening its mouth revealing its sharp teeth and upper two fangs. I swing back my right arm and sidestep to the left. I dash forward while making a horizontal swing to the wolf's mouth, cleanly bisecting the wolf into two parts. The remains make a sound as they fall to the ground.   The other wolves growl as they stare at me for several seconds. Three of them comes at me; two of them split up, attempting to flank me on each side while the other one approaches me slowly from the front.   I stand still while I wait for their combined attack. I can easily take these E grade monsters one by one, but there're too many of them… I should stall for time and wait for Leila to back me up.   The wolves charge at me at the same time, preparing to swipe me with their claws and bite me with their teeth. I jump backwards, narrowly dodging the flank attack causing the two wolves to crash into each other. I block the incoming claws in front of me with both swords, knocking the wolf backwards with the force.    The wolf on the left rushes towards me and attempts to pounce on me, but I swing my left sword and strike its head with the blunt surface, causing it to fly and roll on the ground. That should give it a temporary concussion.   On my right, the wolf has both paws in the air, ready to strike me in the next moment. I move my right arm just in time, to horizontally block both attacks. I bring my left arm back, cutting the right foreleg off before pushing it away with my right sword.   Suddenly in my peripheral vision, the middle wolf leaps towards me.   Shit, I won't make it… I have to dodge! A spike made of stone appears from the ground, instantly impaling the bottom of the wolf's head. I turn around. Leila is crouched with her hands on the ground. I smile before facing the wolf on the left. It growls at me while still on the ground; it hasn't recovered yet. The wolf continues to stare at me with its dark, orange eyes while snarling its sharp teeth and growling. I grip my weapons tightly and walk toward it. I'll put it outta its misery.   "Kai, there's something strange about the wolf behind you!"   The wolf…behind me…? He shouldn't be able to move.   I turn around and widen my eyes. Its mouth is open, and I observe fire gathering from the inside, gradually growing larger. These aren't any ordinary wolves… They're monsters.   I smile as I sheathe my left sword. This is an excellent opportunity to get back some of my Mana…   The orb of flames from inside the wolf's mouth eventually changes into a small fireball that flies towards me. Hmm… It's slower than I expected.    I shoot out a quick burst of my Mana, which envelops the fireball. I stretch my left arm in front of me before shouting, "Absorb!"   A lustrous purple haze covers the entire front surface of my hand that is placed right in front of the trajectory of the fireball. During impact, I feel some resistance and it pushes me an inch backwards, but I maintain my balance. My hand slowly sucks the fireball dry in a matter of a few seconds. The haze disappears from my hand, but I keep my palm facing the same direction and smirk. My turn…   "Fireball!" A fireball of much greater scorching intensity than the previous fireball but the same size appears and heads straight towards the wolf on the ground. Upon impact, it explodes, scattering the fiery gasses all around the wolf. When the flames disappear, the wolf's remains are nothing more than smoking, black charcoal.   I frown as I put my palm on my face and shake my head. Damn, I lost more Mana than I gained with that attack… At least we know they aren't magic resistant.   The remaining wolves growl as they slowly back away. Just when I think they're going to retreat, one of them howls. The rest of them join. I cock an eyebrow and look towards Leila, who is preparing magic. Leila exclaims, "Idiot, they're calling for reinforcements!"   I widen my eyes as I grit my teeth all while heading straight for the lone wolf on the left; it's still lying on the ground. It looks like it still can't move… This is my chance.   I throw back my right arm preparing to kill it, but it suddenly lunges at me holding both paws up readying to scratch me. I click my tongue. Sneaky bastard…but it's not enough.   I draw and block both claws with my other sword. My right follows through afterward, and I stab its brain through the eye socket. I pull out my sword and stab it again on top of the head just to be safe. Numerous explosions go off behind me. I smile skeptically. It sounds like she's having fun…   "Kai, watch out! There're nine of them headed your way!" I quickly turn my head behind me, immediately finding them charging me at full speed. I waste no time running in the opposite direction as fast as I possibly can.   They're gonna catch up to me in no time…and I can't lose more Mana enhancing my speed… I raise my eyebrows and grin. I sheathe both swords, gather the necessary Mana, and release it. I look behind me. Several fireballs are headed my way. I dodge them. The wolves are right on my tail.   Should I make a loop around the other side of the stream or the forest…? I can't risk the chance that they'll not follow this path back. If I don't hurry, there won't be enough Mana to activate the spell. It's now or never.   I draw both of my swords and jump forward while turning around. When I sprint forward into the pack of wolves, they launch an assault of swipes on me as I run by them. I attempt to block as many attacks as possible, but I end up receiving some scratches on all four of my limbs. I look behind me, observing that they're headed toward me on the exact same pathway. I stop running, turn around, and smile.    Good… Just keep running…full speed in this direction. I wait for them to reach the designated destination and activate my magic. "Open!"   The familiar portal appears in front of the wolves, large enough to cover the entire pathway. The end point is in front of me, perpendicular to the other portal while facing the stream. As they enter through the portal, I indiscriminately launch an endless storm of slashes with both of my blades directly in front of me. I only count the number of wolves that go through. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine…   I take a deep breath and wander my eyes around. The wolves continue to run toward the stream. A few seconds later, they crash into the ground. Some of them drop into the creek, marking it with streaks of blood. My plan succeeded as planned. I thought that given their speed, they wouldn't be able to react in time to evade running into the portal. Let's see how Leila's doing…   I turn around and head back. Leila's surrounded by five wolves. All of them lunge forward at once. I sigh and sheathe my swords. It's already over…   "Boost!" she exclaims and jumps high in the air, with a gust of wind at the bottom of her feet. The wolves collide against each other below. "Dome prison!"   Rocks come out from the ground in a circle, extending upwards into a dome shape, quickly trapping the wolves inside. I know there's a tiny opening on top of the dome. The trapped wolves growl. The dome shakes but shows no signs of breaking down. Leila lands on top and holds her palm in an upward position.   "Time bomb!" An earthy ball large enough to fit in the entirety of her hand appears. She crouches down, slips it through the hole, and jumps down while slowly walking towards me afterward.   Several seconds later, the dome explodes leaving a trail of smoke. A piece of the dome flies toward me. I dive into the water and point my eyebrows downward with a frown. "Hey, you almost killed me!"    She clicks her tongue and turns away. "Damn..."   I grit my teeth, feeling my head burning up. I relax and ask, "Where's Irene?"   "She's safe, near the top of a tree in that direction." She points to where we originally came. I sigh and get out of the water, laying down next to it.   "Hand me a Mana respirator, would you?" She opens her pouch and pulls out two Mana respirators. She tosses me one and uses the other one herself. I put the respirator in my mouth and inhale as I press the button on the side of it. I hold it in as long as possible and exhale. I try to inhale more, but there's nothing left. That's it…?   I sigh, frown, and then toss the useless scrap of glass into the stream. I wish these were a little more effective for me…   A wolf whimpers nearby. I turn toward it, discovering that it's a wolf Leila failed to finish off, but it already has mortal injuries. "Leila, you didn't finish it off?"   "Oh, it might have been the unlucky one… It's only a matter of time before it dies anyway. We should go. Irene is waiting." As I get up, more rustling noises resound from the direction the wolves came. I scratch my head and sigh.   "We don't have all day to be fighting these things; we should just ru…" Without warning, a Keor leaps out from a bush; it is a tiger distinguishable from other tigers by its trademark red fur and yellow and orange stripes. It's classified as a rank A monster.   I widen my eyes as I gradually drop my jaws, but I quirk an eyebrow when I notice that it is bleeding; there are several gashes on the side of its body and blood oozes out of them, quickly forming a puddle around its legs.   A shadow comes from behind the Keor and I simply gape at the ending result; the parts of the tiger fall to the ground after being separated into five parts. My entire body feels cold, but sweat drips down my cheek. Neither Leila nor I move a single muscle.   In front of us is a giant wolf; it might be nearly twice the size of a regular wolf. It has black, spiky fur on its entire body with the exception of white fur on its underbelly. The claws are about five inches long; three times longer than a regular wolf's. It stares at us with its red eyes and softly growls, revealing four large fangs and razor-sharp teeth. It's…an Anomaly…   I gulp as my entire body quivers. I recall a painful memory. The black wolf walks up to the nearby whimpering wolf and sniffs it. It wags its enormous tail left and right, creating an unbelievable amount of air pressure with each swing. A few seconds pass and the whimpering stops. There is a brief silence, but then the wolf suddenly turns its head towards us and roars thunderously.   I immediately cover both of my ears with my hands. Its powerful roar pierces my ears, and my entire head swells up with pain while a ringing sound resonates in my ears. The wolf approaches me rapidly while I haven't recovered. I promptly draw both of my swords and hold it in front of me in an X-shape to block the incoming attack. "Ahhhh!"   The force of the attack launches me backward, and I crash into a tree. As I open my eyes, everything is a blur, and I cough up blood on the top of my hand. With every cough, pain pulses in my upper back; something may have been broken. Leila mumbles among the ringing in my ears.    "Kai, watch out! It's coming for you!" I feel a surge of killing intent. All of its razor-sharp teeth are in front of me ready to close in.    Shit…need to dodge! I tighten my muscles before shouting, "Haste!"   I boost my legs for a moment to frantically roll away. The wolf's teeth bite through the entire tree like butter a split second later. The top of the tree crashes down next to it. While panic-stricken, I gasp for air and attempt to calm down. Vines appear and bind the wolf's limbs and body to the ground. "Kai, get a hold of yourself!"   I sluggishly stand up, having trouble maintaining my balance. I sheathe my left sword, grip the remaining sword with both hands, and close my eyes. After taking one deep breath, I open my eyes and spring towards the wolf. While holding my arms behind my head, I prepare all my strength into the next blow.    "Strengthen!" Power surges through both of my arms as the wolf still struggles to get out of the vines. Die!   My sword swoops down with amazing speed and power, but my sword snaps in half. The top part flies toward my face and grazes my left cheek. I close my left eye by reflex. There's no injury to the wolf at the location of impact. I hold my breath and gape at where I struck the wolf. What…? That was made outta Mithril…   "Kai, get back!" I focus back on reality. I quickly jump backward while tossing away the broken sword. Leila puts her hands out in front of her. The wolf's tail acts strangely. It curls up and hangs in the air.   "Stop! Just run for now!" I exclaim while running toward Leila. She scrunches her eyebrows together.   "What're you—" I grab her hand while running and grit my teeth as more pain shoots down my back. Still running, I turn my head behind me. The tail stretches out, hitting and breaking the ground. Massive black spikes appear from the ground in front of the tail. These spikes rapidly erupt from the ground, extending all the way across the stream, ending when it collides into a tree.  Leila has her eyes widened.    "Listen, that thing is an Anomaly… Most likely his black fur and those spikes are made outta Obsidian." I inform.   "Obsidian fur and…spikes…? Is that even possible?"   "It is… Anomalies are exceedingly rare but extremely powerful. I encountered one in the past before and barely escaped death."   "I've read about them, but I didn't believe it… I guess I have to believe it now… What can we do?"   "Running isn't an option; it's too fast… "   I briefly turn towards the sudden roar and loud noises in the area we just left. I close my eyes. Think…! There has to be a weakness we can exploit…its eyes…no…that's too risky…   I open my eyes and raise my eyebrows. Wait, why doesn't that black fur cover his entire body…?   I gulp and say, "There is one thing we can try… Its underbelly may be vulnerable, and we might be able to injure him there… The problem is, it's not gonna let us anywhere near there."   "What about with your—"   "Yeah, with my portals, we might be able to do it, but you'll have to stop his movements again."    She frowns with a sullen look on her face. "What if…it doesn't work…?   I stare at her with unwavering eyes and firmly say, "We can do it. We've made it this far, together… Afterward, we'll go pick up Irene and have the same usual fun like we always do."   I reciprocate her emerging smile.    "Yeah, you're right…" Suddenly, Leila pulls me towards the forest. "Let's hide in here for now."   We improvise a plan together in the time before the Anomaly finds us. In the meantime, Leila casts a few weak fireballs for me to absorb and temporarily closes my wounds.   "Hey, Kai… Did we really need to set all of this up…? It isn't coming."   "It should be able to track us by smell…even if it doesn't see us." I bite my lip. Come on…where are you…?   I scan the area around me with squinting eyes. I come to a stop and raise my eyebrows. "I see him… Let's do as we planned, no matter what happens."   Leila nods. "Go-got it."   I jump down from the tree and draw my sword holding it with just my right hand. I slowly approach the wolf, who I saw afar. As I move closer, I step on a twig creating a crumpling noise that alerts the wolf. It immediately leaps towards my direction, shaking the ground as it lands with its massive body. It stands still and growls while narrowing its eyes on me.   I gulp while drops of sweat drip down my cheek. I position my body so that it is ready for retreat at any time during this confrontation. My eyes dart left and right surveying the environment while still focusing on the wolf.   Suddenly, the wolf charges at me with great speed. I react and leap backward, putting my left hand in front of me.   The first test… I break down my Mana and immediately use it. "Fire bolt! Fire bolt! Fire bolt!"   Fire in the shape of fat arrows appears out of my left hand. I aim them toward its left leg every time. It dodges two by moving to the right. It jumps over the last one. Good… It's probably afraid of the damage spreading to its underbelly… I can use this.   The wolf raises its right paw in the air. I turn around while sheathing my weapon. I sprint toward the nearest tree. A loud sound erupts behind me. The vibrations in the ground gradually intensify. "Ha-haste!"   I take refuge behind the tree in a hurry, disabling the enhancement afterward. With both of my hands on the tree, I peek my head out. Black spikes erupting from the ground approach me on a straight path. I gulp. The second test…   I retreat my head and close my eyes. My heart beats like crazy. Half a second later, the tree shakes violently. Leaves fall on the ground. I open my eyes and sigh. That shaved off years of my life…   I sneak another look at the wolf and smirk. It snarls and growls at me. My smirk dissipates as I'm unsure of my impending safety. It raises both paws. I cock an eyebrow as they shine red. Feeling suspicious, I back away from the tree. I retreat to a tree much farther ahead. The paws strike the ground. Black spikes erupt from two different locations under the paws toward the tree I was at. They curve around the tree and head toward me.    I raise my eyebrows and stare open-mouthed. I rapidly turn my head left and right, eventually running in a direction heading closer to Leila. Shit! Hiding behind a tree isn't gonna do me much good now… Oh wait.   I jump towards the nearest tree and climb it in a hurry wrapping my limbs around the trunk. The spikes approach me. I smile. Heh… There's no way that can hit me now.   The spikes continue to dodge the trees ahead of them, but the height of them is too short to reach me. One surge of spikes approaches me from my left and the other one from the right. At this rate, they'll collide with each other into the tree, right under…me…huh? Is that a coincidence…?   I widen my eyes and kick off the tree with all four limbs posthaste. The spikes collide with each other and the tree. A fissure forms at the bottom of the tree that travels upward while releasing black spikes. The spike punctures through my armor and my stomach, leaving me hanging.   I scream in agony as massive pain disperses from my stomach and with every heartbeat, I feel more pain radiating out from my wound. I firmly grab the spike and steadily pull myself out, while strongly gritting my teeth. Fresh blood rushes out of my gaping injury after I finally pull myself out. Latent killing intent approaches me frighteningly fast.   I barely turn my head left. The wolf is lunging at me with its claws ready. I pull out my sword instinctively and guard with both hands.   "Stren—" I hack out blood and take a small breath. "Strengthen!"   I block its claws. It sends me flying in the opposite direction. I crash into the ground, sliding across the dirt at least 15 feet. I groan in pain with my eyes shut. I'm unable to move an inch without more pain shooting throughout my body. I figure the injury to my upper back reopened at some point.   Is this where it ends…? Before I accomplish my sole purpose in life…? A wild laugh echoes from my memories. I strongly grit my teeth and clench both fists until I hear them crack. No…   I get up sluggishly and survey my current whereabouts. A smile emerges. Is this fate…?   Leila is among the leaves in the tree nearby. She stares at me with a hand over her mouth.   A small puddle of blood forms from where I lay. I use all my remaining strength to get up while using my sword as a crutch. I pant as I struggle my way toward the designated location for the plan. With every stab to the ground, I twitch my eye in pain. With every step, blood gushes out from my wound onto the ground.   Something crackles in the distance behind me. I sense the wolf coming. I raise my eyebrows as high as possible and grimace while continuing to limp my way to the position. It feels like hours have passed, but less than a minute passed since the wolf struck me. I drop to my knees at my destination while still holding onto my sword that is dug into the ground. I…I did it… It's up to Leila now…   Using the sword, I turn myself around. The wolf runs toward me. That's right… Keep heading in this direction you bastard… I'm right here.   I glare into its eyes as it charges towards me. Even though I'm on the edge of death…I feel at peace… I wonder why…   "Sprout!" Sizable vines rapidly come out from trees all around the wolf.   "Entangle!" The vines seek in on the wolf, twirling around its limbs and body. It roars and struggles, breaking a few vines in the process, but more vines zoom in on the wolf disabling all movement; it can't even lie on the ground now. "Kai!"   I let go of the sword and release my Mana with both hands. A purple portal appears on the ground in front of me and slightly above ground under the wolf. I grip my sword and pull it out of the ground which causes me to stumble backwards from the sudden force. I grit my teeth as I fall on my back. "Argh!"   I gasp and slowly get back up while using the sword to help me. As I stare down into the portal, I take a deep breath. "Strengthen!"   I tightly grip my sword with both hands in reverse grip and stab through the portal with everything I have. It goes through and stops.   The wolf lets out a weak roar. I glance up. The sword is lodged into his stomach. The wolf continues to wrestle with the vines, but without any results. I let go of my sword before shouting, "Close!"   My weapon disappears in front of me and stays inside of the wolf's stomach. With barely any energy left, I support my body weight with both hands on the ground and gulp. I stare into its eyes and smirk. Come on… You're angry aren't you?   It scowls at me as it releases an ear-splitting roar. I grimace with my eyes shut tightly as an incredible ringing overcomes my ears. Pain throbs throughout my entire body. The wolf breaks free of more vines. Its mouth is open, pointing in my direction. I smile and release Mana toward their designated locations. A massive amount of Mana appears in the wolf's mouth. It turns black for a moment before turning into flames. It shoots it out toward me after a second. "Open!"   A horizontal portal appears on the ground under the wolf-like before and a vertical portal forms directly in front of me. I collapse on the ground, desperately trying to roll to the side. The wolf's magic goes through the portal and comes out under the wolf. All the restraining vines are broken as the wolf is launched vertically into the air. The cries of the wolf grow quieter with every moment.   My vision fades. "Kai!"   I regain my consciousness. Leila jumps down from the tree and kneels down beside me. A drop of sweat runs down her cheek as she puts her hands on the gaping one-inch diameter hole on my stomach. "Why do you look so worried…? It's only a flesh wound."   "Idiot…" Tears flow down her face despite her smile. I muster to find the strength in my body to lift my hand to wipe her tears.   "It worked out, just like I said it wo—" I cough out more blood.   "Don't talk!" Her arms tremble as she tries to heal my wounds.   "More importantly… Did you see if it died?”   "I don't know…" Uneasiness stirs inside me. Suddenly, something crashes next to us, forming a dirt cloud. We both cough and cover our mouths. A few seconds pass as I gulp my fear down as it finally clears to show the wolf lying on its side with its belly prone to us. Its stomach shows signs of third-degree burns in a circular pattern, and it hemorrhages around the hilt of the sword lodged in the center. It doesn't move.   "It's dead…right…?" I gulp and stare at it. My heart skips a beat as its leg twitches weakly. We both gape as it slowly stands back up. It…it's over…   The wolf turns its head towards us and stares, without making a sound for several seconds.   It finally lets out a weak grunt, turns back around, and then walks away. We switch between looking at the wolf and to each other with blank expressions on our faces. Randomly, we both giggle and sigh. "Leila, I'm gonna take a nap…"   "Kai, hang on!" My eyes become heavy because of the blood loss and my consciousness finally fades.

Xedeus' blade is approaching Luna's neck. Suddenly, Luna raises her right hand and shouts, "Blow!"   Xedeus' sword swerves off its path and clangs with the stone floor next to her neck. Tearfully, she screams, "Kai!"   I keep my eyes open wide while my heart pounds rapidly. The tears don't stop coming out of my eyes. Her voice sounds just like back then. I curl my twitching lips upward. She's back to normal…!   "Luna!" I exclaim. Numerous Earth magic spikes appear in the air behind her. They speed toward Xedeus at an angle from above. He jumps back. The spikes hit the floor and slide along it.   "Kai!" Luna shouts with the same tone.   "Luna!" I exclaim again.   "Kai. Calm down and empty out your thoughts. Don't be hasty," Leila says quietly. My tears stop as she moves her right pinky.   She's moving…? That means… I raise my eyebrows. I stop thinking about everything. I close my eyes while taking a deep breath in and then out. I keep at it.   "It's useless!" Xedeus shouts. "It doesn't matter how many rocks you throw at me, I'll cut it down."   I open my eyes and then try moving my toes and my fingers a little. Nothing is holding them back. An Earth ball appears ahead of us. It's heading toward Xedeus, who is facing it. He cuts it vertically through the center. Fire appears out of the ball, but the flames appear to be cut too. Both pieces swerve around Xedeus. Luna's slowly standing up. I figure she's completely out of Mana with the gust of wind she used a moment ago. I prepare instructions for my magic. Luna runs away slowly. Xedeus turns around and then Luna falls forward. She flips her body around.   Suddenly, her hands are around her neck as if she's gasping for air. She flails her legs around. I yell, "Luna, what's wrong?!"   A fireball, ball made out of water, and a ball made out of rock appears around Luna. They head the space slightly above her on a straight path. All three of them stop short of her as if they've hit a wall. They fade into nothing after several seconds. I grit my teeth. Shit! I don't have any more time!   I release my Mana. A second later, a purple gate appears in the air behind Xedeus and next to me. I roll into the portal, just tall and wide enough for my body and weapons to enter without a problem. I appear in the air on the other side. I grab both of my swords and then throw my arms above me. Die!   I slam my arms down using the added force of gravity. My blades stop an inch away from his body. A noise resounds from the space between us. What?!   "I told you, it's useless," he says.   I grit my teeth and exclaim, "Strength!"   My weapons go slightly deeper, when suddenly, a gust of wind pushes me away. Xedeus flips in the air forward as Leila emerges from my portal. Luna isn't moving anymore. I land on my feet, waiting for the momentum pushing me to fade. I run toward Luna and yell, "Luna!"   I sheathe a sword and then kneel down next to her face. Xedeus chuckles and then says, "Don't worry. The girl that you’ve killed is still alive."   "What the hell are you talking about?" I ask and then reach for her pulse. She's still alive. I look up.   "Kai, Kai, Kai… You're the one who pushed her away, weren’t you? You rejected her," Xedeus says. I knit my eyebrows. "Still confused? I'll let you in on a little secret… It was the result of your own actions."   He laughs. I raise my eyebrows and then look at the ground. I drop my sword.  No way…   I think about my past actions and the result. I look at Luna's face. Everything was…my fault? If I had just accepted her earlier…   I clench my fists and grit my teeth. "To think that you've been this emotionally invested in this girl all this time."   "Xedeus, stop playing around!" Leila exclaims. "What in the world are you planning? When you are not taking this fight seriously."   "I don't have to worry about one or two ants crawling beneath my feet. What you do doesn't concern me in the slightest.  As for my plans…you're not qualified to know yet…but you'll find out eventually whether you want to or not," Xedeus answers. He sheathes his weapon and continues, "Well, I'll give this one to Kai for the hard work he's done to advance my plans."   A Cascabel mask drops to the floor in front of me. I look up, focusing on his face for several seconds. I drop my jaws and widen my eyes as a cold chill shoots down my back. A face I've seen before. One that seems familiar to me, but I can't pinpoint why. It's one of the strange referees from the Academy's end of year tournament event. I gulp and ask, "Who're you…?"   "Don't tell me you've forgotten already? After your brush with death…"   I raise my eyebrows and respond, "You… You're the one responsible for that…?"   He smiles. "It was a disappointing sight to see how little you've progressed your Void magic..."   I quiver. He knows about that too?! Wait a minute…   I recall my first meeting with Xedeus. "Well, I've overstayed my welcome."   He turns around and walks away. I exclaim, "Wait! What'd you do to Emdos?!"   He stops walking. A second later, he answers, "Ah, that's right. You can't find him, can you? You won't see him for a long, long time… The choice isn't up to me, him, or you. It's up to chance."   He continues walking away. I stand up and run after him. "Wait! What do you mean by that?!"   A gust of wind stops my advance. I put my arms in front of me to shield my eyes. The wind stops. He's no longer in our sights. I knit my eyebrows. Where'd he go…?   "What a mysterious man… He's more powerful than I've ever imagined," Leila says. I sigh.   "Yeah…" I turn around and then kneel next to Luna. I gently stroke her cheek with my fingers.   "Irene! Are you okay?" Leila asks. I look up, finding that Irene's peeking out from the vault. "Come over here. I'll treat your injuries with my magic."   Irene runs over and then replies, "I'm okay for now."   She points her eyes away. I ask, "What's wrong Irene?"   "I-it's nothing. I'm just a little worried about Reid and Aurora."   "What happened to those two?" Leila asks.   "They're in a room nearby," Irene says.   "Let's go," I say while picking up Luna and then standing up. "Lead the way."   Leila and I follow her. I ask, "By the way, how'd you open the vault? Did you remember something?"   "Well... When that man brought me to the vault, he demanded that I open it, but I didn't know how or what he was talking about. He did something to me. Memories I've forgotten flooded into my head. I remembered the last day daddy visited me. He was arguing with my mom about something. I don't know what they were arguing about. When I got closer, daddy turned to face me. He said that he had something really important to give me. He told me to never use it no matter what. This blue stuff came out of his hand and then went into my body. Knowledge flooded into my head. My consciousness faded after that."   I knit my eyebrows. "Blue stuff…? That sounds a lot like Mana…and how knowledge flooded into your head sounds like what a Magic Scroll would do. I've never heard about being able to instantly transfer magic instructions or Mana between people… What about you, Leila?"   "It's a first for me as well."   "It's this room here," Irene says and opens the door. She goes in and we follow. Reid and Aurora are both tied down to chairs next to each other. Aurora's arm next to Reid is not tied down and there's a small metal club tied to her hand. They both make muffled noises through their gag.   "Xedeus… What a sick bastard…" I say. Leila loosens the cloth wrapped around their mouths.   "Thank god you are here! What happened to that masked man?" Reid asks. Leila begins untying them, starting with Reid.   "He's gone," I answer. He sighs.   "Good. We do not have anything to worry about now," he says.   "No, we still have a problem… There's a crowd outside waiting for your announcement, Reid. I mean, Osmir," I inform.   "Oh, shit… What am I going to do?!" Aurora knits her eyebrows.   "What are you talking about?"   "You don't know? He's the hero that saved Xantho from the raids on villages by the villain Velyn. He declared himself King of Xantho yesterday, promising to redistribute the stolen wealth today," I explain.   "What is with that?!" Aurora shouts and raises the arm with the mace attached in the air. She swings at Reid, but he's already untied and dodges. "So you have been living the lavish life… When things turn a little bad, you do not want what you originally usurped? Take responsibility! It is the least you could do for me…and Seirus."   Tears pour out of her eyes, but she doesn't make a sound. Reid frowns and looks down. Leila starts untying Aurora, beginning with the mace in her hand. I ask, "So you've already heard the news from the masked man?"   "Yes. He told us that Velyn and Seirus were no longer with us," Aurora informs.   "How're you holding up, Irene?" I ask.   She looks up and says, "Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm fine. I've been preparing for the worst since I heard he was missing…"   Reid looks up, smiles, and then says, "I am going to confess. I will tell everyone that I am a fraud and the truth about everything."   "No, you should not do that," Leila says. "The last thing this kingdom needs to hear right now is more bad news. You need to let the current wounds heal."   Reid widens his eyes and asks, "Then what do I do?! I cannot stay the King… It is too much responsibility…and I do not deserve it… I do not even know what to do next. It is only a matter of time before they find out the truth anyway…"   "If you do not try to do anything, I definitely will not forgive you!" Aurora exclaims while standing up.   Leila sighs and then says, "I have an idea. One that you might not approve of, Kai. Ultimately, the choice is up to Irene."   "Alright, let's hear it," I say.   "Reid will reveal the existence of Irene being the rightful heir to the throne. He needs to come up with an excuse of how he found her and then announce their marriage."   She pauses and looks at me. I say, "Go on."   "We will still play on the facts the people think are true. Velyn remains the mastermind behind everything. Kai and I helped you kill Velyn in one final skirmish while Seirus and Aurora are still at large."   Leila turns to Aurora and continues, "This means you can never leave the castle. No one can find out that you are here."   "I understand."   "Do you have any knowledge in economics or politics?" Leila asks.   "I was tutored in economics and I know a little about politics through my family."   "Good. That will help. You'll have to advise Irene and Reid from the shadows. You will need to decide how to make changes to the economy gradually because just handing people random amounts of money is not going to solve anything. You may also need to rebuild the political system. It is going to be a lot of work. Can you do it?"   "Whether or not I can do it is not a choice… I have to do it," Aurora responds.   "Good answer. What do you think, Irene? If you don't want to do it we need to come up with a different measure," Leila says and then turns to Irene. She doesn't answer. I turn toward her too. She's looking at Luna.   "Irene?" I ask.   She looks up and says, "No, it's nothing."   I knit my eyebrows. I look at Luna's face for a second and then at Irene's. I say, "Hey… They really do resemble each other. I'm not just imagining it."   Leila comes closer to me and takes a look for herself. "You're right… Do you know something, Irene?"   "Yeah…" she mutters. "I think Luna is…my sister."   I widen my eyes and exclaim, "What?! Sisters?! That's impossible… Luna said her mom died when she was six… Did Velyn have another affair? No, wait…"   I think back to the story Irene told me yesterday. She said her mom lied about having a previous husband…   I raise my eyebrows as I remember what Luna during that day. She asked, "Are you gonna abandon me too…? Just like how mom did…"   They're both lying…?   "We're technically half-sisters," Irene informs.   "How're you so sure?" Leila asks. Irene doesn't answer for several seconds. She looks down.   "I remembered more than just the day daddy last visited me… I also remembered things I saw when I was really little. These memories just flooded into my head in a single moment. I don't remember these at all so it's a little hard to believe…" she explains.   I widen my eyes and exclaim, "If you know something, tell us!"   "Well… Luna's father wasn't a good person…and my mom turned a blind eye to everything that transpired. I won't say more than that. You should hear it from her instead." I look down at Luna while remembering the nonsense she blabbered on about during that day.   So she had a father after all… Was the smile she was putting on every day a lie? I didn't see through it at all… I shake my head.   "Sorry to interrupt…but you still have a problem you need to solve," Reid says with his hands clasped together. I sigh.   "It's your problem too. Actually, it's only your problem," I say.   "I know but… I just…" Reid shakes his head and continues, "I just do not know what to do."   Leila frowns and asks, "Did you not hear a word I said?"   "I did hear but…you need to tell me what to do. Just tell me what to say, and I will do it."   Leila sighs and then says, "Well, I need to explain again for Irene. At least try to put some of your own thought to it."   "Since you want my forgiveness, I will not give you a choice. If you do not try, I will kill you," Aurora adds.   "Go-got it…" Reid answers weakly.   I walk over to the bed in the room and put Luna down. I walk toward the exit and say, "I'm gonna check out the rest of the castle. We didn't get a chance to do that before. I'm still curious what happened to all the guards. Maybe they're imprisoned somewhere."   "Don't be gone for too long," Leila warns.   "I know, I know. I'll be back soon," I say and then leave. I wander the hallways. Hmm… The first order of things is to check where that Ogre came from. I think I ran from over there…   I retrace my steps to the stairs down to the first floor and then the stairs on the opposite side. I find the room I discovered Reid and Irene in last night. I go in the direction I saw Leila and the Ogre running from. It should be around here somewhere…   I search the area, eventually finding a broken wall up ahead. I walk toward it. A familiar scent lingers in the air. This smell…   I have a bad feeling about it. The disappearance of the guards… An empty castle…   I know what I'll find in here, and it won't be pretty. I enter the room through the hole. I find exactly what I imagined. Scraps of armor are scattered across the entire room. There are blood stains on the floor along with an Ogre footprint. There's a pile of bones in one corner of the room and a pile of heads in another corner. The latter is where the smell is strongest. I walk toward it, finding a guard I talked with yesterday on top of the pile along with a horde of flies. I close my eyes and shake my head.   With nothing else to discover, I leave the room where I came from. I search through some of the other undiscovered hallways, but I don't find anything that stands out. I head back to the others. I arrive in the room, but only Leila and Luna are here. Leila's sitting in a chair with her arms and legs crossed. She's looking at Luna. I cock an eyebrow and ask, "Where're the others?"   She turns her head toward me and responds, "Took you long enough. They're outside informing the people about the situation using the script we prepared."   "What? Even Aurora? I thought we were going to go with that we helped Reid take down Velyn."   "Yes, but then I changed it. It'll be better if we're not in the picture. They might start asking us about our origins. Besides, Aurora won't be a prisoner to this place anymore."   "Hmm… So what are they telling the people?"   "Seirus knew about the corruption surrounding Velyn. He found out that Velyn gave something important to an illegitimate daughter he had when she was born. Velyn later regretted it. The real reason for the raids was to locate his daughter and take back his possession. Seirus and Aurora left to go find his illegitimate daughter before Velyn got to her.  Seirus died in a final clash against Velyn today. Well, that was the change. Find anything on your end?"   I sigh and then reply, "Yeah. There's this room around the center of this floor that you might need to clean up. The guards were fed to the Ogre."   "That would be something," Leila says and then stands up. "Take me there."   I start heading to the room again. Leila walks alongside me after closing the door. "By the way, how'd you figure out Xedeus' magic?"   "It was an attack I couldn't see, feel, or hear. I figured it must have been Fusion magic between Wind and Lightning to the brain or spine. If he took the special property of invisibility and Base from Wind, the paralyzing effect from Lightning would not be as pronounced and won't last long. He used Alteration afterward to play mind tricks on you to make you think you still couldn't move. I still can't figure out his motive in all of this…"   "Hey… Can he use Alteration magic to speak to people directly in their mind or control them in any way?"   "No, that should be impossible. What's bothering you?"   "No, it's nothing." Leila sighs.   "What was that about earlier?" Leila asks. I cock an eyebrow. "You've met Xedeus before in the past?"   "Oh, yeah… It was at an event during my Academy days. I didn't know at the time, though. I was just a kid, clueless about the world…"   "You don't need to keep blaming yourself, Kai," she says while patting me on the back. "Wh-what're you going to do now?"   I think about it for several seconds. That question never occurred to me until now. I lost half the reason for pursuing Xedeus, and I'm too weak to fight him…   "I'm not sure," I answer. "I don't think we can show ourselves in Cascabel anymore, so we're back to square one. I'll probably stay here for a while."   "I see."   "Well, we're here," I say as we arrive at the room in question. "I'm gonna see if there're any clues inside that vault."   I start heading back. Suddenly, Leila follows and says, "I'm coming with you."   I stop walking and turn around. "What, why? After I just led you here…"   She looks away and asks, "Just what do you think my magic is? I can't clean this up by myself. This is just manual labor."   I sigh and then say, "Whatever."   We head to the vault. Aurora is on the side of the library near the hole. I interject, "Huh? You guys are done already?"   "Yes. Surprisingly, Reid sounded amazing just now. Do not tell him I said that," Aurora says.   "Where're the other two?" I ask.   "They're by the vault. There were some people who wanted some proof of what we were saying." I cock an eyebrow while we make our way there.   "Leila, wait!" Aurora exclaims. I glance over my shoulder finding Leila has stopped and turned toward Aurora. "Can you give me some advice on what I should do in the coming weeks?"   I continue ahead without Leila. Reid is standing outside of the open vault. Irene isn't here. I ask, "Reid, what's going on?"   He turns his head toward us and exclaims, "Oh, you are here! I did not know what to do about them so I just let them in. Was it the wrong choice?!"   "They are coming back…" he says quietly and then turns away. I widen my eyes as Marin and her bodyguards walk out. Irene is with them. Reflexively, I put my hands on my weapon grips.   "Marin! You wanna fight again…?" I ask. She stares at me blankly and then sighs.   "No, I don't want to fight you… What this man over here said was a bit of a stretch…but there's no doubt that this girl is special. I was just thinking you might’ve been telling the truth after all…" she says with little energy. I relax and sigh.   I ask, "So, was there anything in the vault?"   "Not a thing. The material the room's made out of has me interested, though. I've never seen anything like it."   I groan and then mutter, "So it's really back to square one…huh."   "What're you talking about?"   "It's Xedeus… We fought but it could hardly be called a fight. He was too strong. I was trying to sneak up on him in Cascabel, but he knew about that too… Now I won't get another chance for a long time…"   She looks down with the same expression and says, "I see…"   She looks around her and asks, "Where's Ruby?"   "She's unconscious on a bed nearby," I answer with a smile.   Irene cocks an eyebrow and then asks, "Ruby…? You mean Luna, right?"   Marin knits her eyebrows. I say, "Well, some stuff happened… She's back to her old self…no…I mean… Never mind. You wanna see her, right? Follow me."   I start walking toward the room. Marin follows and says, "The six of you stay here."   "Yes ma'am!" her bodyguards exclaim. Leila is still talking to Aurora when she turns toward me. She knits her eyebrows for a few seconds and then relaxes.   "We're gonna see if Luna's awake yet," I say as we walk past her.   "Wait! I'm going to come with you too!" Leila exclaims. Her footsteps resound a few times.   "Leila, wait! What about our discussion?" Aurora asks.   "Fine… What else do you want to know?" We arrive in the hallway. Marin follows me in silence.   It feels like she's staring me down from behind. I curl my lips inward. This is awkward…especially on how we ended our last meeting…   Sweat forms on my palms. I say, "Listen… About the—"   "You don't need to say anything. I'm sure you were trying to protect me in your own way…" It's awkward, but I don't say anything for the rest of the way. I open the door to the room and then go in. I widen my eyes. Luna's sitting up on the bed.   "Luna!" I exclaim and run over to her. She smiles.   "Kai…and Marin."   I smile, grab her hand, and ask, "How're you feeling?"   "I feel fine except that I'm low on Mana."   "Actually, I'm going to ask Irene more questions!" Marin exclaims and walks away. "I'm glad you're okay…Luna."   "Yeah," Luna responds. Marin leaves and closes the door behind her. Luna pulls my hands closer to her, forcing me to sit down next to her. I blush and look away. I gulp as several seconds pass. Her grip tightens on my hand. "Hey, Kai…"   Her hands are warm and sweaty. Or maybe it's my sweat, I don't know. I turn back, finding that she's frowning and her eyes are shaking. "What is it?"   "Sorry… I haven't… I haven't been myself lately."   "No, that's wrong!" I exclaim immediately. She looks up into my eyes. "You've always been yourself, Luna. I'm the one who should be sorry. I thought you were a different person…but I was wrong. You've always been you, so don't apologize for it."   She smiles, her eyes glistening. "You know… I've always liked that part about you, Kai."   I cock an eyebrow. "What part?"   "You've always treated me normally… You looked at me at an even level instead of on a pedestal like everyone else in our first year, despite that your scores were so much lower than mine." I blush and stop holding her hands. I put my hands on the bed behind me while putting some of my weight back.   "We-well… I never had any friends growing up…so I wanted to take whatever I could get," I answer quickly. I smile, thinking back to my childhood. "Yeah…back then was nice. All I wanted in the world was to have friends…" Luna copies my position.   "So we were the same…" Luna mutters. I widen my eyes. "That's all I wanted too. I never had any friends before our first year either. Well, that wasn't the only reason I took an initial interest in you… To be honest, I thought you were really weak and pathetic."   I frown. She chuckles and then continues, "I didn't mean it in a bad way! It was more like… I thought I could be a mentor of sorts…like your big sister or something."   My heart pounds as I remember what Irene said earlier. I gulp before asking, "Why'd you wanna be my big sister?"   She doesn't answer for several seconds. "Because… I actually have a little sister. I haven't seen her since…"   "Since?" She frowns and looks down, her eyes quivering. "Oh, no. If you don't wanna answer, that's fine."   "Hey, Kai…" she says as she suddenly turns her body toward me. "I still love you… I've always thought about you every day. I wanted to help you in whatever way I could… What about you…?"   I frown and look down. I can't tell her…that with Marin… But I thought about her too. More than I wanted to.   Suddenly, Luna leans in on me. It catches me off guard and my hand slips. My back falls on the bed. She climbs on top on me and continues to lean in toward my mouth with her eyes closed. My heart rate accelerates. I close my eyes while thinking about my own feelings. I open my eyes and put a hand between our lips before they touch. I respond, "Sorry."   Luna opens her eyes, tears pouring out. Some of it drips on my face. I continue, "I loved you too… I thought about you a lot… I wanted to reconcile and start over…but…"   She gets off me and sits back on the edge of the bed.   "It's okay. I understand…" She sniffles. "That Elf really did take you away from me…"   Women's intuition's really scary… I sit back up too. "By the way, your little sister's here."   "What?"   "Her name's Irene. She's here at the library." Luna wipes away her tears with her arms and then sniffles again.   "Re-really?" she asks, her eyes practically glowing.   I smile and respond, "Yeah. Wanna go meet her?"   She stands up and exclaims, "Yeah! Let's go!"   I stand up and walk to the exit. I knit my eyebrows as I pull the door open. It was slightly open? I could've sworn Marin closed it…   Luna runs out ahead of me. "Hey, wait! Do you know where you're going?"   "Yeah! I remember this hallway!" I sigh and walk at my own pace.   Hmm… What should I do now? I gulp. I think I'm gonna confess my feelings for Leila after all. Elves and Humans aren't compatible? To hell with that. I don't wanna give up just because of the first obstacle we encounter. We'll show everyone that we're different… That it's possible to have a healthy relationship between a male Human and female Elf.   I think about my word as on my way to the library. Aurora is reading a book against the wall near the hole. I ask, "Leila's done giving you some tips already? Where is she?"   She looks up and answers, "Yes. I think she went to go talk to Irene."   "Alright, thanks," I say and then walk around the library. I find Irene with Luna, Marin and the guards. "Hey, Irene. Where's Leila?"   "Huh? Leila told me she was going to see what you were up to. Did you not see her?" I knit my eyebrows.   "I must have missed her. I'll catch you guys later," I say and then walk back. I arrive at the room Luna was in, but Leila isn't here. That's strange… Did she decide to clean up the mess in the Ogre room?   I quicken my pace, arriving at the Ogre room. The room is just as I last left it. Leila isn't here either. My palms sweat as a chill goes down my spine. I might just be unlucky… Did Leila already go back to the library?   I run back, joining up with Irene and the others again. Leila isn't here. Irene asks, "Kai, you're back already? Where's Leila?"   "That's what I wanna know. You were the last person to talk to her. What were you guys talking about?"   "Hmm… While she was healing me, she was saying how she was jealous of me. How I'm strong and able to accept all these new responsibilities without complaint. I don't—"   "And? Was that it?"   "Oh, I also told her you were calling for Luna in your sleep during our ride to Byzia." I knit my eyebrows.   "Wait… Is that when I woke up and… I thought you said I didn't say anything…"   "Sorry, I lied. I was thinking about the name, Luna…"   Luna exclaims, "Kai! You were really…"   I get lost in my own thoughts, blocking off all other sounds. I think about the way Leila has been acting strange for the past few days. I think about my last few interactions with her, piecing together the information Irene told me. I gulp. The door was closed when Marin left…but it was open when I left…   I widen my eyes as a cold chill courses through my body. Luna asks, "Kai, what's wrong?"   "Irene. How long ago did you last talk to Leila?"   "Hmm…" My heart pounds progressively faster. "20 minutes…maybe 30 minutes ago?"   I left to visit Luna with Marin about 30 minutes ago… Marin's not saying anything, so that must mean Leila avoided her… I can still catch up. I turn to Marin and ask, "Marin, where's the Transportation Center here?   "In the north—" I turn around and run toward the exit of the castle. "—Kai, wait!"   "Haste!" I exclaim and then feel power surging through my legs. I feel bad about leaving Marin and Luna behind just as we reunited…but…this is more important. I know where to find them when this is resolved.   I leave the castle and head for the gates. The gates are open with two guards standing watch. Are they part of Marin's unit? Well, whatever.   I run past them, finding the large crowd dispersed. I head toward the northern part of the city. Leila, you can't leave like this… I won't allow it.   I look around everywhere but can't find the Transportation Center. I click my tongue. Shit!   Panting, I approach the nearest person in front of me and then say, "Excuse me. I'm looking for the Transportation Center around here. Where is it?"   The man answers, "You're looking for it in the wrong place. It's in the eastern part of town. Big red building. You can't—"   I immediately turn around and run toward the eastern part of the city. I frown and grit my teeth. Marin lied to me… Is she trying to keep me away from Leila?   I soon arrive at my destination, the big, red building. Marin's standing there by the entrance with two bodyguards. I exclaim, "Marin! What's the meaning of this?!"   She turns to me calmly and then says, "I'm not going to let you leave me behind again. We're coming with you."   I relax and ask, "We?"   She turns her head toward the entrance of the Transportation Center. "There's Luna with the wagon."   She turns back to me and continues, "You wouldn't be able to get one without the Xantho emblem, an Adventurer's license, or the proper Trading license, remember? You probably were thinking about taking one by force…"   "Well… Wait, how'd you guys get one? You don't have either of those three either."   "Luckily, Reid had a Xantho emblem on him, so we borrowed it." Luna stops the wagon next to us.   "Deliver this back to Reid," Luna says as she tosses something shiny to one of the bodyguards.   "Yes, Captain," one of them answers.   "I want you to report to Sergeant Jetia as we discussed earlier and give him my new orders," Marin says to the other guard.   "Yes, Lieutenant!" the guard exclaims and then the two of them run away. Marin gets on the wagon, and I follow.   "Kai, where're we going?" Luna asks.   "Hmm… I think Leila's going east so let's head in the same direction," I say. Luna signals the horses to move and we head out.

"..ai..up.. Hey, Kai wake up."   "Mmm… Ahh…" I open my eyes slowly and find my partner, Leila, crouched beside me peeking through the bushes with a pair of binoculars.  From this angle she looks quite nice…   The wind gently cascades her soft, delicate, golden hair in smooth waves along her shoulders, tapering down to her lower back. Still slightly groggy from sleep, a sweet smile slowly emerges on my face as my eyes adjust to take all of her in. I can get used to waking up like this every day. I slither around looking for a better angle while creating excessive amounts of rustling noises. What am I talking about… She looks good from any angle… Oh I see an opening…   "Leila~" I throw my arms around her stomach from behind and take a big whiff of her lovely scent. I rub the back off her shoulder with my face while continuing to sniff her.  I realize that her shaking could be a sign that she's losing her patience.   "Hey. Stop messing around, he's here."   "Oh? Are you sure?"   "Yeah, have a look. Get off me already." Leila blushes as she struggles to shove me away with the binoculars. In the far distance, two horses lead a single wagon convoy escorted by over a dozen soldiers.   There are 15 in total, all equipped in armor surrounding the transport. An enormous man controls the reins of both horses leading the wagon. He has rough-looking brown hair, sideburns, a small beard, and a benevolent facial expression; his eyebrows are raised, and he wears a small smile while his armor is distinctly different from the others. The head of a lion baring its fangs is engraved in front of his breastplate; the national symbol of Xantho. The head is tinted in black while the fangs are tinted in red.    That aside, the state of their equipment is evident that they were in a recent battle. Their weapons and armor are chipped, in need of repair. Dark splotches of blood are smeared onto their armor while fresh blood drips from their weapons. Their mouths are open, always taking deep breaths. Their eyes and postures are drooped, and it looks like another encounter would spell the end of their lives.   "I see," I say. "With that big physique and that face, he matches the profile we received for this mission. 'Grizzly Bear' Dae is a befitting name for him."    I scowl and remember the moment my nap was interrupted last week by one of our messengers. Just because Dae ruined an important mission a while back that took many months of planning, the boss finally ordered us to kill him.    We went on a wild goose chase wandering from town to town in Xantho only to find out he was no longer there. Luckily, we found someone that had witnessed him leading a small group of men around a convoy toward the Kingdom of Elbar.    I waited for his return on the only trail leading from Elbar to Xantho knowing that any high ranked officer of Xantho was kept on a very short leash due to the internal conflict going on in their country.    Fifteen hours is long enough, you son of a bitch. What took you so long? I grimace before speaking up, "Let's get this done quick. I wanna continue my nap."   "We'll surprise them when they make the turn to Xantho. I'll use my magic to… Hey, what're you doing? Wait…" Ignoring Leila, I get up and toss the binoculars back to Leila, put on my white mask and walk to the trail in clear view in front of the convoy. I can already imagine Leila shaking her head behind me in disapproval. "Jeez, impatient as always…"   The wagon clatters in the distance while we wait for them to notice us. Dae pulls back the reins and says, "Stop, there's someone there."    The subordinates that were sluggishly marching alongside the wagon suddenly shuffle their way towards the front.   "What?! Is it more bandits? Those bastards are persistent."   "Oh, there are only two… Don't scare me like that."   "The Human's a dual-wielder, the Elf unarmed." I overhear Dae's subordinates making noise among themselves while they are forming a defensive line in front of us.    "An Elf? That's rare. I don't know who you people are, but there's nothing of value in this convoy if your goal is money. Even if there were, there's no way you're getting past me. Ahhh, what is it that people call me?  'Grizzly Bear’?" he says with a smile and laughs, but Leila and I stand our ground; we have no intention of leaving.    I stare into his eyes and release murderous intent. While the subordinates haven't noticed the change in atmosphere, Dae does and stops laughing and smiling.    "That’s right! General Dae won't lose to the likes of you! Leave!"   "It appears that you have some kind of grudge against me," Dae says as he knits his eyebrows and supports his chin with a hand. "Now that I think about it, those masks have been bothering me for a while. Where have I seen those same masks before…and that snake symbol as well…"    Bullshit, I won't let you forget! After all, I wouldn't have to be here if it weren’t for the shit you pulled. Why'd you have to change your stupid patrol route for that day? That was my precious nap time.    I don't think Xantho's government would be stupid enough to leave a general absent, especially in the critical time their country is facing right now. Assuming that he's telling the truth about having nothing of value, he must be escorting someone important who is crucial for solving their crisis. It doesn’t matter to me, though.    "Oh, I do recall that I found a suspicious wagon eight months ago with all sorts of illegal goods. I was attacked by a couple of hooligans, so I killed them. They also wore those masks you're wearing now."   "No...no way…" one of Dae's subordinates mutters as he points to us as if he sees a ghost. "I remember now… that snake symbol belongs to Cascabel… "   "Cascabel? The one responsible for the incident three years ago?"   "Yeah, that atrocious one."   "Wait a minute…these two…they match the descriptions of the 'Phantom Swordsman' and 'The Witch…'"   I smile and chuckle. The defensive formation starts to drift apart as they chatter among themselves and, shortly after, they begin dropping their battle stances while backing away slowly, their weapons lowered.    "What do you think you're doing! Are you abandoning your mission to your country?!" Dae barks. His subordinates don't move a muscle and remain silent.    "We…We don't want to die." I snicker.   "It's just as they say, 'Grizzly Bear,'" I say. "I'll tell you this much, we only need your head. We weren’t ordered to kill anyone else. Of course, if your subordinates don't fight us, we have no reason to kill them."   "That is right, it is in our interest to prevent any unnecessary blood from being spilt," my partner adds to emphasize our only intention to take Dae's head.    "Unnecessary bloodshed you say?" Dae bursts out as he contorts his face. "How dare you hypocrites even speak of unnecessary bloodshed when your whole organization kills innocents and civilians day after day!"   Suddenly, something creaks from the wagon. A door on the side opens and someone in a quiet voice says, "What's going on? Why've we stopped for so long?"   I widen my eyes and mouth after a young girl emerges from the wagon. As she steps out, a gust of wind sweeps her long brown hair off of her back. She holds down her dress with both arms so that it doesn’t flip over. She has fair, smooth, white skin and looked about 16 years old. A wave of nostalgia suddenly hits me when I lay my eyes upon her face, resembling innocence and purity. She reminds me so much of her...   Dae turns toward the girl. "Miss, do not come out yet, it is dangerous. Please, go back inside."   "What danger, Mr. Dae? Is it more monsters?" the girl asks as she starts walking forward. I give her a friendly wave in response to her eye contact, but she frowns and backs off. She scampers back into the wagon and then closes the door.    I wipe off the drool seeping through my mask with my arm and pretend nothing happened. I can feel Leila's icy cold glare behind me, though.   "All this effort…all for a single, young, and defenseless girl… Who is she I wonder? She's kinda cute actually, but what should I do?" I ask playfully and lick my lips intending to taunt Dae. His eyes are narrowed, squinted, and his jaws seem clenched.   "You…you bastard... Don't worry about who she is. Because, even if you find out, you will both die right now." Dae jumps off the wagon and grabs his battle axe on his back with his right arm while using his left arm to support the weight.    I sense that the aura around him is completely different compared to a few moments ago, and he directs his bloodlust at me as he enters his battle stance. However, he is focused a bit too much on me. So this is a general ranked officer of Xantho… I'm a little disappointed to be honest.   I look towards Leila and she gives me the nod which means that her end was successful. I sigh before I say, "Sorry, I don't have anything against you, but this battle is over."   "What're you talking about?! I'm no longer waiting for you to draw your weapon! Prepare yourself!" Dae charges towards us while his battle cry rips through his throat with his battle axe raised high in the air along his right side.   I merely continue to stand in place without drawing my weapon. I invariably look down and sigh.   Dae reaches a range in which he can finally strike me. "Die!"   A split second afterward, I hear a trigger word behind me from Leila. "Sprout!"   Leila's left arm is raised in front of her. I skeptically smile when I remember when she used the same thing on me. I frown and shiver. I didn't wanna remember that now…   "AHHHHH!"   Dae's armor is broken with his axe lodged inside him, inflicting a deep back wound. He screams in pain, now letting go of the axe that is lodged in his back and he falls down right in front of me, blood oozing out of his wound. His subordinates gape and quiver in shock.   "What...what did you do?" he asks in a raspy voice. His eyebrows are knit close together as if lost in thought. His face twitches in agony. Several moments later, his eyes and mouth widen. He raises his head from the dirt and looks toward Leila. "I see… So it was the Elf… I was careless... What're you going to do now?"   "Who knows… It won't matter since even if you find out, you will die right here," I answer and smirk.   As if resigning to his fate, he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. "Do it."   I smile. Even though he's my enemy right now… I admire true warriors who don't beg for their lives. I'll make it painless for him.   I unsheathe one of my swords with my right arm and make a swift slash to his neck. It cleanly lobs off leaving blood rapidly spouting out of his neck. I pick up his head by the hair and walk towards the convoy. The head continues to drip blood on the trail.   "Ahh… The Witch has done it again. General Dae has been killed," one of Dae's subordinates mutters before falling backward, probably from fear and shock.   "Hey—" I barely get a word out before 14 of the former General Dae's subordinates retreat from the convoy in fear. I recognize the paralyzed one on the ground; it's the subordinate who was kind enough to inform everyone about us. I wasn't even gonna do anything… I'm hurt.   "Hey you, what can you tell me about that girl in the convoy?" I ask the hopeless guy on the ground. He opens and closes his mouth repeatedly as if trying to speak, but unable to. I am unsure if he heard my question.   "Stay… Stay…" he mutters some words I'm unable to understand.   "Stay? Is that her name?" I walk closer to the man and he can't keep composure. A pale, yellow liquid leaks from his armor. I stare at him with a blank expression, unsure of what to do in this situation. Now that I think about it, I'm still carrying the head of his former superior and maybe I do look menacing carrying the sword in my other hand…   I sheathe my sword and toss aside Dae's head for now. I crouch down, careful not to soak my shoes in the growing puddle around him. I take off my mask and smile.   "Hey, listen... I'm not gonna kill you. You can run off wherever you want, I'm not stopping you. What I wanna know is, who's the young girl being transported in the convoy?" I ask again in the most affable voice I can summon while smiling, but I receive no response even after ten seconds have passed. I frown and can feel veins popping out of my head. My face probably shows just how fast I'm losing my patience and now all of a sudden the guy starts screaming for no reason.    Leila sighs behind me. "I have no idea how you can be so awful at gathering information."    I turn my head towards her and notice that she's looking at me like I'm completely hopeless. "Shut up. He's not cooperating."   She shakes her head, walks to the guy while taking off her mask revealing her beauty, kneels down, and smiles. "Hey mister~ Do you know who the girl is in the convoy?"   The man opens his mouth as if to finally say something, only to let out a loud lingering fart. Leila is still smiling. I laugh hard inside and accidentally let out a giggle.   "Let's kill him."   "Sure," I respond as an evil smile stretches across my face. We reach a mutual understanding as we decide to put him down. We drag him into the woods and welcome the opportunity to try our hand at a little creative rearrangement.    …   After completing our work of art, Leila and I get up and head back to the convoy area.   "I need to cast a few spells to clean up the rest of Dae's body."   "Right. In the meantime, I'll talk to the girl and find out who she is," I say to Leila as I walk over and then open the convoy door. There, I find the mysterious girl had fallen asleep on the seat. I can't believe any sane person would be able to sleep through what just happened.   How should I wake her up? She's sleeping so peacefully. I smirk as I flare my nostrils furiously all while breathing hard through them. I slowly approach her, then grab both of her breasts. I massage them in a circular motion and witness her cute, soft moans as her face turns beat red, only to open her eyes shrieking.   "What... What do you think you're doing?!" she asks while I'm still shamelessly grinning. She slaps me in the face with one hand while guarding her melons with the other.    After recovering from the recoil of her attack, I notice her face is still flushed so I reset my facial expressions. "Oh, I was trying to wake you up."   "Oh, okay."   She relaxes and loosens up her guard as if grabbing her breasts to wake her up was the truth. Is this girl an idiot?   I shake my head before asking, "So, who are you?"   "Isn't it proper to introduce yourself first?"   I click my tongue and frown. A small, exasperated huff escapes me before I sit down next to her.   "I'm Kai. And you are?"     "Irene... Kai, is there a reason you have your hand on my thigh?"   I feel a burning fury closing in on me from her glare as it seems to pierce through me with immense murderous intent. I gulp and look down towards her thigh, realizing that my hand is indeed on it. I lift up my hand and then let it rest on my thigh. Crap, I touched her unconsciously… I need to control myself. No matter how similar they are, she isn't the same person.   I cough and clear my voice. "Where were you headed to?"   "I'm not sure… Mister Dae told me that I had to come with him and leave the village. He said I had to go see Daddy."   I tilt my head slightly as my eyebrows furrow, lost deep in thought. This might have something to do with the internal conflict going on in Xantho right now. "What's your daddy's name?"   "Velyn."    I close my eyes and think of the name Velyn. Velyn… Isn't that the name of the king? Which means this girl is a result of him and a mistress in Elbar. If that's the case, then that would mean she has royal blood in her veins. This explains why a general went through the trouble of seeing this through. Does Velyn wanna make her his successor to the throne? But, no matter how I look at it, Irene doesn't look like she's ready to be a queen of all the citizens in Xantho…especially considering she was raised in a village…   "Where's Mister Dae?"   "Ah... Well, it's complicated, wait here."   Irene tilts her head sideways, scrunches her eyebrows together, and lets out a small sound of confusion. I smile and chuckle as I leave and walk towards Leila.    "What're you so happy about…? Well whatever, I'm almost done here, did you find out anything from the girl?"   "Yeah, I'll give you the rundown when you're ready." I waltz back over to pick up Dae's head I had tossed aside earlier and catch Leila cocking an eyebrow at me. I ignore her as I turn around and walk to the convoy.    Feeling particularly maniacal, I present the severed head to Irene. "Here he is!"   I toss the head onto her lap so that it faces upwards when it lands all while splashing some blood onto her legs in the process.     She stares at the object on her lap with a smile only to twitch her face into one of true horror and disgust as she screams upon recognition. I grin and laugh like a child who played the biggest prank ever to only quickly die down as I let loose a lewd grin when I realize she is wide open.   "What's going on?!"   I quickly hide my grin and my lewd intentions as I turn around to face Leila, but it's too late. Leila sees the head on Irene's lap and needs no explanation. I can see her right fist already closing towards my face and I merely panic and close my eyes as I resign to my fate. After a few seconds pass with realizing I am still alive, I slowly inch open my eyes only to realize her fist has stopped an inch from my face as she sighs and slowly relaxes her arm. She retrieves the head from her lap while expecting the rundown now that she seems ready.   "Seriously, I can't take my eyes off of you for even a split second without you going off doing the most stupid things." She takes out an Alrath from her backpack and stores Dae's head in it. She cleans the blood off Irene afterward.   "Okay… I won't do it again, I promise." I reflect a little on my actions, but I probably won't care if another opportunity arises. "In any case, we need to go to Xantho to report our mission anyway, so let's just deliver the girl at the capital along the way."   "Sounds good."   "I'll sit in the convoy with the girl. Can you take the reins?"   Heh… I can enjoy more time with Irene… If she's unconscious she can't say no... It won't be harassment.   Leila glares at me. "Can I trust you…?"   I can practically see the murderous intent seeping through her penetrating glare.  I smile lightly. "Don't worry, I won't do anything… I just need a nap, I'm tired."   "Well, okay then."   She's watching me… I'd better not mess around for a while. I get in the convoy and almost fall over when the wagon suddenly starts moving. Ahhh… I'm so tired… It's been a long day…   I lie down across the large, long seat opposite of Irene and close my eyes. My mind wanders to memories of my childhood where I reflect on all the events that had led to today's adventure as my eyes slowly drift into a hazy slumber.

There’s only one explanation left how these weapons are flying toward us; Lightning magic. We learned that Lightning magic could stay dormant inside metal weapons and paralyze you with contact, but not much else past that.   Sitos did some weird stuff with his weapons like making his sword attract or repulse his other one. I should’ve asked him about it works. Then again, I wasn’t in a learning mood back then. I thought I knew everything I needed to know. How wrong I was. He must’ve learned more at the Lightning magic bonding class or on his own. The Academy focused on improving our own abilities but not so much understanding other magic.   The incoming barrage lowers in height. It will be problematic if they sink too low. I’d have a troublesome time hitting them away. Clangs resound as my weapons hit the star-shaped blades away. I use as much force as possible on those small ones without sacrificing the ability to follow up on the next ones. Preferably, I launch them into a tree, hoping that it’s enough to keep them immobile.   I’m trying to be as efficient as possible, attempting to hit two small blades at once with one swing if possible. I can’t connect with all of them. It’s simply impossible because there are too many at once. Unless my eyes are deceiving me, they’re speeding up too.   The two short swords should not be allowed to pass no matter what. I’m sure letting a few of the small blades pass on my right won’t be a big deal. Ada has greaves and a chest plate protecting her vital organs. It’s more problematic if I let any pass on my left because it could hit her neck or head instead.   Luckily, the few that I’ve managed to lodge into trees haven’t come loose. It’ll be easier with time. I try to do the same to the two short swords, though it doesn’t go as planned. They didn’t fly back nearly as much compared to the smaller ones.   “Damn it, Kai!” Ada yells. “Are you trying to get me killed?”   “Doing just the opposite, actually,” I answer while constantly swinging my swords, deflecting the projectiles.   “You let three pass! I caught them with my arm. Now the rest is going to pack a stronger punch.”   Her arm? That means they’re attracted toward the Lightning charged blade in her shoulder. Wait a minute. She blocked with her arm, which means she can move. That’s a bit confusing since I thought the Lightning would keep her paralyzed.   The weapons I hit back fly back less distance now. Their incoming speed increases as Ada mentioned. So the few that I let pass that hit her increased the attraction force between them. It’s only a matter of time before I slip up again and it’ll only cascade from there. I need a new plan. And fast.   The ones that were stuck inside the trunk of a tree come loose. I don’t have time to think. If my gut instinct is right, I won’t be paralyzed if I let some of those Lightning covered weapons hit my arm, but it’ll hurt.   I stretch out my left arm with the top side facing forward while continuing to swing my sword on my right. I grit my teeth as a sharp pain penetrates the skin on my left arm. One, two, three, four, five. My left arm has full mobility despite the Lightning magic having direct contact with my body.    Resuming my previous stance, I have a much easier time deflecting the remaining two swords and five star-shaped blades in circulation. I’ll easily be able to buy enough time for Ada to recover and help me out.   After several seconds, the weapons in the air stop dropping in height. Instead, they lean more to the left. Is it the blades stuck in my left arm? If that’s the case, I might be able to try something else, but I’m not sure how it will turn out. None of this makes sense to me.   I take several steps back to align myself with Ada while deflecting the last projectile back. If I stand beside her a few feet apart, the blades will go in between us, or so I predict. I’ll stand a few feet away from her feet so that the in-between area includes the protected regions of her body. For some reason, she starts pulling out the weapons lodged in her arm.   “Whoa, what’re you doing? Keep it in there! You’re ruining my plan!” I exclaim quickly, but it’s too late. The Lightning covered blades are here — the moment of truth. I gulp as the weapons fly between us, hitting neither of us.   “Shut up. I know what you’re trying to do. But it looks like you don’t. I’d take those out of your arm as soon as possible if I were you,” she answers as the barrage curves around toward me. It sounds like she knows more about Lightning magic than I do. The blades in my left arm dig deeper into my skin with every passing moment, but I can’t risk ruining the plan. If they’re headed for me, that’s easy. I’ll stand behind a tree, and it’s a done deal. The only problem is the enemy.   “Fork lightning!” he exclaims from behind me. A straight line of Lightning magic forms between the weapons in the air, Ada, and the four small blades lodged in my left arm. A shocking pain permeates quickly throughout my entire body from my left arm. I try to yell, but nothing comes out. I fall forward, losing grip on both of my weapons. The Lightning disappears a moment later. “You put on a good show, but I’m bored.”   What the hell? I’m still trying to process what just happened. Nothing comes out of my mouth. I can’t move my arms or legs, let alone breathe. My vision darkens while the sound around me goes mute. Am I dying…?   My vision continues to darken, and a blanket of warmth gradually covers me.   …   I gasp for air as Ada screams, “Please, stop! Stop it!”   How long have I been out? I can’t move my head to see what’s going on. But this is an all too familiar scene to be ignorant. If I don’t do something, he’s probably going to kill us both.   The man laughs and then says, “There’s nothing I love more than hearing your screams. It gets it up, you know? For when you’re dead.”   “You sick fuck,” Ada says and then squeals.   I gulp. I don’t know if they both think I’m dead. Ada’s screams might’ve camouflaged my initial gasp of air. This is my chance. I think about killing him at this point to save both of our skins. I could take him out with my strongest fireball, but if he somehow survives it, we’re both screwed. It’s not a stretch since Ragnar was able to beat it, though I warned him it was coming.   Something tells me he hasn’t shown his real strength yet all things considered. He could very well be stronger than Ragnar. There’s a smell of danger coming off of him that I practically feel the bloodthirst. I can’t believe I didn’t notice it before.     My right arm has the most body function right now. I can grip with full strength. I search nearby for my weapon, trying not to make too much noise. Hopefully, my weapon fell near me. It helps that Ada’s screaming drowns out the small amounts of unavoidable rustling sounds. I find the blade part of it. I carefully move and rotate the sword so that the grip is in my hand.   What I do next is tricky. I think the best option is to buy time somehow. A gut feeling tells me that he’s one of them. It doesn’t add up if that’s true, though. Exposing his identity like that defeats the purpose of the masks. It’s more likely that he’s just some crazy guy from the Xantho army.   But I can’t shake off the feeling that he might be one of the white masked men. If that’s true, he revealed his face to both of us. What’s the point? I guess it doesn’t matter if he kills both of us in the end. What does he hope to gain from toying with us? He could kill us at any time.   If he really is one of them, I highly doubt that I can convince him of anything, but I don’t have any other choice. It’s a gamble. I could use my one-sided portal to stab him through his back somewhere. Maybe kill him by stabbing through his head or neck, but I wouldn’t have any answers. We might also get into trouble. I’ll have to do it fast so that he doesn’t see my Void magic. Best be the back of his leg to limit his movement. It won’t be fatal, but I’ll let his curiosity get the better of him.   My head can move a bit now. I angle it upward. The man is lying on top of Ada doing something with her upper body. Both of their clothes are on, so not the same thing from before. So, he’s inflicting physical pain on her. I don’t know what’s worse.   I’m confident I can estimate where the back of his leg is from this angle. There might be a chance that I stab Ada instead, but hopefully, that doesn’t happen. She deserves it, but not worth throwing away my one chance to get us out alive. I’m tempted to wait a bit longer before intervening, but then again, there’s an impending monster attack. I can’t risk everyone’s safety to get a little revenge.   I bond my Mana with Void Affinity and write instructions for two one-sided portals. One side next to my head facing away from the two ahead. The other side faces the ground on top of the man’s legs. I don’t want the portal to be too big. It’s important that I properly align it so that when I stab it through the portal, it’ll go exactly where I want it to go on the other side. I’ll set the instructions so that the portal deactivates half a second after it activates. Any more time risks him discovering my magic. Timing is crucial.   I release my Mana, setting to activate it in five seconds. I keep an internal clock and a tight grip on my weapon. One…two…three…four…five!   I lunge my blade through the portal with as much force without sacrificing accuracy.   “Ouch!” the man exclaims. My sword impales the back of his right calf. It hit the bone. I let go of my sword before it’s too late. The portal disappears. The man slowly pushes him off the ground and turns his head. He grabs the sword and pulls it out. If I had not let go of the sword, it would be in my hand. That would mystify him more than lodging it in his leg, but I don’t want to stretch his imagination too much. “You’re still alive?”   He stands up and walks toward me. “How the hell did you manage to impale me from over there? Without making a single sound.”   I tighten my muscles as he raises his foot over my left arm. He stomps it down, pushing the small blades deeper into my arm. I squeeze my eyes shut and grit my teeth. I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of hearing me suffer. “Your heart should’ve stopped. Why aren’t you dead?”   “I guess your magic was too weak,” I answer. He slowly raises my sword above my face. “Wait. If you kill me, you’ll never find out how I poked your leg with my weapon.”   He stops. The man nods his head and smiles. “You make a good point. What do you propose?”   “A rematch between you and us. You’ll let us recover and fight again, two on one. If you win, I’ll tell you how I did it.”   “That’s pretty cocky…but sure. Hope you don’t bore me this time. It would be too easy to demolish both of you…but I’ll use the same strength as before. Nothing more. We’ll see if you can overcome the gap. My magic should be wearing off soon. Let me know when you’re ready.”   “We’re gonna need some privacy to strategize.”   “Fine, fine…just don’t even think about running,” he says. He drops my sword and walks away. Far enough away, so we’re within his line of sight but not close enough to hear our voices.   I crawl over to Ada. A small pool of blood is around her left shoulder where the dagger pierced her skin. She’s also missing all the skin from the top of her shoulder to halfway down to the elbow. It looks raw but not dripping with blood.   She pants with fluids dripping out of her eyes and nose. Not high and mighty anymore. No one would be after enduring torture. She sits up and wipes her face with her good arm. She mutters, “So, you’re not dead.”   “Nice to see that you’re alive too,” I answer. You’d think she’d be a little more grateful for stopping the guy skinning her alive. “How long was I out?”   “I don’t know. A few minutes or longer. What did you do to him?”   I curl my lips inward. My secret’s going to be out of the bag. There’s no avoiding it. I never would’ve thought that she would be the next one to discover my secret, willingly. I say, “First, promise me that you’re not gonna tell anyone. You owe me that for saving your life.”   She shakes her head and rolls her eyes before replying, “Fine. I don’t want to owe you anything.”   I take a deep breath. “Okay, look. I have something called… Void magic. I made a portal that basically connected point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ and I stabbed him with the sword without being next to him. It’s complicated...but know that we can use this to launch a surprise attack on him.”   She knits her eyebrows and looks at me as if she’s seen a ghost. I continue, “I know you’re confused, but I can’t show you right now without risking him seeing it. I’ll show you before we start the rematch. First, we need a strategy. Before that, you need to tell me about Lightning magic. You know about it, right?”   She lets out a chuckle. “Yeah, Melody filled us in from what she learned. It’s not surprising that that traitor from your team didn’t considering—“   “Look, let’s skip the part where you say my Academy group’s teamwork was poor and that you hate me because I’m one of them. We’re gonna have to work together if we’re gonna make it out alive.”   She sighs and looks away. Quietly, she responds, “I know.”   “Well?”   She turns her head to me. “At the Academy, they went as far to educate us that Lightning magic’s special property is to paralyze you and that it can be dormant inside some objects where it can avoid interaction with other magical objects.”   “Yeah, that’s what I know. Metal objects, right?”   “Usually metal, but there are others, I heard. Users of Lightning magic were instructed a little more past general education because they could reinforce their learning through practice.”   “Right,” I say and nod my head. I’m starting to understand the differences in curriculum between the Adventurer path and the Soldier path. “Because monsters don’t have metal weapons. They only use Lightning magic to paralyze us. So, there was no need for us to know.”   “No, that’s not it. Well, I don’t know. It’s because it’s complicated. It’s not that easy to understand. It’s not as simple as a ball of fire. Kids like that dumb—” she stops abruptly and sighs. “It would take a lot of time to teach. So, only users of Lightning magic were taught in the specialty classes.”   That’s surprising. If anything, I thought it would be something like the Academy deemed it too dangerous to teach in-depth. Or they wanted us to discover it and learn on our own as Hina suggested. “So, what’s this complicated feature of Lightning magic?”   “Lightning magic can apply another effect without paralyzing you. It can apply a charge.”   “A charge? What does that even mean?”   “It would take a long time to explain everything, which I figure we don’t have a lot of. I’ll give you a really short version. He can shoot Lightning magic at us to give us a negative charge or surround his swords with it giving it a negative charge. If those swords connect with our weapons, it can leech the charge on our weapons, and they become positive as a result.”   “Wait, hold on. Our weapons have charge on their own?”   “Apparently,  everything does. But not negative or positive. I don’t know that in-depth. Charge can be localized too. Like when he stabbed me with the dagger, it didn’t paralyze me. It leeched my charge around my shoulder, making the knife more negative. But in the process, made that part of my body more positive. Negative and positive charge attract and similar charges repel. The higher the differential between charges, the stronger the effect.”   “Uh-huh…” I mutter. Not sure if I follow everything. It is a bit complicated as she mentioned. Or she sucks at explaining. Or both. But I think I get the big points.    “He can discharge the positive or negative charges at any time with additional Lightning magic. The discharge causes a paralyzing effect depending on how much charge is expelled. The attack he used on you essentially connected the charges he had on his weapons and us discharged it on the most negative charge, you.”   “So, that’s why you told me to remove these,” I say while stretching out my left arm. “And my plan still worked because the charge didn’t disappear from your arm after you took out the dagger.”   “Yup.”   That explains why they were digging deeper into my skin too. My arm became more positive, and the attraction effect applied. “Okay, so how do we stop all of that from happening?”   “Well, if you have charge already, there’s nothing you can do.”   “What the hell? That’s cheap.”   “Not really. Lightning magic doesn’t have a lot of Durability compared to Evocation, like Fire and Earth magic. It requires trickery and brain to use well.”   “Durability?”   “Right, I forgot you haven’t been to many of the informational seminars. It’s the energy emitted by Mana and magic. It’s how much of a beating it can take before it fades away.”   Hearing about it makes a lot of sense. I knew intuitively that the same amount of Fire magic was able to beat the same volume of Water magic head-on assuming that they’re the same Mana quality too. It’s that concept, right? That must mean Fire magic has more Durability than Water magic. But, it can’t be that simple. I think back to what Ragnar said about Earth magic. He said it was the most stubborn. That definitely means Earth magic has the highest Durability out of any magic.   She continues, “There is one thing we can do. Don’t get hit by Lightning magic and surround your swords with Mana like an impenetrable fortress. But, he only has to break through a small piece of that barrier before he’s able to apply a negative or positive charge on it.”   “That’s really confusing. I thought you said leeches the charge from our weapons making them positive. He can make them negative too?”   Ada sighs. “The only way for him to make us or the weapons positive is through Lightning magic surrounding his weapon. If he shoots us with Lightning magic, only negative is possible.”   That makes a little more sense. But she’s wrong about one thing. Common magic knowledge tells us that it’s impossible to make cold fire or soft dirt because it’s changing the Special property of Fire and Earth magic, but I know both of those are possible. I assume under the same concept, giving something a positive charge directly with Lightning magic should be doable too. I wouldn’t know if this man is capable of that.   “It’s probably best we don’t assume that either one of us has charge. Let’s try to come up with a plan that ends it during the initial attack. Considering your injuries, I doubt you’d be able to fight at 100% either. He might decide to reveal his full power at a whim. We only have one shot.”   “And that’s possible with your…Void magic? He’ll see you before you have a chance.”   “No, he won’t. We’ll hide from his sight. There’s no way to run over there without making any sounds. As long as I don’t make a sound, he won’t know I’m over there. It’s possible to turn invisible using Void magic too. That’s what I’ll utilize. What’s more important right now’s we come up with how we ambush him and how to follow-up.”   The man’s Lightning magic has mostly worn off. I stretch out my left arm. These star-shaped blades have to come out eventually. I grip one tightly with my right hand and pull it out in one swift motion. I grimace as a sharp pain erupts. I do the same for the other two. I close and open my left palm repeatedly. Feels the same. Good. Nothing major was damaged.   I walk over to where I was and pick up the two swords left there. Ada follows.   “Finally, are you ready to fight?” the man asks.   “No, not yet. Just picking up my weapons.”    “If you take too long, I’ll come to you instead.”   He’s getting impatient. We need to hurry. I hide behind a tree nearby from his vision. “I’ll hide here. You stay in his sight. We don’t have a lot of time. How many daggers do you have left?”   “Just four. The two connected by a chain and two with nothing attached. We need to blind him with my magic.”   “That should be pretty easy to do with a surprise attack, right?”   “He knows I have Light magic, so it shouldn’t be that easy.”   “True. But, he doesn’t know about Void magic. You could prepare some instructions to shoot out a straight beam of Light from the tip of one of your daggers. I’ll take it with me, and you’ll activate it at the right time. I’ll have it pointed at his eyes. Light travels fast so he won’t have time to react if we're good with the timing.”   “That could work…if he’s not expecting it. Look,” Ada says and nudges her head in his direction.   I peek my head out, finding that he has Unrefined Mana surrounding his entire body except for his eyes. There’s no way that he doesn’t know that it’s not enough to protect himself from  Light magic. “So, you think he has a barrier of Wind magic around him too?”   “Of course he does. And Light magic has the lowest Durability. I’ve done a lot of testing and found that Light magic can’t lower the Durability of any other magic. No matter how much of it I used to hit a stationary wall of Wind, the second lowest Durability magic. Light never was able to destroy it regardless if I used Unrefined Mana or Rich Mana to do it against Scrap Mana. So, even the weakest Wind barrier would be able to counter it.”   “So we need a way to deal with the barrier of Wind that he has. Then somehow hit him with Light magic all while using the element of surprise. The only way’s to utilize Fire magic somehow. But, I can’t think of a scenario where he doesn’t notice its presence before it’s close enough to him.”   “I don’t know about your Void magic, but can’t you use it to hide Fire magic? You said something about invisibility, right?”   “Make my fireball invisible…? Interesting, but I’ve never tested it, though I could try it right now. We’re almost outta time. Act natural,” I warn. I write instructions binding my Mana to the Void magic to form two small one-sided portals behind the tree facing us while leaving some space between the tree. I activate my magic. The two portals appear.  “I made these small for experimenting purposes. Basically, these connect.”   I stick a finger in one, and it comes out the other one. I continue, “You’ll have to take my word on the invisibility as it would take too much time to explain everything. I need you to look behind the portal after my Fire magic appears without looking too suspicious.”   I program instructions for a basic minuscule ball of fire to move into the front of one of the small portals. I activate the Mana, and my magic moves halfway inside one. I nudge my head forward. Ada takes a step past the two portals and turns around with her head next to the trunk. She informs, “Don’t see anything.”   I smile. We can use this. I deactivate the Fire and Void magic with Scrap Mana. “Okay…give me some time to think of a plan.”   “Hurry up. We don’t have any time.”   The first step is to take a Void portal across from him to have a better view of the area. It would be much easier to ambush him from there. Since I can make my fireball invisible, I could activate the one-sided portal faced upward so that he can’t see it or feel it. And I’ll keep doing to get as close as possible to him to know where his Wind barrier is. But that’s a waste of Mana and would take too long. That’s only a slight improvement from sending a ball of fire down from above. I can do better.   What if I put a shell of Fire magic around Ada’s dagger and drop it from above? The Fire would break past the Wind barrier; then I’ll deactivate my magic and Ada activates hers. But if his Mana barrier is strong enough, the Fire won’t be able to break past and Ada’s inactive Mana around the dagger won’t either.   I’m thinking too simply. I need to be more creative. There’s no perfect ambush because his capabilities are high. I bite my lip.   If I can force him to move exactly where I want him to...I could have my Rich Mana fireball waiting for him between two one-sided portals. He’d move right into it when he’d see nothing before it’s too late. But if that isn’t enough. He’d be on high alert and would be near impossible to do anything else from there. We need more.   Ada’s right. We need to blind him somehow with Light magic to limit his movements and gain a short-term advantage. There’s nothing he can do after the fact. The only way for him to be affected by Light magic is if he drops his Wind barrier. I’d imagine Wind magic is worse than plain old Mana to defend against Fire magic. Otherwise, there’s no reason for him to wear that armor of Mana. So, Mana has a higher Durability than Wind magic in general.   That means the only option for us is to trick him into focusing his defenses on the Mana barrier. The only way to do that is to hit him with a bunch of Fire magic. So, forcing him to back into the shrouded fireball is a step in the right direction. At that moment, he’d be very confused. But he’d focus more on his Mana defenses and try to move out of the way and reposition himself. I won’t let him reposition himself. The only way to do that is to have another one-sided portal waiting for him. At the same time, I don’t want to risk him seeing it. I’ll have to use a trigger for it at the right moment. Ada’s Light magic could be good camouflage too.   I’ll have more Fire magic waiting for him on the other side. He could use Basic Wind magic to escape. But, he won’t know that his perception of up and down will be swapped to left or right when the portal that he goes into drops him from a portal that faces down. He’d launch himself right into the ground. That’s why it’s important that I don’t drop him from a tall height because he’d have time to react.   Once he hits the ground, there will be another moment of confusion. That’s when we’ll blind him with Light magic. It’s a perfect plan…if he falls for it. I need a way to coerce him into moving into the invisible ball of fire and the portal.   The only thing I can think of is to surround him with a wall of Fire with the space behind him open. But that’s too obvious. At the same time, he won’t see the invisible ball of fire waiting for him. He doesn’t know about Void magic, so at best he’d be suspicious and wary. Ada could use all of her Wind magic capabilities to push him into the portal. However, his Mana armor would stop the push. Since she didn’t use much Wind magic in our duel, I doubt she’s very comfortable with Wind magic.   I gulp. Now’s not the time to hold back. If that wall of Fire looks threatening enough, he’d more opted to jump back than take it head-on.  I could utilize my Mana to do that to make my strongest Fire. If he’s as good as I think he is, he will sense the danger.   “Okay, so here’s what I need you to do. First, give me one of your daggers with one of your trigger words ready to activate Light magic around it. The Light should stay stationary after activation. It’s to camouflage my Void magic,” I say. She takes one of the daggers without the chain on it.   “Activate it when you see me throw it behind him. It’ll be around the time the wall of Fire appears at the start. I’m going to force him to jump back into an invisible ball of fire and into another portal that drops him into the ground in front of you with additional Fire magic waiting for him. That’ll clear him of the Wind barrier, and that’s when we’ll blind him. I’ll be behind him, and you’ll be in front. If it all goes according to plan, we’ll have a vast advantage from there.”   “Done,” she says and hands me the weapon. I take it.   “I’m going to set up the first set of portals now to reach him. Pretend that I’m still talking to you here,” I say and prepare instructions for my magic. I sheathe my weapons, release my Mana, and then activate it. One portal appears right of the trunk of the tree next to us. I carefully turn my back against it and bend backward into a squat. I don’t want to set my feet across to the other side because if I make the slightest sound, he’ll know something’s up.   The only thing in front of me is the other portal, but based on the surrounding, I know where I am. The man is right in front of me if there was no portal. I write the instructions for the next step before releasing the Mana into their proper positions. I’ll save the wall of Fire as the last step because I don’t know how long the other steps will take, so I can’t set a timer. I don’t want to use a trigger word for it because it’ll give him additional reaction time.   “I’m tired of waiting! Let’s go, now!” the man exclaims.   I stand up and reposition myself with Ada before answering, “One minute! That’s when we’ll start.”   “One minute, then.”   My palms are sweaty. I’ve got to keep focus. I prepare one last portal that the Fire magic would rest in at an open space around us above grass level so that it doesn’t catch anything on fire. I create a spherical cluster of Fire magic set halfway into the portal using Rich Mana. I’m not trying to kill him. That should be the invisible Fire magic. It would be a waste not to utilize all the Fire I form, so I set a trigger word to move it into the portal when the time comes. Now, there’s only the Rich mana ball of fire waiting for him after going into the portal and the initial wall of fire. I’ll have the ball of fire shoot upward since I don’t want to block Ada’s light magic when he hits the ground.   Done. It’ll appear when I activate the trigger word for the portal. The only thing left to do now is to create the wall of Fire that closes in on him from every direction, only leaving the length of the invisible Void portal behind him open.   “Get ready,” I say, turning my back toward the first portal I made. “I’m going to create the wall of fire now.”   I squat backward, preparing one final touch to the attack. I release my Mana bonded to Fire Affinity, instructing them to activate in five seconds. I move Scrap Mana throughout my body in preparation to use Enhancement magic.   “Ten seconds, hope you’re ready,” he says.   Now! I jump back and throw the dagger between the man and the invisible fireball. The wall of fire already appeared and closes in on him.   “Activate!” Ada exclaims the moment the knife flies past the wall of fire from her perspective. Not perfect, but close enough. A sphere of light appears that covers the length of the invisible portal. Part of it might overlap with my Fire magic, but it’s not like it’ll destroy it.   The man dashes through the sphere of light. I smile, feeling like we’ve won this. I exclaim, “Open! Haste! Strength!”   I unsheathe both of my weapons the moment strength surges throughout my body and then dash toward the point that he’ll drop. Ada’s already waiting with her Unrefined Mana armor on while swirling her chain daggers with one hand. I cover myself with Unrefined Mana too in order to not be knocked back by Wind magic when he’s out of options.   He appears head first at the exit point covered in Rich Mana now instead of Unrefined Mana. The ball of fire that’s flying upward is only inches away from him. Ada’s daggers are spinning in the air, flying toward the man. At that rate, they’d wrap around him. I exclaim, “Forward!”   The stationary cluster of Fire magic I set should now be flying maximum speed forward, sandwiching him in my magic. My Fire swallows him completely for a moment. His body rotates around and crashes into the ground at an angle. It wasn’t straight down as planned, so hopefully, it doesn’t ruin whatever Ada has set up.   “Close!” I exclaim. All the Void magic should be deactivated now, so he doesn’t see what happened to him. The remnants of my magic hit the ground, bursting into fiery hot gasses around it. The grass nearby catches fire and burns away instantly.   Ada shoots a ray of Light toward the man’s head with one hand and grabs the last dagger with her other hand. Ada’s chain daggers have his left arm tied down around his body. The man jumps up on his feet while moving his weapon in front of his face. Ada moves her hands according to his movements. As soon as she moved her dagger and angled it toward me, I understood. I’ve learned my lesson from last time.   The light reflects off her dagger toward me. I know I should reflect it back, but where? She doesn’t have another dagger to use. That’s when I remembered she has two more blades on her body. I angle my sword to point it back to Ada‘s lower body, and she lifts her left foot and redirects the light onto the man’s face using the blade on her greaves. Everything happened in fast succession, so he had no time to react with Wind magic.   “Shit!” the man exclaims and takes several steps back. Ada stops her Light magic and dashes toward the man. We’ve been waiting for this opening, so I charge in too. I squint my eyes as a burst of Wind magic explodes from him. “You brats, don’t push your luck!”   “Rule number one of fighting. Never let down your guard,” I say and then pull my arms back, preparing to slash him in the next moment.   “Fire burst!” he exclaims. Suddenly, a rush of fire erupts all around him outward.   What?! It stops my advance forward. I cover my face with one arm as his the fire destroys my Unrefined Mana armor. Before I can send out Rich Mana to protect myself, a burst of hot air knocks me back. It burns the uncovered parts of my upper body for a second. Ada screams.   Rich Mana appears in front of me, but it’s only a delayed reaction to his magic. I’m already out of his attack range. I can’t believe he was hiding Fire magic all this time. We lost our only chance to beat this guy. We’re screwed.   I stand up, the fire surrounding the man clearing up. He untied the chain around him and has full use of both arms. He laughs and turns his head toward me. “Very interesting… But we’re out of time, so I’ll let you have the win this time. See ya, sucker.”   I widen my eyes as he jumps away. I chase after him immediately, but he’s too fast. I’m starting to regret holding back my attack power.   “Kai, where’re you going?!” Ada yells behind me.   He moves at speeds much faster than before. I bite my lip. It’s hopeless. I can’t catch him. I stop running. I wouldn’t forget those words. That man was one of the masked men from that day. But why?   So many things don’t make sense. Those masked men kill without a second thought. Why didn’t he kill us without holding back from the start? Instead, he toyed with us. Then I remember what Viessa told us. Is his ploy to turn us against each other? To turn Xantho into an enemy? It’s possible. He’s playing for the long game with the Inteiru Expota coming up. Killing the two of us here wouldn’t accomplish anything long-term.   The same could be said of killing him here and now if I didn’t hold back. It wouldn’t accomplish anything. We wouldn’t learn anything about their organization or future plans. I sigh. I’ve made the correct choice. He’s far too strong for us to fight, anyway. But wait…if he’s one of the masked men…does that mean there were others here too?!   We need to regroup with the others as soon as possible. I hope Ruby and Marin’s okay. A roar resounds. It’s close!   “Kai! We need to get back to the others! Forget that crazy guy,” Ada says.   If only she’d know who that guy truly was, she’d act completely different. But she’s right. We need to regroup with the others. I don’t want to disclose the information to her now, or she might want to do something stupid like chase after him. She took back her chain daggers so we wouldn’t need to take a detour.   “Right…you lead the way,” I say. I have no idea where we are right now.   “This way,” she says. I follow her.

“You mind?” Hina asks quietly.   “They’ll see us,” I answer in the same volume while carefully taking steps down. Tripping here wouldn’t be funny.   “They’ll already hear us if they’re nearby,” she says. She hasn’t taken any steps down.   “Fine,” I concede. I bond some Scrap Mana to some Fire Affinity and then release a small, steady stream of fire of outward heat out of my forehead. It barely illuminates several feet ahead of us. Something deep-toned rumbles in the distance. I stop releasing Fire magic from my forehead. The sound of whatever that was echoes.   When there’s only silence, I light the way ahead with Fire magic again.   “I really wish we hadn’t come down here,” Hina says.   “You can still turn back. I’ll go alone,” I say and descend slowly into the darkness below. She sighs and follows me. I have Rich Mana prepared within my body and my hands on my weapons in case anything happens.   We’ve gone down at least three flights of stairs with seemingly no end in sight. The steps, ceiling, and walls are made of the same stone material. Hina whispers, “This must’ve been constructed when the city was built.”   “Yeah,” I respond with a similar volume. “It’s stupid because it adds vulnerability to our defenses.”   “What’ll we do if we run into them?”   “Depends on how many of them are there. If it looks bad, flood the place, and we run. This passage seems narrow enough for you to abuse your high Water Affinity. No matter their skill, they can’t brute force their way through a large amount of Rich Mana Water magic.”   “My magic can’t save us from every scenario. If they pincer us, it won’t work, for one.”   “Good thing we know no one followed us. It would be obvious if anyone appeared behind us,” I say. Just a few more steps and they end. I lost track of how many flights we went down.   Ahead is a broader corridor, both in width and height, and still no sign of light. I don’t know how anyone without Fire or Light magic would pass. The path continues straight. With an area this large, it’ll be less efficient for Hina to push potential enemies back with Water magic if the need arises. They could focus their magic on a smaller point and break through.   Did the ground vibrate? I felt the slightest tremor for only a moment. I stop walking.   Hina asks, “What’s wrong?”   “I thought I felt the ground shake. Did you feel anything?”   “No…” she replies.   I survey our surroundings with the limited vision we have. It’s hard to tell if something’s going on here. I could increase the Fire output to my forehead to see more, but if there’s anyone here, they’d see us. Then again, it would be more beneficial to us to know if there’s any danger before continuing – mind as well as light up the whole place.   “I’m gonna light up the entire place. Get ready,” I warn. I’ll give her  thirty seconds or so to prepare something if push comes to shove.   “Okay,” she says with no dispute. She understands the present potential danger.   It doesn’t take long for me to prepare a ball of Fire magic bonded to some Scrap Mana. All ready to go within a few seconds, but I wait longer to give Hina some time to prepare.   When enough time has passed, I release my magic. A small ball of fire appears in the air above us that slowly flies ahead of us. The slow speed gives us a larger window of sight. Surprisingly, there’s nothing ahead except a large, black double door at the end of the corridor that’s not too far ahead of us. I’ve never seen a door this massive before.   That thing is going to make a lot of noise when we open it. That rumble we heard must’ve been this door. It’ll alert everyone who’s behind it to our presence. One thing bothers me, though. How’d a monster-like thing open this door if it came through here? Unless what I saw wasn’t a monster, but a Xog. There’s nothing else it could be. Either way, this is too risky even for me.   “We should leave,” I say. The ball of fire collides with the door and disappears into nothing. Our sight reduces back to several feet in front of us. I increase the Fire output of my magic for sanity’s sake. There’s no one around us, and it would be better if we saw more of our surroundings.   “I was hopin’ you were goin’ to say that,” Hina says.   The moment I turn around, the ground shakes again, this time more violently. Knowing that something will happen, I sprint forward and exclaim, “Run!”   But it’s too late. The wall ahead of us rises rapidly and reaches the ceiling in a matter of seconds. The rumbling stops, but now we’re stuck. I was careless. I must’ve stepped on a trap. Is the door our only possible route now?   With the sound of the wall rising, it should’ve alerted everyone nearby. We’d be sitting ducks if we go through that door now. We might have a better advantage by waiting for them to come to us.   “I’m hopin’ you have a way out of this,” Hina says.   How thick is this wall? I unsheathe one of my swords to use the hilt my sword to bash the wall. It doesn’t feel like it’s thin at all. I don’t think this Cobalt sword is sturdy enough to cut it either, and my Artificial Magic Weapon won’t do any good earlier. Platinum is heavier and harder than Cobalt, but not enough to make it be able to cut the rock. If Marin were here, she’d be able to move the wall with Earth magic. Does Hina have anything useful? I never asked about her other Magic Affinities.   “You don’t happen to have any Earth Affinity, do you?” I ask and put my sword back in its sheath.   “No, only Water and Wind,” Hina responds.   Wait, I’m sure that Teacher Moria said that the masked men used Wind magic to collapse the Academy’s dormitory building. That was mostly made out of stone. “Perfect. Put that Wind magic to good use and cut through this wall.”   “That’s impossible, you idiot.”   “No, it’s definitely possible,” I answer. “Remember how Teacher Moria said that the enemies used Wind magic to collapse the Academy’s dormitory building?”   “I do, and I’ve tried to cut stone with Wind magic several times since. It doesn’t work even when I use Rich Mana to do it. Nothin’ against Moria, but he must’ve misunderstood.”   “Moria has Wind magic too. You think he doesn’t know what he’s talking about? Clearly, you’re doing something wrong. You need to be more creative.”   “I don’t want to hear that from you. You got us into this mess, so don’t blame me for my inability to cut through stone with Wind magic. I’ve been mostly trainin’ my Water magic skills.”   “You’re the one who tagged along—“   Something loud creaks behind us. Someone’s opening the door. I shield my eyes from the light piercing through the open space between the doors. I stop emitting Fire from my forehead since there’s enough light. Is it them? I prepare instructions for my Mana and Void magic if things take a turn for the worst.   The doors open fully, revealing six Dwarves behind them. Each of them armed with weapons and armor. As they approach us, one of them exclaims, “Who ye be?!”   Do they want a fight? I grab onto both of my weapons.   “Dun even dink abart drawin’ yer weapon er ye will regret it,” a Dwarf says.   I do as he says and take my hands off my swords. Why would Dwarves be down here? That’s good news, though.  I don’t think they’ll harm us.   “Wha’ ye be doin’ here, Humans?” one of them asks. “Army dogs sniffin’ ‘round?”   They know we’re from the army? No, they wouldn’t ask that if they did. Should I tell them the truth about seeing a monster in the city? Or do we tell them we’re from the Drosera army and hope that they’ll let us go? Or…   “Answer de question!” one of them exclaims.   Oh, hell with it. I’m not going to bet on the option that will get us nowhere. I reply, “We’re here to see Nazug’s fight. We heard he had another challenger.”   “Nazug?” one of them asks. They all turn their heads to each other.   I gulp. Did I make a mistake?   “Whaur be yer pass? Who referred ya haur?”   “Lotrem referred us,” I lie. It’s the only card we can play. “We spoke to him earlier about entertainment options.”   “Lotrem?” a Dwarf asks. They laugh in unison before the same Dwarf continues, “Dat bampot dint give ya a pass? Come on in.”   Hina and I exchange a glance before following the group of Dwarves inside.   Several paces beyond the door lead to a vast open area. I can’t see much from here other than that we’re at the highest elevation. There are stone pillars in the distance.   “Go ter de noisiest place an' ye will find Nazug. Lucky fer ya, his battle has nae started yet,” one of the Dwarves say as all of them come to a stop.  “Dun forget ter grab a pass befer ye leave. Have fun, Humans.”   I smile and nod my head. They close the double-door and then go into a doorway nearby.   Hina and I reach the railing ahead. There are over a dozen of stone structures in front of us and directly underneath the railing. The building sizes vary between small and large, with the number of people walking around in the hundreds. Loud cheers and screams resound in the distance. That must what the Dwarf referred to.   “This is amazin’,” Hina says. “It’s like an underground city.”   “Yeah, but it looks like it’s supposed to be a secret. Or at least I think it is. Why else would the entrance be hidden like that?” I ask.   “I don’t know. But there’s certainly more than one entrance. There’s no way there’s only one. It wouldn’t be a secret anymore if that were true.”   “Probably. I know we were originally looking for leads on the masked men, but you wanna check out the battle? There’s too much to explore down here within the remaining time left before we regroup at the Icy Tavern.”   “Sure. But you’re goin’ to have to promise me you’re not goin’ to pick a fight with Nazug. You’re not number one anymore.”   “Shut up. I’m not gonna do anything stupid,” I say and walk down the steps nearby. It connects to the curved wall.   Hina follows and responds, “I hope not. We’re goin’ to need to figure out how to obtain passes too, so we can’t watch for too long.”   “Yeah, yeah.”   We navigate through this underground city toward the noisy place. There’s one thing we noticed. Most of the people here are Dwarves with the remaining Humans. Not much different from the surface exception that there’s not a single Elf. There aren’t any Xog either, but that’s no surprise.   We reach our destination, though we can’t see anything. The noise is coming from beyond this circular curved wall. After following the edge, we discover the entrance and then go inside.   “More customers? De first fight’s already started,” a Dwarf sitting behind a table says. There’s a massive pile of money on the table in the form of all three currencies. I’m surprised there isn’t more security here. It’s just the one guy, and he doesn’t look too competent when it comes to combat. Though, I don’t know anything about how Dwarves fight. It might also be that this underground place is already under lockdown.   “What fight?” I ask. “We’re only here to see Nazug’s fight.”   “Two Human newcomers. ‘Tis de openin’ foight befer de main one yer haur ter see. Ye will nae be able ter make a bet on dat one sin’ ‘tis already started. Dae ye want ter bet on de winner fer de champion’s foight?”   “Nah, we’re good,” I answer and walk toward one of two possible paths to take from here. I’m not sure what point there is to the betting system when you know who’s more likely to win. I’m also a little more interested in these fights now. It sounds like we could participate. I thought it might have only been a Dwarves only thing.   The cheering comes on full blast as we reach the end of this passage. It leads to an wide area with seats all around the edges. The audience numbers at least a hundred, but most of the available seats are empty. There’s a railing that separates us from the center of this arena. Inside is a pit with two monsters fighting. Unexpected because I thought it was two Humans fighting during the first round, but we might’ve missed it.   “Get him Bullet! Don’t let him catch you!” someone yells. His voice is extremely loud for some reason. It’s a Human male standing on a platform above the pit. It’s connected to the same one we’re standing on. It looks like you have to walk around to the end of this place to get there. There’s the same platform opposite of him with another guy on top of it. Those must be the two Humans he was talking about. But this is not what I expected.   The two monsters fighting are a lion and a boar. The latter looks familiar. It’s one of those boars we encountered during the Academy when we were on our way back from those ruins. The one with red fur. We found out later that it’s an E ranked monster with some Fire Affinity and Fire Resistance. It stands no chance against that lion. I haven’t seen that type before, but the ones I know of are all C rank or higher. There was the lion from the tournament, but that was summoned through Conjuration magic. Just an artificial creation that didn’t even have any magic capabilities.   “Kill that little bugger!” the other Human opposite of the previous exclaims. How are these people yelling so loudly? It overpowers the cheers of the crowd easily. What does he hope to accomplish by shouting stuff at the monsters? Is he trying to communicate with it?   The boar jumps two stories high in the air, which is about our eye level. I gape as the boar shoots several balls of fire from its mouth toward the lion underneath him. I’ve seen this magic enough to know that it’s made with Unrefined Mana. It’s the same boar, but somehow it looks much more deadly than the ones we fought back then. There’s no way for the boar to reach that height unless it used Enhancement magic.   The lion evades the fireballs and closes in on the boar at the same time. After the boar lands on the ground, it immediately runs away. Balls of fire appear above the boar that flies toward the lion. It’s using Intermediate Evocation magic now. The lion chases the boar, but it’s not as fast. The lion gives up on dodging and takes the balls of fire head-on. Has it given up?   No, monsters don’t merely give up and die. They’re always fighting for survival. The only option in this enclosed area is to fight until one of them dies. If I didn’t know any better, it seems like that boar has the advantage in the fight. I haven’t seen the lion use any magic yet, though. Must be toying with the boar.   The lion suddenly speeds up its movement. It outclasses that of the boar.   “Bullet, watch out! He’s increased his speed!”   It’s over. The lion has decided to stop messing around. The boar tries to run, but there’s nowhere to run. It leaps in the air as the lion reaches arm’s length, but the lion continues to follow the boar’s trajectory.  The lion leaps and catches the boar with its teeth. The boar cries out as the lion rips it apart.   “Bullet, noo!”   “An’ dats it! De crowd’s favorite, Bullet, has bit de dust! Brandy won his first foight!” a Dwarf yells loudly from the opposite side of this arena. His voice is also ridiculously loud. He’s holding onto something close to his mouth. The two Humans were holding onto it too.  Is it a new kind of magic item? It could be something the Dwarves created.   “Brandy, I’ll feed you later.  Go back to the cage!” the man orders, but Brandy continues to eat the lifeless boar.   An expected response. Monsters don’t listen to our commands. I don’t know if I misheard the announcer, but did he say the boar was the crowd’s favorite? So that means that the majority of people bet on the boar? That’s strange.   “Clean up crew, get in haur!” the announcer exclaims.   “This is insane. It’s a monster fightin’ arena,” Hina says.   ‘Yeah, but I don’t see why it’s so popular. The outcome should be obvious from the start. The lion obviously outclasses the boar, but more people bet on the boar? Are these people dumb?” I ask.   “Hey, how’s it going?” someone asks from behind us – a middle-aged guy. “I don’t see Humans too often around here, so I came to say hi. I’m Floyd.”   I shake his hand and say, “Kai. That’s Hina. You come here often?”   “Indeed. Aerkin battles are quite exciting, and if you do your research, it’s easy to make some money through the betting system,” he explains.   “Aerkins? The monsters?” Hina asks.   “Yes, they’re basically monster companions that fight in the Achilles Sundance Circuit. It’s this arena you see here. People bring their own Aerkins to fight for glory.”   “Wait,” I say. I’m too confused about the part where he mentions that it’s easy to make money. “Why’d more people bet on the boar? It should’ve been a safer bet on the lion. Does that mean the more risky option has a higher payout?”   “Nah, that’s not how it works. The winnings on the boar depend on how much money people place on the lion. The majority bet on the boar this time around, so whoever bet on the lion split a portion of the money placed on the boar plus their original bets.  Well, there are a couple other calculations they use too. A portion of the money goes to the owner of the Aerkin who won while another portion goes to the organizer.”   “Forget about the bettin’ system. We don’t need to know about that,” Hina says and gives me a dirty look. “What exactly is the Achilles Sundance Circuit?”   “You don’t know that either? I figured you were at least informed of that, considering that you’re here to spectate.”   “We’re completely new here. Referred here by…a friend,” Hina says with a smile. “If you don’t mind explainin’ things to us.”   “Well, we’re waiting for the next fight to be set up anyway. The Achilles Sundance Circuit is the name of this sport of training Aerkins and battling other Aerkins. It’s based off of the first Human and his Aerkin who came up with this idea,” he explains.   “First Human? It wasn’t a Dwarf?” I ask. Considering that most of the spectators here are Dwarves. I would think they’re the ones who came up with the idea.   “Indeed. The Dwarves took a liking to the sport since then and created this arena. Back in Achilles time, people did their fights unofficially, and it spread by word of mouth. People still do fights outside of an official arena, “ Floyd says.   “How long ago was the sport invented?” Hina asks.   “I don’t know. For at least several hundred years, I imagine. There’s a story in Xantho about Achilles, though I’m not sure which village it originated from. It was close to where I was born. Those interested in the Achilles Sundance Circuit, know that he was a legendary, undefeated adventurer. But one day, he showed up with his foot from the heel down gone but had a fox next to him, whom we now know as Sundance. He went on to build the foundation of Aerkin battles, and his Aerkin, Sundance, went on to be undefeated.”   “What kind of monster was Sundance? An S ranked monster?” I ask. “For it to be undefeated.”   He laughs and then answers, “It was an E ranked monster. Some say that it might’ve not even be considered a monster. It wasn’t in any monster codex at the time. It’s not now either.”   I drop my jaws. Was it an Anomaly? The Albino Flying Squirrel was a low ranked monster, but it was extremely powerful.   “Haha, I know it’s hard to believe at first, but the lower-ranked monsters tend to have more potential. Achilles proved that they could grow to be very powerful if properly trained.”   “Trained…you mean he taught it to use magic?” Hina asks.   “Indeed.”   “Did it have red eyes?” I ask.   He knits his eyebrows and replies, “I don’t think so.”   Right, that makes more sense. There’s no way anyone could control Anomalies. They’re too destructive and crazy. But then again, it’s still crazy that anyone managed to communicate with monsters. I ask, “How’d he manage to teach Sundance how to use magic? Is there a way to communicate with monsters?”   “No one knows how he did it. Some say that he did it by feeding Sundance his foot. But we know now that his selection process was very precise. You see, monsters have personality. Some monsters are more friendly and are more receptible to being trained. Some trainers go for a more wild, aggressive monster like the owner of that lion.  Those monsters are controlled through drugs, and the relationship between the trainer and Aerkin is more artificial,” he explains. The lion in the arena collapses as several Dwarves with crossbows close in on him.   Friendly monsters huh… I remember Rocky. A friendly turtle we saved after we came out of the ruins during our fourth year. Good monsters and bad monsters. Is that what he’s talking about?   That boar that got killed by the lion might’ve been the same kind of boar we encountered back then. So the guy who trained the boar taught it to use Enhancement magic? Monsters could have the same potential as us, but they don’t have the same knowledge as us. They can’t think and make decisions like us…or can they?   “If they’re controlled by drugs, can you really call that a monster companion?” Hina asks.   “Aerkins were originally monster companions when the sport was invented. However, past Achilles generation, violent monsters have been allowed to participate in the battle to make it more accessible. So that virtually anyone could acquire an Aerkin and participate in the Achilles Sundance Circuit.”   “I see. What you said before doesn’t make any sense to me. You’re sayin’ that the E ranked monsters are the strongest monsters? They’re E ranked for a reason, they’re the weakest,” Hina says. “But they can grow to be the strongest? As strong as S ranked monsters?”   “Bah. The monster codex is all garbage. It’s based on the standard monster of that type. It doesn’t take into account the ones that survive repeated near-death encounters,” Floyd says.   “You mean like a monster who fought another monster to the death? Or a monster who fought a person and lived?” I ask.   “Exactly. They grow stronger in the same way we do – through fighting. They rely mostly on instincts, so the more they fight, the stronger they’ll get. Well, if that were the only thing it took, everyone would have success with low ranked monsters as Aerkins. It’s a rare case that anyone manages to repeat the same thing Achilles did with Sundance.”   It makes sense. We know that there were people like Ragnar who learned how to use magic without learning it formally at the Academy. Monsters are never taught by anyone how to use magic. They just do it. It’s not as if the higher ranked monsters have more fighting experience, either. It could be that some monsters are born stronger than others. But he said Sundance was an E rank or weaker… It doesn’t add up.   “What of magic did Sundance use?” I ask.   “The legends say that he elegantly danced across the battlefields with colorful lights. That’s why he was called Sundance. Unfortunately, I don’t know if that’s really true. I’ve never heard of any sort of magic like that,” he says.   Yeah, that sounds a bit sketchy. It’s just a legend. All of it could be a made-up story to make people think that weak E ranked monsters can grow to be strong. But it wasn’t a lie when that boar was putting up a good fight against that lion. It could have something to do with changing the special property of Light, but I’m not sure what that entails. I can’t even make cold fire yet.   The Dwarves in the Arena push the lion and boar onto separate flat carts. They push them through the gate on the left side.   “So, will either one of you two purchase an Aerkin or capture one yourself?” Floyd asks. “You seem to be a capable bunch, given your equipment.”   “Nah, not interested,” I say. Our only purpose here is to find leads on the masked men. That shadow of a monster I saw might’ve actually been a monster. There’s not any point in staying to watch the rest. “We’ve got other business to take care of, so we’re gonna leave.”   “Oh, come on. Why not stay to watch the champion’s fight? Don’t you want to see what kind of a monster the current undefeated champion is? You’ll understand why the crowd favored the boar in the fight you saw.”   I look at Hina. She nods her head. Come on. She’s the one who said we shouldn’t stay too long to watch. It can’t be helped. I respond, “Fine. We’ll stay to watch.”   “That’s the spirit,” he says with a smile.   Judging by his words, Nazug’s Aerkin must be a low ranked monster. There he is. He walks toward the center of the platform overseeing the arena. Nazug looks toward us, perhaps recognizing us from the Icy Tavern. His opponent’s a Human. What kind of fight will we see?   “Ladies an’ gentleman. Haur be de moment ye have all been waitin’ fer. On de east side, our current champion, Nazug, and his Aerkin, Splinter!” the announcer exclaims. The crowd bursts into a loud cheer. The gate from Nazug’s side of the pit opens. A Gray Wolf walks out.   A Gray Wolf…? I saw a few dead ones on our way to the Rising Champions battle. They’re native to Xantho. Captain Albius’ team were the ones who took them out at the front of the group. They couldn’t have been any higher than E rank. Splinter doesn’t look much different than them, but he’s somehow undefeated.   An older Human male walks to the platform opposite to Nazug.   “On de west side, our latest challenger, Dominic, an’ his Aerkin, a Brown Ursa!”   Something roars from beyond the other gate. It bashes against the closed gates.   “Why doesn’t his Aerkin have a name?” Hina asks.   Floyd answers, “The monster name is used instead when the owner hasn’t provided a name yet. Typically, those are the people who disregard the Aerkin’s life and use drugs to keep them tranquilized out of fights and additional drugs to give them a boost before the fight. I’m not a fan. That’s why I have my money on Splinter.”   “I haven’t heard of the Brown Ursa. What kind of monster is it?” I ask, the monster still bashing against the gates. Whoever’s in charge of the gate control must be scared. At this rate, it’ll bust it open.   “An Ursa is a more vicious type of bear native to Neomeris. A B ranked monster. From what I saw, the bets are about evenly split. That’s no surprise because it’s also been given a performance-boosting drug. It makes them more violent.”   “I thought you wanted to show me why the crowd would favor the lower-ranked monster,” I say.   “It’s the first B ranked monster Splinter will have fought. Some people are skeptical, especially taking the drug into account. I’ll take my chances.”   Another roar resounds as the west gate busts open. The gate is flung in the air and falls flat on the ground. An enormous brown bear stomps out of the entrance. It paces around in small circles. Meanwhile, Splinter hasn’t moved from his side of the arena.   “Kill that fucking mutt, you stupid bear!” Dominic yells with the magic item in front of him.   “What’s with that sound amplifying magic item?” I ask. The bear stands still and roars. “It doesn’t look like Nazug has one.”   “It’s optional. The organizers profit from it because you have to pay a fee to use one during the fight. Newbies tend to buy them because they think yelling at their Aerkin to do something would be effective. Proper trainers like Nazug doesn’t need one. He’s trained Splinter well enough to adapt to the fight on his own.”   “I see.” That makes sense. It would be annoying if someone were trying to give me orders while I fought a battle. But if I watched a pair of goons fighting from my team, it would be more effective for me to give orders. Though, I think it could still be useful for more experienced fighters too. It’s basically a cheat. Having someone look overhead and give warnings that the fighter doesn’t see. That proves that Nazug has high confidence in his Aerkin’s ability to win despite the challenge ahead of him.   “You worthless shit bear! Get off your ass and kill the mutt! He’s right in front of you! I paid good money for you!” Dominic yells. The Brown Ursa turns toward him as if understanding that the orders are directed at it.   “Uh oh. We might have a casualty today,” Floyd says.   “Casualty? You say like that’s a normal occurrence,” I say, thinking that he’s talking about the trainers being killed by an Aerkin.   “It happens from time to time.”   “Arent there safeguards placed above the arena?”   Floyd laughs and then responds, “Of course not.”   “What’re you looking at, twatface? If it weren’t for me, you’d still be rotting in that disgusting cage. Now, go kill that wolf!” Dominic exclaims. A rock appears behind Dominic that knocks him past the railing. He falls. “Don’t you even think about eating me you fucking be—“   Chomp. The bear catches his head by his teeth. The audience explodes into a cheer again.   “What the hell?” I interject. No one’s fazed at all by his gruesome death. The monster tears into the rest of his flesh. An unexpected meal for him.   “Dominic has a bit of an infamous reputation around these parts. Just another snobby noble.”   “There’re more people like him?” I ask.   “Yeah. The majority of people who partake in the Achilles Sundance Circuit are wealthy, but not all of them are like Dominic. The hobby has recently grown to be more accessible by the lower-income class, however. An unknown group has been supplying them at an astronomically low price so that practically anyone could participate.”   “What’s the point? Is it to make money?” I ask.   “Recognition in the community for one. You get better rewards, the more victories you get with the same monster. You have a chance to make it into the hall of fame. The short term rewards depend on the betting pool, so your profit is a tossup, especially if you purchase one,” Floyd informs.   “What kind of rewards?”   “Never participated, so I don’t know.”   This fight still hasn’t started. Splinter has started moving slowly toward the bear, though. Either the Brown Ursa doesn’t see Splinter as a threat or hasn’t noticed him yet. I ask, “What happens if the monsters never fight? Has that ever happened?”   “It’s rare, but I’ve seen it happen once. They’d find a way to make them fight. That won’t be necessary here. Splinter’s a smart wolf.”   Splinter howls. The Brown Ursa turns around and stares at him for a moment. But it turns back around and continues his meal. From the looks of it, it’s almost done. The wolf could use this opportunity to attack it, but he doesn’t move.   A triangular-shaped spike made of wood appears above Splinter’s head that speeds toward the back of the bear. This will do some damage if it’s a direct hit. A stone wall appears behind the bear at the last moment. The wooden spike collides with it for a moment before falling to the ground. The attack did nothing to the wall, but half of the spike disappeared, leaving only the blunt half behind.   So, Splinter uses Intermediate Evocation magic as the boar did. He’s already above the normal E ranked monster standards, but I don’t see how he can beat the bear with such weak firepower. If I had to guess, that wooden spike was only made of Scrap Mana.   The stone wall suddenly bursts into pieces. Each small piece speeds toward Splinter as the Brown Ursa charges right behind. Splinter jumps over the incoming barrage of rocks, but the rocks change trajectory to the left, right, and above its original course. A stone wall appears in front of Splinter. The rocks crash into the wall, destroying a part of it.     Another stone surface appears under Splinter. He jumps backward before the bear crashes through it with brute force. While the platform disappeared a moment later, the fragments of the wall propel into the bear. The same attack that the bear used turned against himself. It seems to do no damage as the bear does not let out even a sound when it hits it. Splinter has no chance of victory utilizing only Scrap Mana.   Stilll, it’s very impressive that he’s utilizing these strategies. This is more advanced than anything I’ve seen monsters employ.   The Brown Ursa lands on his legs and then roars. It charges at the wolf again. Several small balls of fire appear above the bear that flies toward the wolf. It’s more like a barrage with the speed at which they’re appearing. Splinter runs in a diagonal away from the Brown Ursa. He’s too fast for the bear to catch up, and the Fire magic proves ineffective even though they’re made of Rich Mana.   The bear speeds up his pace to match Splinter, all while continuing to shoot the same barrage of Fire at him. Stone walls erupt from the ground around the wolf to cut off his retreat. In mere seconds, he’s completely trapped inside a makeshift structure presumably created by the Brown Ursa. There’s only one way in or out, and the bear is charging toward it. It stopped releasing the barrage of Fire, but there’s no way for Splinter to get out of this one.   A bigger sphere of Fire appears in front of the bear. It’s big enough to take up the entire width of the entrance of the structure. I don’t know whether Splinter has tried escaping, but with Scrap Mana, he won’t hope at accomplishing much. The Brown Ursa has stopped playing games and is going all out to kill him. If that large fireball disperses while inside the structure, Splinter will take a direct hit from a strong dose of Fire magic.   A wall of Rich Mana appears in front of the ball of fire at the last second. It redirects the ball of fire back at the bear, erupting fiery gases all over him. He cries out this time, unlike with the small rocks hitting him from earlier.   Splinter can use Rich Mana?! On top of that, he has skills in Abjuration magic. That’s ridiculous coming from an E ranked monster. It was almost as if he purposely hid his real power at the start until this scenario came up. Did he plan for this?   It’s hard to see how much damage that really did, but it stopped the bear’s charge forward. A stone spike erupts from the ground in front of the wall of Rich Mana. A loud bang resounds as the spike rips through the Mana, trapping Splinter inside. The reflective mode doesn’t work against magical objects that are grounded in something. The Brown Ursa understands that weakness.   The stone structure collapses inward, and boulder-sized rocks appear above it that crash down quickly. I gape as the Brown Ursa launches a relentless Earth attack on Splinter. A dust cloud forms that obscures everyone’s sight from the battle, but the sound of rocks crashing onto stone resounds.   Eventually, it stops. There’s only silence as the dust cloud clears. I can’t believe what I’m seeing right now. I expected to see a pile of destroyed rocks, but instead, the Rich Mana envelops the entire area. Splinter stands atop of it all.   Floyd smiles and says, “There it is. The Brown Ursa has completely fallen in Splinter’s trap. He’s won this battle.”   “What do you mean?” I ask. He survived the barrage somehow, but the bear could launch another attack now that he sees that the wolf is fine. The quantity of Rich Mana surrounding the whole area seems a bit excessive since Splinter is outside of it. He must be standing atop the rocks. The Brown Ursa shoots fireballs at the clump of Rich Mana, but a wall of Rich Mana appears. It deflects the bear’s magic again. This time, it side steps the fire.   “He’s perfectly utilized the Cohesion property of Abjuration magic.”   “I’m not sure what that means. I know Abjuration magic can reflect magic…but what else does it do?” I ask. As with most magic, the Academy only taught the basic concept. Abjuration magic deals with the bonds between Mana particles. The specifics were introduced only if you had talent for it. Drugo wasn’t the most talented Abjuration user and only informed us of two modes; Reflection and Destroy.   “It’s Intermediate Abjuration magic. The Cohesion mode allows his Mana to form bonds on other magical objects other than his own,” Floyd explains. “As a result, The Brown Ursa won’t be able to unleash more Earth magic until he removes Splinter’s Mana or his magic expires.”   I raise my eyebrows. It has that sort of interaction? I’ve always had to deal with that limitation with Fire magic. I can’t force fresh Fire magic to come out of my body if I’ve already utilized all the Fire Affinity I have. If I had other Evocation Affinities, I could ignore that, although, it would not be very efficient as it would force the previously cast magic to disappear. That would be especially stupid if they’re about to hit a target, and I replace it with something else.   The Brown Ursa charges forward. Perhaps its only chance now is to come into physical contact with its magic to cancel it. With the Rich Mana surrounding its magic, it can’t even send out its own Mana to cancel it. And its Fire magic will be deflected.   Splinter jumps off the rubble toward the bear. Wooden platforms appear in the air that the wolf uses to jump off from one to the next, circling the bear. Afterward, the platforms transform into several spikes that fall toward the bear. The bear sends a barrage of Fire toward Splinter’s path, but that’s not very smart. As a user of Fire magic, I know. Splinter’s trying to abuse Fire’s greatest weakness, but he’s forgotten one thing.   The bear turns toward Splinter and shoots out large balls of fire. Its Fire magic quickly destroys the wooden spikes. So easily that Splinter must’ve utilized only Scrap Mana to create them. The Fire magic goes into the distance above the arena. Unfortunately for Splinter, we’re already underground. There’s not a whole lot of distance compared to an open sky. At least the magic won’t hit the audience or the arena walls.   The Brown Ursa also seems to have forgotten that the pile of Rich Mana is defenseless right now. It could bust through and get its Earth Affinity back, but it may be too late. Splinter falls from the air. If The bear already used all its Fire Affinity, a few seconds is all Splinter needs to finish off the bear. The Brown Ursa only has its leftover Mana as a defense to whatever Splinter has planned. The brute force of the bear isn’t to be estimated, so it could still have a chance.   Splinter must have a better plan because he could’ve simply used his Rich Mana to deflect the balls of fire back at the bear as he did previously. He wanted to create this scenario of the Brown Ursa having no Affinity left. The bear lunges toward Splinter as he approaches the ground.   A stone spike appears between them with the sharp side pointing at the bear. It stays stationary for a moment as Splinter uses the flat side to rebound to the ground. The Brown Ursa covers its paw in Rich Mana as it swipes the spike. More spikes appear from every angle around the bear that shoots toward it. Rich Mana surrounds the bear now as it falls to the ground. A loud bang resounds as the spikes strike its Mana and rocks hitting the ground. A bed of spikes trap the bear inside.   A massive rock appears above Splinter’s magic that dives toward the bear’s location. At the last moment, all of Splinter’s previous magic disappears, revealing a clump of Rich Mana inside. A giant spike erupts from the ground as the boulder from above smashes the bear. There’s nothing but the crackling of the remnants of Splinter’s magic until he sits and howls.   The crowd applauds and cheers.   “An’ dats it folks! Nazug an’ Splinter have claimed dare twelff victory!” the announcer exclaims.   “So, what’d you think?” Floyd asks.   “I-uh-bluh,” I interject and shake my head. I witnessed Splinter winning, but I can’t believe it.   He laughs and asks, “What about you, Hina?”   “I’m at a loss for words. All my previous beliefs about monsters have shattered.”   I’ve always known monsters were capable of thought ever since I met Rocky, but I never imagined they would be this skilled at using magic. Even though the Brown Ursa was not very strategic or smart in its tactics, he was able to write all the instructions to the magic very quickly during the battle. That only goes to show how dangerous these monsters can get. Society recommends an entire group of six C-ranked or B-ranked adventurers to take down the bear, but this wolf did it alone without a scratch on him. What’s more impressive is how Nazug managed to train an E ranked monster to this level…   “I’m glad I was able to educate you on this amazing sport,” Floyd says and walks away from the railing. “So, I’m sure you understand the lengths I’ll go to, to protect it, right?”   “Huh?” I interject and turn around. Oh, shit…   Five Dwarves trap us between the railing. They don Titanium armor and Titanium weapons of various types. I know they’re no ordinary fighters and trying to escape or fight would be stupid. One of them says, “Humans…yer comin’ wiff us.”

Reid doesn't move or say anything for several seconds, continuing only to change his glance between the two of us. He gulps, drops his weapon, and then falls on his knees.    "Wa-wait wait wait!" Reid says while shaking his hands in front of him. "Yo-you have got it all wrong! I did not mean any of the things I did, I swear! Please, forgive me!"   He prostates himself on the ground. I lose focus on what's in front of me as a voice from the past repeats in my head. "I did not mean it, I swear! Kai, please forgive me!"   I close my eyes for several seconds before opening them. I look down at Reid and ask "You want forgiveness? Tell me about your benefactor and the things you did."   He raises his head and sits up. He opens and closes his mouth repeatedly. He sighs and then responds, "It all started nearly three years ago. At the lowest point of my life, a mysterious man approached me and made me an offer. To do everything he says in exchange for worldly desires."   I widen my eyes and put a hand over my mouth. "At first, I did not think he was serious. He was persistent. I jokingly told him that I would play along if he showed me proof. I thought of something impossible to grant. I thought of the name of an old crush and requested for her to acknowledge me. The next day, she came into my life. She slept with me a week later. I was astonished. Later, the man approached me again. I agreed to his deal."   "Did…did the man have a white mask on?" I ask.    "No, why?"   "Nothing… Get to the point. I can already imagine what kinda requests you made to him. I'm more interested in hearing what he requested of you."   He is silent for several seconds. "Well… I do not know…"   I knit my eyebrows. "Huh? What do you mean you don't know? Haven't you been following his orders this whole time?"   "Yeah… Well…" Reid says quietly. "I told him I wanted to be the king. He has been telling me that everything he has me doing is working toward that goal…"   "Hmm… So you're the reason this country is in turmoil right now? Playing both sides…"   He squeezes his eyes shut and clenches his fists. He probably doesn't know his benefactor's motives… His benefactor must be the one who wanted Dae to get Irene. The raid on the castle was definitely just a public performance… Hmm…   "What about the missing girl incident three years ago? Did your benefactor take them and bring them to the castle?"   "No… The only time I remember village girls being in the castles was during the raids."   "Were you the one who paid Neso or hired bandits to ambush us?"   "What are you talking about?"   "No, never mind. What about the story you sold us during dinner? Was it all a lie?" I ask.   "Yes, well… It was not entirely a lie. As far as I know, my benefactor played the role of Jack."   "I am not understanding something here," Leila says. "If he is playing the role of Jack…then that means he is after the magical item inside the vault, right?"   "That is right."   "You are saying that he has only been working toward the goal of making you king…but there are a number of ways to do that efficiently that does not involve bringing Irene into this. How did he find out about Irene in the first place?" Leila asks.   "Uhh…" Reid looks at the floor. I stomp the ground next to him. He looks up at me and quivers his eyelids.   "We won't forgive you if you don't tell us everything," I say.   He gulps before responding, "Sei-Seirus told us…"   "Why? How long ago was that?"   He looks away and replies, "Be-because we held Aurora hostage… It was two months ago."    I knit my eyebrows. "Where are they now?"   "I have not seen Seirus since last week. Aurora…is here..." Reid says quietly.   Behind me, Irene suddenly asks, "Where's my daddy? Is he safe?"    "I do not know. He has been gone like Seirus since a week ago."   They're gone without a trace…? The information broker would not miss something like that. But why would his benefactor wait two months before bringing Irene here…?   The vines behind Reid turns into Mana then fades away, Leila walks toward the hole in the wall. "For now, bring me to Aurora. You can keep Irene company here, Kai."   "Why don't we come with you?" I ask.   "I'm fine by myself. Don’t forget why we came here in the first place." I remember the portion of books we didn't check.   I turn around and say, "Okay. Come on, Irene."   I walk toward the corner we didn't check.    "Get up and take me to Aurora."   "Right!"   "By the way, what is with this room? There is no entrance to it other than the hole the Ogre made. There is nothing here other than empty boxes with scraps of paper lying around," Leila says.   I cock an eyebrow and stop walking. I turn around and go toward the room Leila and Reid are in.   "Kai!" Leila exclaims. "You'd better come look at this!"   What's she so frantic about? I go into the room and find Leila crouched down next to a few boxes. She's holding a piece of paper. There's already magic in place illuminating the room. I walk over and crouch next to her. "What's that?"   She hands me the piece of paper. I look down at it as she explains, "It's a letter addressed to the Astralye family. That's not the important part. Read on."   I widen my eyes.    You have our utmost gratitude. We wouldn't have escaped if not for your method of utilizing Void Magic and Raw Mana unique only to the Purebloods.   I can't believe what I'm reading. Raw Mana…? It's true that I can only bind Void Magic to my special Mana type. Is it called Raw Mana? I'm…a Pureblood?   "There's more over here, look," Leila informs and hands me another piece of paper. This one is torn and barely legible.    Mana replenishes slower here compared to Eprillon.   What am I reading? Is Eprillon another name for the Cursed Territory? I've never heard of that name… Leila hands me another. It's another gratitude letter addressed to the Astralye family. I skim over the information I already have.   The invaders didn't follow us. It was a successful plan. We're indebted to those who made the ultimate sacrifice. For that, we will serve you forever. I look forward to working with you on building a new kingdom.   "This is the last one," Leila informs and hands me a burnt piece of paper. Only one sentence is readable.   We're the last and first generation of the Valerians.   I don't understand… This is clearly written in the Human language. But I can't even begin to comprehend any of this.   "Hey, did you just mention the Astralye family?" Reid suddenly asks.   Leila and I look at each other before facing Reid. Leila responds, "Yes. Two of these letters are clearly addressing them. Have you heard of that name before?"   "Yes, my benefactor mentioned it while he was interrogating Velyn and Seirus for information before Seirus told him of Irene. He said, 'You're the ancestors of the Astralyes aren't you? One of you has to have the key to the vault. Unless there's another member I'm missing here. Does it have something to do with your little trip outside of the city four months ago?' Apparently, he found out that Velyn utilized a secret passage under the castle to leave without being seen."   I raise my eyebrows. "Leila, this means that the royal bloodline is the Astralye bloodline, right?"   "I don't see any other possibility."   I look toward Irene. She said her father suddenly visited her last year… We know Velyn left the country in secrecy six months ago, which was last year.    I toss the paper in my hand aside and stand up, walking toward Irene. "Irene, did your father visit you six months ago? Are you sure you don't remember anything?"   "Hmm... Has it been six months already? I think so, but I really don't remember anything," she answers. I gulp.   She has the key…? Impossible. She doesn't have any pockets and the only places I haven't checked are… My imagination runs wild, and my face burns up. No no no… No good sane father would do anything like that, and it's been half a year. She would've noticed by now. Maybe he cut her up and sewed the wound? That would be traumatizing enough for her to lose her memory, but I didn't see any scars on her body either when she was practically naked. What kinda key is it to begin with…?   I think back to the vault I inspected and have no idea. But it adds up. He brought Irene here because she has the key. At the same time, Reid thinks he's doing it all to make him king… We almost have all the pieces together now. His benefactor must have brought the Ogre through the underground passage and took Seirus and Velyn through the same way without being discovered. I still can't understand what purpose Reid serves in all this.   I walk over to Reid and then say, "Hey, you're still keeping something from us, aren’t you? From my understanding, your benefactor has absolutely no need for you."   "I am not keeping anything from you, I swear…! Oh, he might have been after my wealth. I came from a wealthy family," he adds. It appears his eyes are a little watery.    They're similar… I smile before saying, "I see."   I knit my eyebrows as I suddenly remember something. I ask, "What happened to the guards that were stationed here a few hours ago? Why haven't they come out despite all the noise we made? You mentioned most were asleep too."   "I am not sure what happened to them. I did not hear from them. Despite what I have said, they were the only guards in this entire castle. The majority of my mercenaries were hired by my benefactor. How about we go look for them?"   "First, Take me to Aurora," Leila requests. Reid frowns and doesn't appear thrilled. With that, Reid leaves through the other hole that leads into the hallway and Leila follows. Irene follows me as I head toward the books I was going to check.   "Irene, I've been meaning to ask you this for a while. Why're you so trusting of people? I don't see how you determine if they are good or bad without knowing anything about them."   I take a book from the shelf and flip through it. By the time I flip through the whole book, Irene still hasn’t responded. I turn my head toward her and ask, "Irene?"   She's smiling. "It's because of my mom and daddy. This might take a while."   "I don't mind. We'll be here for a while anyway," I respond while flipping through another book.   "When I was really young, everyone saw my mom in bad eye. I don't know why, but their eyes looked cold. When I first met Daddy, it was the first time I met any man that was nice to my mom. He was really nice to me too, and I loved him. My mom wasn't employed, so it was hard for us to live each day. Daddy was kind enough to support us. He gave us money to live off of every month. It all changed when he stopped visiting three years ago. I didn't know when my mom started working again, but she said she got her old job back.   "All of a sudden, people around the village that used to be cold around us started to be nice. They gave us food and money. I thought they were good people. My mom wouldn't tell me anything. So one day, I followed her and peeked through a window. There was a man I was familiar with on top of her, thrusting. She laid there motionless with tears streaming down her face. Later that day, she was cheerful and completely normal around me.   "It was around then I started hearing rumors circulating. Men were gossiping on how my mom is a bad person. They said my mom was a filthy whore who raised murderers. I learned my mom had a husband before daddy. I didn't believe them and asked my mom about it, but she denied ever having a husband and was very insistent that I was her only daughter and that she loved me. I think that was the first and only time I felt my mom lied to me. I knew my mom didn't have any bad intentions. She was a good person.   "Eventually, I developed a sixth sense for good and bad people. I feel good people won't have any bad intentions, so I don't feel the need to doubt them. My mom was bad in the eyes of my village, but daddy didn’t care. He saw through the good that was in her, so I think I should do the same for other people!"   I close the book I'm holding and say, "I see."   I remember how she said I was a good person. Thinking back to the moment I first met Irene, I giggle.   "What's funny?"   "I just remembered something."    "I'm glad," she says with a smile. "What exactly are you trying to check in these books?"   I suppose there's no harm in telling her… I pick up another book before responding, "I'm checking if Humans recorded an event like 'The Selection' in their history books."   "What's 'The Selection'?"   "An event that happened about 2000 years ago. It's said that Mana and monsters suddenly appeared in the world. Apparently before this event, the races lived without Mana. With the sudden introduction of Mana, not everyone was compatible with it. The numbers are rough, but I think over half of each race failed to adapt and passed away. According to Leila, every race has this event recorded except Humans."   "Hmm… I don't really understand, but I hope you find what you're looking for!"   "I hope so too. Thanks, Irene."   A loud noise like a crash resounds in the distance. Indistinguishable voices are nearby. I close the book I'm holding and put it back before saying, "There's something going on over there. Let's go check it out."   I start going back toward the hidden room between the library and the hallway. Leila and Reid are back with a third person.   "You are the fucking worst!" the girl with them screams. She stomps her way in front of Reid and doesn't hesitate to punch him straight in the face. Reid doesn't dodge it and falls on his back. The girl sits on top of his chest and launches more punches on his face. Left. Right. Left. Right. Leila watches silently from behind. I hear Reid muttering something as I get closer with tears streaming down his face.   "I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry…" He mutters those words repeatedly between occasional sniffs of snot while taking her hits. She stops eventually, breaking down into tears too.    "Why…why did you do all of those things?! The Reid I grew up with would never give in to greed. Would never kill his entire family. Would never do all those things to Seirus…or me…"   "I am sorry…" he says with a desperate tone. "I did not mean it. I did not mean any of the things I did.  It all felt like I was inside a dream. It felt like I could do anything without consequence. Once I realized the weight of my actions, I could not stop. I am so sorry, Aurora. Please forgive me…"   "No, I will not forgive you. Ever."   Inside a dream…? The similarity's stunning. Is it just a coincidence? I close my eyes for a moment and sigh. I ask, "Can't you find it in you to forgive him?"   She gets off of Reid and faces me. She rubs her eyes on her arm and sniffs. Her long black hair is disheveled, and she wears mens' clothing. There are pin sized wounds around her neck. Markings of a Slave Collar…   She looks at me with red bloodshot eyes. Half crying she asks, "Are you fucking serious? Forgive him? I am grateful for the rescue, but what the hell do you know? Do you know how I feel? Do you have any idea what he has done to me…? In front of Seirus too… What he has done to everyone? Can you forgive someone who has done something absolutely unforgivable?"   I look her right in the eye and with a confident tone answer, "I can. I won't understand exactly what you went through, but you said it yourself. The Reid you grew up with would never do any of those things. I don't know him, but it sounds like he was misled or brainwashed."   "Aurora, please… I will spend the rest of my life earning your forgiveness. Please give me a chance…" Reid begs, still crying.    Aurora crosses her arms and looks away. She is silent for several seconds before replying, "We will see."   Reid grins. "Aurora! I will not disappoint you anymore. I will take care of our—"   Aurora slaps his hand away from her stomach. She glowers at him and exclaims, "Do not touch me, fucking scum! I have not forgiven you yet."   Reid looks down with a sulky expression. Leila looks at me and signals me to come over. We walk over to the hallway quietly, letting the two reconcile. "Did you finish checking those books?"   "Not yet. There're just a few more to check, but nothing so far."   "You're so slow. You were probably too busy flirting with Irene. Was it worth it?"   "Huh? I was doing my job properly… Anyway… We have all but six questions answered."   "Six? I can think of seven."    "Are you sure you didn't skip a step in your deductions?"    Leila sighs, then says, "Who paid Neso?"   "Who hired the bandits?"   "What's in the vault?"   "Who's Reid's benefactor?"   "How did Reid's benefactor know about the Astralye bloodline?"   "Why'd Reid's benefactor wait two months to get Irene?"   "Why did Reid's benefactor tell Reid to feed us that fabrication?"   Hmm? My mind is blank for a few seconds. I knit my eyebrows. That fabrication was almost believable too… It wasn't too far from the truth. Leila has a point. Why would he purposely try to give himself away? Wait… In the first place, I thought he got Dae to deliver Irene to the castle. That was interrupted by us, so why's Reid so prepared to answer our questions…?   "Do you finally get it? It was almost like you were insinuating that I was less intelligent than a pig," Leila says. I frown bitterly and don't say anything back. There's nothing to say because she's right. "By the way, I have a physical description of our villain from Aurora. From her testimony, I gathered that everything Reid has told us to be true."   "It seems Seirus told Aurora to leave the country, and she did, in secrecy. She traveled alone on her way to Elbar. When suddenly, her vision went black, and she woke up here. The rest you know. She remembers a foreign man she didn't recognize in the room. It was a middle-aged man with short brown hair. He wore a white hooded uniform. She's never seen any Cascabel masks in her life."   "I see." I sigh. It has to be a coincidence. He wouldn't give away his identity. That aside, we really don't know anything about Reid's benefactor…   Seeing how there's nothing left to be said, we rejoin the others. Reid and Aurora have stopped their tears, and they are silent while sitting against the wall several feet apart.     "Reid, how do you maintain contact with your benefactor?" I ask. He is unresponsive for a few seconds, looking only at the floor.    "He usually communicates via Klam but sometimes we meet in person. I have not heard from him once since the success of the raid. I have tried to contact him because I have no idea what to say tomorrow, but he has not responded," Reid answers while still looking at the ground.   I knit my eyebrows and look at Leila. She has a similarly confused expression on her face. I gulp before asking, "When did he inform you to memorize that story you fed us? Did he say anything else?"   "That was the last thing he instructed me to do. He left all the information on several pieces of paper. He told me to use that information in case someone that is not Dae shows up with Irene. He was right about everything except the reward you asked for."   "I see… Well, if he contacts you again, make sure to tell him you don't wanna be king anymore. It might stop his actions and give back Velyn and Seirus," I say, but I know it wouldn't work. I walk away from Reid toward the books I have yet to check.   This is getting more and more eerie. His benefactor came up with that fabrication two days before we even bumped into Dae's group. Can he see the future? And Neso was instructed to take Irene a day after the raid. So Velyn was the one who paid Neso after all? But why would he send her to the city where Reid's benefactor wants her to be…?    I raise my eyebrows. Wait… Xedeus' personally coming to meet us tomorrow, which has never happened before. Xedeus' the one who ordered us to take out Dae. If he takes that assumption, it wouldn't be unlikely that he's Reid's benefactor… No no no… That's impossible. In the first place, he ordered Dae's execution only because he ruined an important mission back then.    My thoughts halt as I remember Reid's benefactor made contact with him three years ago. Whereas the ruined mission was last year.    Impossible. Xedeus would never use such a roundabout way to get something he wants… It's a coincidence. Everything's a coincidence. Some things won't even begin to make sense if it's true.   I check through several books, finding nothing. I look at Leila, who is next to me and say, "This is the last one."   She nods. I open and go through it. The results are the same, but something of interest is written in the middle. I widen my eyes. "Hey, Leila. It says here that Mana appeared in the world 2000 years ago."   She knits her eyebrows and then sighs. "I see. So my suspicions were wrong…"   "No, I think it's too early for that. It doesn't say anything about 'The Selection…'"   She cocks an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"   "I meant exactly what I said. Look," I say, then point to the sentence with the book held in front of her. She appears to read the sentence multiple times.   "That's…strange."   "Right? What do we do with this information?"   "Let me think about it for a while… We still have our current situation to worry about."   "Yeah… I'm having second thoughts about executing our plan now."   "Are you referring to Reid's benefactor? It's far too much of a stretch for Xedeus to be that person. The chances of it being a trap are pretty low."   "Hmm… If you say so." I feel a load off my chest. If even Leila thinks that it's a coincidence, it must be true…   "With Reid's benefactor at large, we can't really leave Irene here. He might contact him today or tomorrow considering the city folk are all expecting him to explain how he's distributing the money."   "That's true, but you know we can't stay here forever."   "Yeah, yeah. I know."   "Do you really?" She looks at me with a serious look. I stare her in the eyes with unwavering eyes.   "Yes."   "Good. What do you want to do with them?" She points her head toward Reid and Aurora. Irene is bobbing her head forward and back in the corner.   "Hmm… It would be bad if Reid's benefactor visited in person while we aren't here. You already released Aurora, so we can't have them act as if nothing has happened. I'm a little curious what happened to those guards from earlier, but we can't be searching this entire castle. Irene's dozing off again. I propose we bring those two with Irene in an inn until we finish our business tomorrow."   "That's reasonable. We should leave through the underground passage."   "Good idea."   We let the others know where we're going, and Reid leads us to the underground passage. On the first floor, we go through a door that leads to an ordinary looking dining room lit by several lanterns hanging from the ceiling. There is a modest-sized table with chairs around it, two couches, various decorations around the room, and a fireplace. Reid goes to the fireplace and goes into the small crawlspace. He presses some kind of button on the ceiling of the crawlspace. It opens something at the end of the crawlspace. He goes through, and we follow.    We find ourselves in a hallway just narrow enough to walk in a single file line. Reid presses another camouflaged button on the wall that raises a wall at the end of the crawlspace. At the end of the hallway is a hole with a ladder attached to it. Reid presses another button that illuminates the hole with light. He climbs the ladder down, and we follow. At the bottom is a long spacious passage lit by a line of lanterns on the ceiling.    Hmm… I was wrong to think the Ogre came through this passage… How'd they get him inside the castle then? Oh well… I wonder how long the passage is and where it would lead to. We eventually reach the end of the passage in about half an hour. It appears to be a dead end. Reid presses another button that reveals the exit. I cock an eyebrow as soon as I leave the passage. The walls of the city are in close view. The exit we walked through looks like the side of a mountain, like the Cascabel hideout.    I feel like I'm missing something as Reid presses another camouflaged button that closes the opening in the wall. Leila has her chin tucked between her fingers. I raise my eyebrows. That's right… The information broker said that a source saw Velyn leaving Byzia in commoner clothes…but we know he took this passage. No one could see that he left in the first place. Only one person could be the source.    I gulp. Aurora asks, "What is wrong you two?"   I exchange a quick glance with Leila. I hope we can find Velyn. It would be easier to ask him directly everything that happened to him.   "Nothing. Let's get a move on," I say.   With that, we continue making our way to the southern gates. Before we go in, we give Aurora and Reid the hooded cloaks that we're wearing. We make it through and arrive at 'Bolt's Inn' without any problems. We buy another double room and split into two groups. I'm left with Reid, but we sleep in our own beds.    I wake up sometime in the morning with my stomach growling. I buy some quick grub on the first floor of the inn, eat it, and head for 'The Simple Forge.' I'm not sure if he opens his shop this early.   I arrive and open the door. My armor is sitting on the table near the entrance.   "You're here early," the blacksmith says as he comes out of the backroom.    "I'm surprised you're open at this hour."   "This is nothing. I've been here since 6:00 AM."   "Impressive." I take off the arm guards and set them on the table. I equip the armor and put my arm guards back on.    "You look great. Much better without the hole in the middle."   I smile and laugh. "I might arrive later today with another hole."   He laughs. "You sound like you're going to war. Be careful out there. I'll be here if you need my services."   "Thanks," I say and then walk out the door, closing the door behind me. I stretch my limbs. Well then. Leila and the others should be awake by now.   I start walking back, but I feel like something is watching me again. I look behind me on the roof of 'The Simple Forge.' There's an ordinary bluebird perched on the edge of it. I sigh. Why has this been happening to me so much lately?   I rejoin Leila and the others at 'Bolt's Inn.'    "As we told you guys yesterday, we want you to stay here with Irene until we come back. Do not leave this building under any circumstance. We'll be back by early evening. We're leaving Irene in your hands," I say.   "Got it," Reid answers.   "I understand, but where are you going?" Aurora asks.   "It's better if you don't know," I respond as I walk toward the door. I can't stop my hands from quivering. Someone grabs my right hand before I get to the door. I turn around and find Irene holding Leila's and my hand.   "I don't know why you two seem so scared…but good luck! I know the two of you are unbeatable together!" Irene exclaims. "I'll be praying for you here."   Leila and I smile. We thank her for her wishes before leaving the room and making our way to the Cascabel hideout. We arrive outside of the hideout around 1 PM, with two hours left before the scheduled meeting with Xedeus.    "Kai, are you ready?"    I hesitate for a moment before answering, "Yeah. Let's do this."   Leila walks over to the wall and reveals the entrance to the hideout with Earth magic. She shifts a stone wall the size of a door like before. She moves the wall back before we head inside. A glimpse of the same man's face appears through the small opening of the wooden door. "You're early."   "We didn't wanna be late. There's nothing to do," I say. The man's face disappears from the small opening for a moment, and he opens the door. We go inside and follow the passageway. We only pass by one other person before we reach the end of the passageway, finding a door. I open it, and then we head inside. Leila follows and closes the door behind her. "Even the amount of people stationed here has reduced. Isn't that weird?"   "Probably just a coincidence. It's a different time of day compared to yesterday," Leila answers. I walk and look around the room. Everything is placed as I remembered yesterday. "I'm going to start setting up."   "Sure," I reply. I check what Leila is doing when I find her staring at something behind me.    "Hey, Kai… There's something in the wall over there." She points to somewhere behind me. I don't see anything.   "What're you talking about?"   "Are you blind?" she asks and then sighs. She walks over a wall in the direction she pointed in. She points to the bottom of the wall. "Look."   I move closer and look at it. This part of the wall sticks out a little, and it's in a barely noticeable different shade of color. I raise my eyebrows. "This is the bottom of someone's shoes…? No, wait, there're two pairs of them…"   "Good job," she says with a smile and pats me on the head. I frown.    "Hurry up and uncover the wall."   She puts her hands on the space above the place in question. Several seconds later, part of the wall falls backward. It's a fairly thin piece of wall. It reveals a small compartment in the room. There are two men lying in a pool of blood. One of them looks young, and the other one is an old man. They have deep cuts all over their body. I pick up a Klam on top of the old man and press the button that plays back the saved message.   "We failed to deliver the girl. The man and woman guarding her took her back. No hard feelings, but we're keeping the 100 gold coins you already gave us."   My mind goes blank for several seconds. I knit my eyebrows. I look at the Klam in my hands and then at the old man. No way…   Leila picks up the Klam on the other man and plays back the saved message. "Hey! The two that showed up with Irene did not ask for gold like you said it would in the script! They are lurking in the library, what do I do? Contact me as soon as possible with tomorrow's instructions too."   I hold my breath and my heart beats progressively faster. That's definitely Reid's voice. When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth… Impossible, but…this is irrefutable evidence.   We turn our heads to each other. I stand up and exclaim, "We need to get out—"   The door bursts open with a bang behind us, resounding again as it crashes into the wall. A cold shiver goes down my spine. Several pairs of footsteps walk into the room.   "That's as far as you go, 'Phantom Swordsman' Kai." My heart skips a beat as a familiar voice enters my ears. My entire body quivers. I bite my lower lip hard, tasting blood. My mind is entirely blank. I turn around, widening my eyes. Marin stands there clad in her armor alongside Jetia and several bodyguards.

Life update: I recently decided to seriously start studying to beefen up my application to a credible M.S. program + graduating. This is going to be a consistent 20 hr investment per week for a few years.. On top of already working 45-50 hours per week, this is a lot. I recently signed up for a 1 year program that started yesterday. So, that’s why this chapter is a bit shorter around 4k words (had this done a few days ago).  So, where does this put the story? Well, I don't want to abandon it, but the rate that I'll release chapters / work on the story will decrease... a lot. Working on the story is stressful at times, even though I enjoy doing it. The additional 20 hour investment in education will stress me much more, and working too much on the story will make it worse. I've been feeling the symptoms of stress overload toward the end of the writing sprint. I need to leave time aside for gaming and social life. I'll try to produce 1 chapter per month, but no promises. Sometimes I have to do other work behind the scenes for planning and whatnot. I want to work on the story at least 5-10 hours per week. I had previous plans to finish arc 2 in 2020. That’s no longer happening. I need a miracle to finish the Inteiru Expota by the end of 2020. I’m sad because I wanted to finally get to arc 3 for various reasons. My current estimate for when it will end is around 300k words (currently around 200k). I don’t know how many more words it will take to end the Inteiru Expota sub-arc, but it should be the majority of the remaining words left at this point. There will be two short sub-arcs after this one, just to set some expectations. “Sorry, Kai. We lost,” Ruby says.   “It’s okay,” I say.   And now, it’s down to Hina and me. I ask to play from Floyd’s end of the table. Surprisingly, he agrees to switch sides without a fuss as long as we start as the Attacker.   We go through the usual steps and have fourteen Guns by our side. Eight Stones, two Fires, two Winds, and two Reflects. It seems like a good draw. At best, he could only have four Stones and ten Fires for offense. We’ll have to be careful of any Reflects he has too for our Stones.   I whisper to Hina to discuss the best first move. We go with Reflect because Floyd has been on the offensive on the first turn the previous games. We want to hide the fact that we have eight Stones. By refusing to use it, it could confuse him to think that we have few Stones to play. It’s also a good move because he probably has a lot of Fires in his hand. Reflect is the best way to defend against it.   “Kai, you seem a bit overprotective of Ruby and Marin. You don’t want to see them get hurt. Evidently, they withstood my questions better than expected. There’s one thing I find strange in all this. You’re in a relationship with Hina, but you worry more about them. Why is that?”   Based on the previous games, it’s best to answer with some truths and some lies. It’s better to be honest as much as possible, so it’s harder to be caught in a trap. It’s going to be slightly tricky with the Ruby situation. “I grew up with Marin and four others at the Academy. Unfortunately, the four others died not too long after graduation. We met Ruby around the same time, who lost her entire team, instantly bonding with us. That’s why I’m protective of them.”   “Hmm...so who would you save if Marin, Ruby, and Hina were in mortal danger if you could only save one?”   This is the hardest question I could ever answer if it was a serious one. Times like these, it’s better to use a random answer with a logical explanation. Helps keep up appearances with Aisha and Ada too. “Hina, obviously. She’s my Pearl, the one I value most. I love her.”   “That’s cruel of you to abandon a friend you’ve known for years over a girl you recently met. Sex with her must be great. How’d you meet Kai?”   “We went to the Academy together, same year.”   “Hmm. You were on different teams, yet you were drawn together. How long have you been dating?”   “About a month.”   “Oh, very recent. Still in the honeymoon phase. That brings me to question Kai’s sanity in deciding to save you over Marin. What good is having a woman around if you can’t screw her, right? Lust is one hell of a drug,” Floyd says as he locks in his Gun. Trying to make me look bad at any angle he can muster. “That choice contradicts his protectiveness of Ruby and Marin. Perhaps he lost his lover in that same attack.”   Wait. I never mentioned anything about an attack. And we learned from Viessa that the news of the attack didn’t spread, so how’d he know? He could’ve inferred based on what I said, but wouldn’t he think it was due to the nature of the job of an adventurer? Like a monster attack. But that could be what he meant.   Tch. He chose Replenish. That’s a strange one to pick on the first turn, and he deviated from his past behavior. We wasted a Reflect.   It’s our turn to choose our two questions. While we could go with two standard ones, I want to switch things up. No one has bothered to ask him a tossup.   After he locks in his choice, I ask, “How’d you know I lost my friends in an attack?”   “Isn’t it obvious? I participated in the attack. I’m the one who killed them.”   I widen my eyes. There’s no way that’s true. He wasn’t that masked man, but he could be playing dumb. Or he hit a different part of the city.   Hina whispers, “Kai, he’s obviously lyin’. Don’t pay too much attention.”   Yeah, she’s right. I’ll catch him in a lie using his methods. I ask, “What kinda black mask were you wearing?”   He pauses for a few seconds before responding, “It wasn’t black. It was white with a snake on it.”   What?! Was he really part of the attack?   “Nice try. You’re questioning whether or not I’m telling the truth, but it’s obvious by now. I’m one of them.”   “It’s a guess,” Hina whispers. “He knows we’re lookin’ for the snake earrin’ group.”   “How’d he know that it was white and not black? He might know something about them,” I whisper.   “Most masks might be white in color. He mentioned masks were required in the black marketplace, so there’s no doubt he’s seen a lot of them,” Hina whispers.   I sigh.   “Don’t listen to her. She’s wrong. By the way, you should really start using your Stones,” Floyd says.   How does he know? He’s like a hawk with an all-seeing eye.   Hina whispers, “I’m thinkin’ we should go with Fire.”   Is he telling us to pick Stone because he has a Reflect locked in? Fire won’t do any good in that case. I whisper, “Replenish. It’s a trap.”   “Whatever you say,” Hina whispers and then puts in the empty Gun.   Replenish versus Replenish, so we both draw an additional Gun each. We receive a useless Wind. Going with Stone might’ve been the best choice, but I don’t want to play into his hand either. He wants to verify whether or not we have the Stones.   For our next pick, we decide to go with our last Reflect. He’s bound to strike on the third turn, if not the first two.     Answering these questions is a pain. It’s already obvious that playing in pairs is more of a disadvantage than an advantage, especially the part where he’s allowed to ask us both two questions each to tear us apart. It wouldn’t be as bad if Aisha and Ada weren’t here because it wouldn’t force us to respond in certain ways.   “You shouldn’t have asked me about the attack. Now, the cat is out of the bag. The reason why it’s risky for me to tell you anything about the snake earring group is that I would be labeled as a traitor if anyone found out. Was one of the four friends you had your previous lover?”   I tell myself to ignore everything he’s saying. Pay no attention to it. It’s all lies. I calmly answer, “Yes.”   “Did you lose your lover in the attack too, Hina?”   “Yes.”   “Ah, truly tragic. Coming together to grief loss...with hot, steamy sex,” Floyd says and then laughs. “Not in a laughing mood, I suppose. You’re hardening your mind, trying to ignore my words. You’re stubborn. Just like how you’re adamant about saving your Stones.”   “Hurry up and ask your question,” I say. He’s wasting so much time.   “You’re not very good at this. You should learn from Marin. Your impatience is very revealing. I apologize for boring you. Ruby said she would kill Marin if she dated you behind her back. She sounded sincere... It makes me wonder why she hasn’t killed Hina yet.”     My heart starts racing. I don’t move much or break eye contact with him.   “Perhaps she knows that your relationship isn’t a serious one. Or it’s an illusion altogether. When we met, I didn’t get a good impression that you two were a couple. Certainly didn’t act like one,” Floyd says with a smirk. “You said you loved her, but Ruby wasn’t fazed at all. What do you think really think of Hina?”   Damn, I messed up. Going with the flow hasn’t worked out for me. Should I deny everything he’s saying and try to prove that I love Hina? I don’t have a lot of strong arguments going for me. If he asks about specific reasons why I love her, I won’t be able to come up with a genuine answer. If I don’t sound sincere, it’ll draw suspicion to Aisha and Ada and Floyd. A risk to both cases. Aisha and Ada should also have experienced first-hand that his accusations are sometimes close to the truth.   If I say everything’s a lie and he’s right about everything, it shouldn’t make Aisha and Ada think that it’s actually false. There is enough gossip floating around in the Castle about Hina and me. We’ve put on plenty of acts in the bedroom that people have started to make fun of us for being so loud. The problem here is more so that Floyd will assume that it’s fake and ask harder questions. It’ll be hard to keep up with all the lies.   The middle ground is the only option, but there’s one small problem. The confession we did in the cafeteria started with Hina declaring her feelings for me. I reciprocated, but maybe it wouldn’t be a surprise if I faked it. On the other hand, things don’t make sense if Hina faked it, and if that becomes known, Captain Citrio might start something again. Then we’re back to square one.   I’ll have to take another hit to my reputation. Better than everything we’ve done collapsing. Our best option might be to forget about the game and try to lose as quickly as possible. This has become more of an interrogation than a game.   Hopefully, Hina catches on what I’m doing. We can’t whisper now, or else my answer will look fake. I’ll leave her some hints. I say, “I love her in the bedroom, but it’s frustrating when she wants to stop before I’m satisfied. I’ve been trying my hardest to grow the small spark I felt for her. I can’t do it if she doesn’t cooperate. The spark has been fading slowly, and I think about breaking it off sometimes.”   “Darling… Are you bein’ serious?” Hina asks as if she’s about to cry. Her acting skills are as good as always.   “Yeah, sorry. I know this isn’t the best time or place to come clean about it,” I say. A few tears drip down her face.   Floyd laughs. Ada and Aisha are talking, but I can’t hear them.   Hina grabs onto one of my hands with both of hers. “I’m sorry for bein’ inadequate. It’s because I still think about Lucius a lot. Please give me more time. I know I’ll come to love you more than him. I’ll try harder.”   I pause for a moment before answering, to seem like I’m considering her offer. “Fine. But next time, you’d better not stop me after only thirty minutes.”   “Okay, Darling. I’ll do anythin’ you want.”   God… I feel like such a scumbag, even though none of this is true. Rumors are going to be the death of me if this ever spreads.    Floyd claps slowly. “How does it feel to know that he doesn’t care about you and solely wants to use you to his satisfaction?”   “A little sad, but I get it. I’ve been selfish. I’ll work harder to win his affection.”   “How about we call it here?” Floyd asks. “I’d hate to have to tear into the both of you after you’ve managed to make amends. You won’t win against me anyway. You know it. I’m saving you the other damages you’d suffer by trying.”   Do we take his offer? I still wanted to ask him what he left to take care of. Nothing would’ve come from it anyway. He’ll make up something, and I won’t be able to tell if it’s true or not. I can’t do the same thing he does.    How does he do it so seamlessly? The ability to pick apart our lies like that. It’s almost like the time with Pem. She had a ridiculously good sense of smell, able to tell whenever I felt nervous or even excited.    I whisper to Hina, “I think we should forfeit.”   “You sure?” she whispers. “I feel bad for Aisha’s team.”   “It’s too risky. Floyd’s extremely perceptive. What if he finds out what we just played out was fake too?” I ask. Or what if he already knows, but he’s playing along? I don’t know. It could be why he suggested it.   “Yeah, let’s give up before it gets any worse,” she whispers.   “Whispering about what you’re going to do to her later?” Floyd asks as I face forward.   I smile and reply, “Of course. We forfeit.”   I expect to take some shit from Ada, especially since we gave up before it was over. Surprisingly, she’s not giving me any nasty looks right now.   “Well, then. As agreed, Aisha and her team will provide certain services until they’ve raised twenty gold coins,” Floyd says. “With at least Aisha performing up to second base, it shouldn’t take more than half a day between all of you.”   “No, I won’t be doing second base anymore,” Aisha says.   Floyd snickers. “What are you scared of? Losing control and doing something you regret? I thought you were strong. Something like this isn’t that big of a deal for you. Resist the urges, and don’t let them overwhelm you.”   “It’s not as simple as that.”   “Of course it isn’t because you’re only pretending. If you were strong, you wouldn’t be insecure, you’d be confident. If you were strong, you wouldn’t let anything phase you no matter what happens to you. Instead of losing control, go all the way from the start. Stop denying what your body craves. Why do other opinions matter?”   “Aisha, forget him. Let’s go,” Ada says.   Aisha doesn’t budge and says, “You don’t understand.”   “I understand clearly. You’re trying to please your parents. You want to preserve the perfect image people have of you. You’re letting others decide how you live your life.”   “No, I took control of my own life. Everything wasn’t just handed to me. I worked for it from the very beginning. My mom wanted me to be a normal housewife, but I wanted to be an Adventurer. She would only allow me to attend the Academy if I showed promise in archery. My father hired a tutor and I trained hard every day. I passed his test with flying colors. I’ve passed every challenge since then and changed their minds about marrying me off to someone else. I’ll make our name famous with my strength.”   Floyd shrugs, smiles, and shakes his head. “You don’t realize what spoiled little girl you are. Everything in your life has gone the way you want, and it’s all because of your family.”   “No, it was all because of me!”   “Without that tutor, you wouldn’t have gotten into the Academy. A true talented Archer could’ve mastered it without any help. I wouldn’t be surprised if your parents had a hand in every one of your so-called challenges. You rely on your family’s support to succeed. That’s why you tried to use their wealth to satisfy the twenty gold coin requirement. When that didn’t work, you tried to use their fame to your advantage. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re sending you money as additional income. I know how scarce money can get in the army. Without them, you’re nothing. You’re weak.”   “Fine! I’ll prove that I’m strong. I’ll overcome this challenge as I’ve always had. Play us again in Tower Wars.”   “What the hell are you doing? This isn’t like you,” Ada says and then puts her hand on Aisha’s shoulder. “It’s fine that we lost. Let’s reconvene with the others and decide what to do next. I don’t want to play again.”   “Listen to her. None of us are gonna participate again,” I say. I agree with Ada for once. Aisha’s letting Floyd get to her too much. She can’t be stupid enough to agree to another twenty gold coin bet. Floyd’s been more aggressive with his words compared to the games we played. I’m not sure if Aisha will listen to us at this point. He’s got her reeled in. “We have information about the auction. We don’t need anything else.”   “Darling’s right. You don’t need to do this,” Hina says.   “You should listen to them. Let them decide what you can or can’t do,” Floyd says with a smirk.”   Aisha brushes off Ada’s hand and then says, “I’ll do this alone if I have to. If I win, you’ll tell us about the snake earring group and negate our twenty gold coin deficit.”   “I don’t have time for more than one more match, so this works for me. You’ll have to take on something of equal risk. Forty gold coins—no, fifty gold coins. Ten extra for my time.”   She can’t be serious about this. Floyd said it would take half a day with Aisha performing up to second base for twenty gold coins. If she loses this, that’s going to be too much to make up. It’s none of my business at this point. If she wants to risk everything, I’ll let her. Ada’s always been bragging about their great teamwork. I’ll see how this plays out.   “Aisha, stop this! This is insane. This isn’t your decision. It’s affecting me, Melody, and Doris. I don’t agree with this and neither would they. Please, let me bring them here so they can talk some sense into you. You’re not seeing this clearly. I’ll be back,” Ada says and then runs off.   “What are you waiting for?” Floyd asks after Ada is out of view. “I don’t have all day. If you’re getting scared, now’s the time to back off. You still have time. Just admit you’re weak.”   “Fine. Let’s do this. I’m going to beat you. You won’t get lucky this time and win by one move,” Aisha says.   “Well then, shall we play?” Floyd asks as he sets up the game.   Ada’s going to be pissed when she finds out that Aisha started without consulting everyone first. This whole game can only end in one way. Aisha’s loss. I’ve always thought that Aisha was the most level-headed person on their team, but look at what’s happened. Has it only been luck that they’ve made it this far?   Then again, Floyd’s on a completely different level. He roped us in taking the twenty gold coin bet by pretending to be bad in the lower value bet. His hostility now makes me doubt the validity of the information he gave us previously. Though, it could’ve all been part of his plan to earn our trust.   I can’t believe he would go through this roundabout way to make himself a little richer. He said business was booming. He didn’t need to go through all that trouble to rob us. Maybe it was for another goal. He’s been aggressively pursuing Aisha. Even in the first game, he didn’t seem to care as much for Ada. He asked normal questions to Ruby and Marin after his return from an urgent matter. And he offered us a way out.   What does he gain from pushing Aisha over the edge? Making their team owe more money means that they’ll have to provide a higher level of service if they want to pay off the debt. He did ask her if she would join him in a private room for 200 gold coins. So, all he wants is to get into her pants? Am I missing something here?   I think of some other possibilities but can’t make sense of anything. Why am I trying to understand a criminal’s actions? There’s no logic in his actions. This could all be his twisted way of having fun.   Aisha starts her game against Floyd.   One thing surprises me about how the game develops. He’s stopped asking the interrogation type questions. He asks the standard questions and has made the best move possible on every move Aisha has made. The game proceeds heavily in his favor. Aisha has 14 hit points against Floyd’s 20.   “This is the real world. See what happens when your parents aren’t in constant support of you?” Floyd asks as Aisha decides on her next move.   Her arms quiver as she tries to decide which Gun to lock in place.   10 hit points against 19. The gap increases. Floyd continues to talk down to her outside of the Examination Phases. Her voice begins to crack when it’s her turn to ask him questions. It’s hard to watch.   “Your parents will be so proud of the strong woman you’ve become.”   7 against 18.   The game’s pretty much over at this point. I don’t want to say anything to interrupt the game in any way. Who knows if Floyd will turn on us when we’ve just escaped his interrogation.   Aisha silently sniffles as some tears escape her eyes. She hasn’t talked back against Floyd a single time.   “You’ve let your emotions cloud your judgment, and now your team pays the price. What a great leader you are.”   5 against 18.   “I-I’m so-sorry,” Aisha says, her crying overwhelming her. “P-please…”   “What’s this now?”   “I’ll gi-give my-myself t-to you. S-so please…”   “In exchange for what?”   “Fi-fifty gold coins.”   Floyd cackles and then says, “Your self-indulgence sees no end.”   “Tw-twenty go-gold coins.”   “How unsightly.”   “Te-ten…”   “You’ll give yourself to me for free unless you want to be thrown away.”   “Wh-what?”   “You’ve been stupid enough to inform me exactly what family you belong to. I’ll tell them in detail about what you’ll do in the coming days.”   “N-no… No!”   “No? Okay, I’ll send a—“   “No, I-I mean I’ll do it.”   “Good. There’s one other thing… The discussion we had earlier about your pay rate is off. You’ll accept my new terms or consider yourself disowned. Don’t worry. I’ll leave your friends out of it. They shouldn’t have to suffer for their incompetent leader.”   “O-okay…”   “You forfeit the game, yes?”   “Yes…”   “Now, I need you to stop crying. Put on a good performance, and you’ll be free to go by the end of tomorrow, but you’ll need to start now. Wait here,” he says and then turns to the rest of us. “I’ll escort the rest of you out of here.”   I feel bad for Aisha. She’s made some stupid decisions this time around, but it happens to everyone. Sometimes, we can’t control our emotions as good as we’d like. She doesn’t deserve to be punished this harshly. There’s nothing we can do for her at this point unless we find a way to come up with a large sum of gold immediately.   “Wait,” Aisha says. “Don’t tell the rest of my team about this. And tell Ada I’m sorry.”   We follow Floyd without saying a word.   “Why’re you doing this?” I ask. Aisha’s far enough out that there’s no longer a risk if Floyd tries to say anything about Hina or me. He doesn’t answer. “Has this anything to do with the thing you left to care of?”   No answer again. No changes in movement either. Not even a flinch.   “Don’t worry about Aisha. I may be a crook, but I have an honor code. She’ll be returned alive,” Floyd says upon arriving at the entrance. “Well, Kai. I hope you enjoy your night with Hina as much as I’ll enjoy mine with Aisha. One last thing, though. I advise you to be careful. My hands are tied on this one. Until next time.”   His hands are tied…? Is that a hint? Why would he say that? It must have something to do with that matter he went to take care of, but he’d planned the whole trick with the game before that. And he’s the boss of the Casino, so no one should hold any authority over him. Even if there were, why would he be forced to take Aisha to bed?   “Well, what now?” Hina asks. “Are we goin’ to wait for the others to arrive here?”   “Yeah, we’d better,” I respond. “Wouldn’t want Ada to barge into the Casino.”   We do just that and wait for the others to arrive.

“How much farther is your transportation?” Kane asks. I wonder myself.  We’ve been walking for what seems like half an hour, but it couldn’t have been that long. If we traveled straight, we would’ve made it by now…or at least I thought we would. I must’ve misjudged how far we went into the forest because of how focused I was on finding the slightest clue to the requests. “Not much farther,” I say confidently while continuing in the same direction. My palms sweat a bit. With my head facing forward, I scan the area in front of me. I’m pretty sure this is the right direction. These tree clusters look kinda familiar too. I want to check my surroundings and make sure that I don’t feel the same about the other trees around me, but don’t want to alert everyone that I might be lost. An idea pops into my head. I’ll pretend like I’m stretching my neck to get a quick glimpse around me. With my left hand on the back of my neck, I turn my head right. Nothing unusual here. I pass my sword over to my other hand and then repeat the stretch for the other side. Suddenly, an arrow. What?! Completely caught off guard, I fall forward, the arrow barely missing. There was no time for me to warn everyone. By the time I hit the ground, screams resound behind me. Marin! Ruby! “Enemy attack! Fall back!” Kane shouts. I try to stand up, but there’re more arrows flying from the same direction. Fire and Earth magic too. I roll farther in the space that was in front of our group even though I don’t want to be split at all. The arrows are pinning me down. Kane’s headed my way with his heavy sword covered in Mana. I appreciate his concern, but I’m more worried about the others. “Kane, forget about me! Protect everyone else!” I exclaim. “What about you?” “I’ll regroup with you guys as soon as I can. Go!” “Alright, don’t die!” Soon, I’m next to a tree. I block an arrow with my sword while standing up before taking cover. The brief moment allows me to see three or four archers. My heart pounds rapidly. These guys must be more of those bandits. They must’ve recognized the adventurers or the hostages they had. It’s gonna be a lot easier this time now that I know who’s who. I need to regroup with the others. I peek my head out, finding that the archers are gone. Damn! I ditch my hiding spot but find the path that I came from blocked by two men, both holding one-handed swords. They’re closing in on me. The archers are running parallel to Kane. Our group seems to be moving farther away. I can’t stay here for too long or I’ll lose them. This won’t be good if there’re more than a dozen of them. Half of us are injured or can’t fight. They’ve got Artificial Magic Weapons too. With no time to waste, I unsheath one of my swords and charge in. The guy on the right shoves the tip of his sword into the ground in front of him. A ball of water appears in front of the guy on the left. I sidestep to the right and continue dashing in. It’s a bit strange how the magic came out since his sword wasn’t pointed at me. The guy on the left steps in front of the other guy. I swing my regular sword first. He parries it and holds my push with both of his hands. Since his weapon seems to shoot Water magic at strange angles, I place my other sword behind mine at the same angle as his. I press the button which envelops the sword in flames. I’ll overpower him in a second. I feel a vibration under me for a moment before something erupts and launches me into the air. My eyes widen. Could an Artificial Magic Weapon really do something like that? “Cedric, now!” one of the two guys shouts. Shit there was one more? I look around. Another one of them beside a tree with his palm facing me. Of course Artificial Magic Weapons can’t do that. “Fireball!” he shouts. A familiar ball of flames heads toward me from his position. I could use my own supply of Mana to block his attack or… I sheath my regular sword and then place the other sword into my right hand because it’s closer to the ball of fire. I press the button to envelop the sword in flames. Since it becomes a magical object, I can protect myself from the Fire magic and let it pass by when I fall. Spikes cover the pillar that launched me into the air and the ground around it. I point my left elbow toward the guy I crossed swords with. I won’t let him do any follow-ups. I exclaim, “Firebolt! Firebolt! Firebolt!” Arrow-shaped flames appear and fly straight to him. He creates clumps of water in my magic’s trajectory. The ball of fire connects with my sword. I keep my arm steady as the magic pushes me back. I let go of the button, slide my sword off, and angle my body horizontally in the air. The flames gently warm the front of my body.  I reposition myself upward after the Fire magic safely passes over me. Conveniently, I didn’t need to use any Mana to avoid the spikes. These guys are much more skilled than the guys we dealt with earlier. Must be their elites. I wasted too much time already. I need to eliminate them quickly. And I’ll use Rich Mana for it. I draw my other sword before landing on the ground. The shock from landing keeps me from moving immediately. The Water and Earth guys charge at me from the front. The other guy is trying to flank my right side. My sword clangs with each one of theirs in front. Even though having the keyword bound to my elbow is annoying sometimes because of limited angles, but times like this is useful. I point my right elbow toward the Fire guy while still keeping my weapons connected to the two swords in front. I move Rich Mana to my right elbow and then exclaim, “Fireball!” Rich Mana intensity flames in the shape of a ball appear from my right elbow. The Fire guy screams for a few seconds before going quiet. “Cedric!” the Water guy exclaims. Suddenly, both of them aren’t putting as much strength into their weapons. I overpower them and knock them back. I have no idea why they’re losing focus in the middle of a battle. I can understand losing someone close to you but I don’t feel sorry for him because of his background and the things he’s done. He points both of his palms toward me. Water magic? I sidestep to the left. “Wait, this is a mistake!” “What mistake? I’m stronger than you originally thought?” “No! Because I thought you were—“ I slice his throat before he can finish. I don’t care about his reasons. There’re no good reasons for ambushing a group of people out of the blue. The Earth user must’ve run away. I head in the direction where I last saw the others. I hope they’re okay. There’re a lot of screams and loud noises in the distance. The Earth guy’s actually going in this direction too. While I really want to regroup with everyone else, a short detour wouldn’t hurt. Better to take him out now before he becomes a headache later. I run toward him instead. I break down some Unrefined Mana into Scrap Mana. I move a large amount of Scrap Mana into my lower body and core muscles in the same ratio as earlier, immediately activating the Mana to strengthen them. “Don’t kill me! You’re making a mistake!” he exclaims while still running. The gap between us closes fast. I’m not making any mistakes. Just getting rid of someone bound to take more innocent lives down the road. “We didn’t mean to target you! That’s why I’m going to alert the boss. I’m trying to help!” Didn’t mean to target us? We’re clearly from the army. The gap between us is already closed. I don’t need to answer him, but his poor excuse arouses feelings of anger. “Trying to help? You’re only trying to save yourselves.” “No, it’s for both of—ahh!”   He falls from the cut across the back I gave him. I stand over him about to plunge one of my blades through his neck. “I don’t want to die, I’m sorry!” I hesitate a moment, but this could be his game plan. To buy as much time as possible for whatever’s happening with my platoon and the others. When I think about how my sluggishness resulted in tragedy before, I easily finish the motion and pierce his throat. I sigh and slash the blood off. I’d better get—   “Shotgun!” someone shouts. Dozens of small spherical rocks fly toward me. It’s everywhere. There’s no time to dodge. I cover my face with my arms. A heavy blunt force hits the back of my right hand. Massive pain radiates from it. It goes numb. Several rocks shatter on my armor. No force behind them. Something blue comes out of the rocks. Mana? No. It feels cold around the center of my body. The barrage ends. I put my arms down. A large rock flying my way. I try to move out of the way, but I can’t. My feet are encased in ice frozen to the ground. What? I shake my head. The grip on my right hand’s weak, so I can’t block the rock with it. There’s not enough time to release Mana to block it either. I hold my left sword its way. The rock connects with my sword, but there’s hardly a force behind it. It splits in half as if it was made out of paper. Water inside spills on me. I close my eyes. “Ahh!” I scream. It feels like my right hand’s on fire and the center of my body burns up. “It hurts!” The water got onto my face, but that part feels fine. I don’t know what’s going on. I prepare some instructions for my Mana to create some fire to melt this ice surrounding my feet. “Cedric, Jesper, and Ivar felt worse pain than you,” someone says. He’s close. I open my eyes, but I can’t see clearly because the water gets into my eyes. He’s close enough to grab both of my swords. It looks like his hands are made out of stone. I gulp. He jumps in the air while still holding onto my swords. He kicks me in the center of my armor and exclaims, “Burst!” A tremendous force hits me. The right sword’s yanked out of my hand. I struggle but lose the grip on the other sword too. I crash through at least two trees, finally landing on the ground and rolling several meters. I cough and groan. It hurts everywhere. There’re two giant rocks headed my way from opposite directions. I focus my eyes. It’s just one coming from the sky and it’s almost here. I release as much Mana as I can from my palms before it squishes me. A loud noise resounds as the gigantic rock makes contact with my Mana. Coincidentally, it rolls onto the ground next to me since my Mana formed a slanted wall. My heart’s pounding. I was forced to use my Mana…did he see? There doesn’t seem to be anyone around. I sigh. The center of my armor has two severely chipped areas, probably where he kicked me. A big red blister’s located on the back of my right hand. Moving any of my fingers even slightly causes pain. The ice surrounding my feet are gone. I shiver. How’s this guy using ice magic? I think back to Emdos. My first thought is that this guy’s using Water magic to do it, but that’s impossible. The attack he did with the small rocks. There were no water inside them, but it felt cold when it hit me. The blue thing. It wasn’t Mana and it wasn’t Water magic… That guy’s ridiculously strong. Where’d he…come from? I recall that he said Cedric. The name of the Fire user from earlier. That means he was with everyone else! And he’s here now… I force myself to get up, even though it hurts. I probably broke something. The worst case scenario appears in my head, but I refuse to believe it. Even the slightest chance that Marin and Ruby are still alive, I’ve gotta get moving. I walk in the direction where I was blown away. I reach the point where that guy appeared. Both of my swords left on the ground. There’s someone knelt down next to the two guys I killed. Must be the guy who attacked me. A surprise attack on him is my best shot of beating him. I slowly walk closer to him. He probably thinks I’m dead. Do I use the Rich Mana fireball on him? No, he can probably avoid it or counter it with his own magic. I think back to his Hybrid magic with the water inside the stone. I don’t know why the stone was so soft. I could use Hybrid magic but how would that work with Void magic? How would I do it in a way that my magic isn’t revealed? I have no idea. The only thing I can do is Layered magic; using different Mana types in one attack. I’ll use a ball of fire with all Mana strengths, the strongest in the center. Using all of my Fire Affinity available. I break down my Unrefined Mana into Scrap Mana since I used up all of it on my Enhancement magic which is still active. I start writing the instructions immediately. I make sure to match the speed of all the separate Mana types to be the same. It would be better to hit him from a different angle, but it would take longer to program. I don’t know how much longer he’ll be knelt down. He won’t expect anything from this direction since he thinks I’m dead anyway. Eventually, I finish my instructions and send out the Mana for immediate activation upon arrival to its destination. Moments later, a girl comes from somewhere and walks toward the two bodies and the guy. I widen my eyes. It’s Ariane. I limp toward them as fast as I can. “Ariane, get out of the way, quickly!” Ariane turns around and so does the unknown man. That face I recognize. Ragnar. He knits his eyebrows. Ariane still hasn’t moved out of the way. “You’re that boy from back then?” My Layered magic activates. I point and exclaim, “Watch out!” Ragnar turns to my ball of fire and shouts, “Stone cube!” A big cubed-shaped rock appears in front of him. “Get out of the way! That’s not enough to stop it!” Ariane kneels down to one of the two men on the ground. Ragnar replies, “This will work. You’ve utilized Rich Mana inside, right?” The fireball makes the initial contact with the cube and crackles resound. “How’d you know?” “Because you were able to survive,” he answers. The fireball moves into the cube at a faster pace than before. The outer parts of the of the fireball disappear pieces at a time. “The only way was by utilizing Rich Mana.” I can’t tell him that I used something stronger than Rich Mana. I bite my lip before yelling, “It’s not enough! Get outta the way while you still can!” “It’s okay. Earth is the most stubborn Evocation magic. We’re not leaving Cedric.” Cedric…? I killed him with my Fire magic… The hole left in the stone cube Ragnar summoned decreases in size as the ball of fire tears its way through. Damn, it’s only a matter of time! “What?!” Ragnar exclaims. I knew at this point the strongest layer has ripped its way through, although the weaker layers of the magic are still interacting with the rock from my side. He doesn’t move out of the way. He screams, “Ariane, get back, quickly!” I can’t see what’s happening. I walk as fast as I can to a better angle. A green glow emanates from Ariane’s palms.  She’s using Healing magic on Cedric’s face. She says, “I can’t stop now. This is the crucial moment.” Ragnar’s knelt down and water flows from his palms. Steam rises from the point of impact with my magic. The fireball has almost reached him. Another stone wall appears between him and my magic with water still spewing from his palms. The water gathers in a clump behind the wall. Water stops flowing from his hands. My magic rips through the wall and begins turning the clump of water into steam rapidly. “Arctic Winds!” Small streaks of blue shoot out of his palms toward the clumped up water. The same blue I saw earlier. The water next to the ball of fire stops turning into steam. The small portion of the clumped water remaining turns into ice. But my magic shows no change in size. The ice disappears and the fireball picks up in speed again. The entire thing seems to fade away nearly at once before it reaches Ragnar. What the hell happened?   Ragnar pants and falls forward. He extends his arms before hitting the ground. “You’ve got some really strong magic.” “Uh…thanks,” I answer, even though he was trying to kill me moments ago. Wait. If this is Ragnar and Ariane was with him, why’d Ragnar ambush us? Ragnar’s actually bad and Ariane’s okay with it? Ragnar stands up and says, “I apologize for attacking you. You’re part of the army, right?” “Couldn’t you have known that from the way we were dressed? Anyone could’ve known that immediately.” He sighs. “It’s a long story. I need to warn everyone else first.” “Kai!” Ruby exclaims. I turn around. Marin’s with her. I smile. They made it out alive. But just those two? Seeing how the family of four isn’t present, there must be more with them. “Glad you’re okay Ruby. What happened over there?” I ask. “We got separated from everyone but we protected the family!” Ruby exclaims while running to me. She examines me top to bottom. “Who did this ta ya Kai?” Knowing her, I’ve gotta be very careful how I answer or else she might attack Ragnar. I should avoid telling Ruby right now that the bad guys this time weren’t actually bad guys. In her eyes, these guys are probably bad and she won’t change her mind. I’d like to avoid a confrontation between her and Ragnar. “It doesn’t matter. I’m gonna be fine. I found Ragnar and Ariane, so can you tell everyone else to meet us here?” “’Kay!” she exclaims and runs off in the other direction. Since Marin doesn’t seem to be worried at all, I presume that the rest of Ragnar’s group’s either dead or subdued. Ragnar’s still here, so he must’ve thought the same. I’ll verify it for the both of us since Ragnar’s in no position to ask here. “So, what happened to everyone who attacked you guys?” I ask. “Dead,” Marin answers. Ragnar falls to his knees. “Damn… I shouldn’t have left them alone over there,” he mutters. “So this is where our dream ends…” “How’re you really feeling, Kai?” Marin asks. I sigh. “Not too good. I think I broke something.” “You can tell me what happened since Ruby isn’t here anymore too.” “Yeah. Well first, there were three guys that I…” I think back to the latter two. How I killed them when they practically were doing nothing. I was wrong about them, but it wasn’t my fault. It was the right choice at that time, but it was the wrong choice. I stop thinking about it. “...killed and then Ragnar came and attacked me for revenge. I didn’t see his face until after all the damage was done and realized who he was.” Marin stares into my eyes intently. “What else happened?” I look away. “What do you mean?” “There’s that weird rock with that hole in it.” Damn, there’s no way out of this one. I left it out on purpose to not bring up the question of how I planned my ambush on Ragnar. She wouldn’t possibly believe that after the attacks he pulled off me, he wouldn’t be able to handle my Rich Mana special. Plus, there’re clearly four differently shaped dents into this rock by examining the front of it. I knew I might have to tell someone about my Mana eventually, but to as few people as possible. Ragnar might’ve figured it out knowing his skill with magic. I still can’t believe he stopped my magic.  “I’ll tell you later, okay?” “That’s a promise,” she says with a smile. I face Ragnar. “I think it’s time you tell us the story.” He sighs. “It’s been my lifelong dream to explore the world as an Adventurer like my parents did. I’ve never met my parents because they were doing that until they met their end, but it must mean the world was that interesting. The village never allowed anyone to go to the Academy because of my parents’ and many other deaths. So, I learned magic on my on my own in hopes of eventually leaving the village. “I finally left two years ago, eventually finding like-minded people. None of us had Adventurer licenses but we convinced people to allow us to complete their requests. We gradually built up a reputation and more people trusted us. Recently, other groups of people have started mimicking our actions, but with no good intent. We didn’t want the city folk to think poorly of us because of hoodlums giving us a bad name. “We recruited a few members a week ago to collect supplies around this area.” “Wait,” I interject. It sounds like an exact match from request one. Except Ragnar’s the one who recruited the missing person. “Do you know if you recruited someone who dropped out of the Academy to open his own restaurant?” Ragnar cocks an eyebrow. “Yes…that’s Henry. He was an amazing cook.” His tone gives me a bad feeling. Don’t tell me… He was part of this attack group? I ask, “What happened to him?” “Well, during our search for supplies, we found someone barely alive. He told us what happened. A bandit group killed a group of army soldiers and looted their equipment. We went back after collecting supplies. Also didn’t want to endanger anyone who didn’t want to take part in looking for those bandits. We knew they had Artificial Magic Weapons in hand. Henry was one of the members who wanted to help find those bandits. The same day, we took a request to find two former Adventurer group members.” I really don’t like where this is going. The person from the second request did mention that he couldn’t trust whoever offered help. It ended up being Ragnar’s group. “So we’ve been in this area searching since then. Our searches haven’t turned up anything, but a scout found a family of four tangled up with some bandits an hour ago. We searched for them and we found…you. We mistook you for bandits because soldiers don’t use Artificial Magic Weapons and we saw you carry a whole batch of them with you. There was also the family of four we saw earlier.” Something still doesn’t make sense about the last words of the last two guys I killed. They said it was a mistake only after I used my Rich Mana special. And Ragnar said something similar. “Why’d it only matter that I used Rich Mana before you decided you made a mistake?” “The ones who killed the soldiers originally also knew how to use magic. It’s not unusual that some bandits around here to be able to use Unrefined Mana, but I’ve never bumped into someone who could use Rich Mana.” “Didn’t you used to be a bandit, technically? Your village still has a bounty on your head.” Ragnar tilts his head down. “You’re right.” “Most soldiers that I’ve seen in the army can’t even use magic at all,” I add. “You’re right… It was my mistake. Everything. I should’ve never left the village.” “I’ve done all I can,” Ariane says. Ragnar stands up and walks over to her and Jesper. “How is he?” he asks. “He’s hanging on, but I’m not sure how much longer,” she says and then stands up. She walks over to me. “Your injuries are quite serious. Let me take care of that.” “No…” I interject and look away. I was the one who caused their friend’s injuries. I don’t deserve to be healed. “I’m fine. It’s not that serious.” “You don’t have to feel bad about Cedric. It was a misunderstanding. I’m sorry about any of your losses too.” I just remember. I’m not sure who else made it out alive from my side. “You bastard!”Jetia shouts. He dashes toward us, sword in hand. There’s only one thing he could be thinking in this situation. I still have one sword left on me I can stop him with. I unsheath it and stand between Ragnar and Jetia. “Kai get out of the way!” “Jetia, it’s a misunderstanding. I’m ordering you to stop or I’ll make you stop.” I tightly grip my sword. He’s not stopping but doesn’t seem like he’ll attack me. I don’t like him, but at least he follows the rules. He doesn’t like me either, but rules are rules. “There’s no misunderstanding! He killed Dano and Banni!” he exclaims and then stops in front of me. His furrowed eyebrows twitching. “I won’t forgive him!” “I understand, but I killed close friends of his too. He could have killed me, but he’s not anymore because he realized it was a misunderstanding. He’s lost more since you guys cleared out everyone, right?” I assume his silence means yes. “He’s going to come quietly with us back to Beltan. The village should decide what to do with him, and we still get our reward.” Jetia clicks his tongue and sheaths his sword. “Fine. Have it your way. We’re at least going to give them a proper burial.” “Thanks for defending Ragnar,” Ariane says. “Just doing what’s right. I don’t need healing now, but I’ll accept it later.” I sheath my sword. Looks like Ruby brought everyone else over. This can’t be everyone. Only Vicki and the family of four are present. I shake my head. Kane didn’t make it, even though he told me to not die. But now we don’t have anyone that knows where the bandit hideout is. This is a disaster. And where’s Kama? Jetia didn’t mention him and I thought they were close. “Kai! I brought everyone!” Ruby exclaims as she runs over to me. “Good job. What happened to Kama?” “Hmm… I think I saw ‘im run away.” “What? Kama…ran…away?” “Yep.” I pinch the skin between my eyes. Run away when everyone else is still fighting? How can anyone think to do that? Unbelievable. “Where’s he now?” “I dunno,” Ruby answers and shrugs her shoulders. “Okay. We’re not going to look for him now. We’ll bury everyone first, and then we’ll leave. I trust that you’re not going to run, right?” “I’m not going anywhere. If you don’t mind, I want to help with the burials. I have my own over there as well.” “That’s fine,” I answer. “Ruby, can you lead us to the bodies?” “Yep!” she exclaims and runs off. I walk past the family. “This is horrible. I’m so sorry. This was all because of us,” the man says. “It’s not your fault. I hope you don’t mind that it’ll be a little longer until we take you back to Drymo.” “We’ll be fine.” I follow Ruby. Everyone else follows. We reach the bloody battlefield. Ragnar quickly buries the bodies under the earth using his Earth magic. He leaves out Dano and Banni. They don’t appear to be any more injured than I last saw them. Asking how they died seems inappropriate here, so I don’t. Marin leaves two holes big enough to fit them using her magic. I guess I’ll give them a few words. I stand over next to Dano. But what do I say? I don’t know anything about him. “Well, Dano was a man who—“ “His name’s Banni. You stupid monkey.” Jetia asks. My face burns up. Ruby giggles. I’m so stupid… Even after I scolded Ruby for not remembering their names. I’m not sure if I’m confusing one for the other now.“Banni…well…he… Umm…” “Yer done,” Jetia says and shoves me aside. “Go somewhere else. I’m taking over.” Marin smiles. I smile and shrug before walking over to Ragnar and Ariane. This works better for me. I have a lot of questions for Ragnar. Maybe he can teach me some magic tricks. “Ruby, you should stay here,” Marin whispers. “Fine…” Ruby says. Ariane hugs Ragnar. I stop walking, though I’m already pretty close. Ragnar hugs her back. Feels awkward. I clear my throat. “Sorry to interrupt…but I have a few questions for Ragnar.” They keep their hands on each other and only turn their heads toward me. Ragnar asks, “Can this wait until we get back to the village? I’ll be executed there, but I’ll answer anything before I am.” “You’re not going to be executed… I won’t let it happen. I can talk to mom and dad. They can talk to the chief,” Ariane says.  “You can answer his questions. He’s the one who saved mom and dad over a year ago.” Ariane pulls away but Ragnar pulls her back in. “I don’t want to be separated from you anymore.” “I don’t either.” “Kai, right?” Ragnar asks. “Yeah.” “I’ll answer your questions. I owe you one for back then.” “What’re you talking about?” I ask. “Those men you saved Ariane’s parents from were one of my own. I didn’t deal with them properly.” “I see… Well, I have a few questions. First, what’s that blue-colored magic you used on me? It felt cold.” “It’s Fire magic. Didn’t you study at the Academy?” “Pardon…? Fire magic? I did go to the Academy, but…they didn’t teach that…” “It uses the same Affinity to use. It’s Fire. After bonding your Mana to Fire Affinity, make it colder instead of hotter.” “Make it colder? That’s impossible… The special property of Fire is the heat. You can’t change the special property.” “Special property? I don’t know anything about that. When I first learned how to use Fire magic, I could only make it hot. But later, I managed to make it cold. It became blue when it did. I can try to walk you through the feeling later.” I smile. “That would be great! How’d you make the rock soft? The one with water inside.” “It’s the same feeling as how to make Fire magic cold. It’s something I learned how to do later.” “So it’s more advanced?” “You could say that.” Amazing. This means that I’ll be able to use something more than Fire magic! Well, it’s still only Fire magic…and I have Void magic too. How should I ask him the next question? I can’t exactly ask him how he stopped my Fire magic with my Mana inside. I could rephrase the question in a way that I get an indirect answer. Footsteps nearby. Sounds like one person. It’s Kama. “Kama, where the hell have you been?” I ask. “Kai, I’m glad to see—Oh no!” he exclaims and then runs away in the direction he came from. What the hell? I chase after him. “Hey! Get back here!” “That guy’s dangerous! You should get away from him too!” Kama exclaims while still running away. Must be talking about Ragnar. “No, it’s all just a misunderstanding! He’s not going to harm you now! Stop running!” I exclaim. He doesn’t stop. This is such a pain. I catch up to him immediately since he’s not very fast and I have my Enhancement magic on my legs. I tackle him. I stand up and then ask,  “Why do you keep running? How can you abandon everyone in the middle of a fight?” He turns his body around so it faces me. “I was scared. I’m still scared. I don’t want to die.” “I’ve just had about enough of you and your selfishness. Half-assing training and complaining about being weak is one thing, but running away just because you’re scared? How can you just leave everyone behind when they’re still fighting? Everyone else would die trying to protect you with their lives. That’s the unwritten rule of working as a team. If you didn’t run, Dano and Banni might still be alive. Your friend would be ashamed.” Kama springs back up. “What the hell do you know, Kai?! Calling me weak and selfish. I watched Dano and Banni die! I was completely helpless in whatever that guy did. Of course I ran! I was completely helpless and would’ve died if I didn’t run! And you know what? None of this would’ve happened if you weren’t so insistent on taking on so many requests at once! None of this would’ve happened if you cared enough to train us yourself! Not everyone is as talented as you. I’ve had enough of your selfishness and arrogance. I thought that your recklessness might get me killed one day and it almost did. It killed Banni and Dano. Their deaths are on you and you alone.” I open my mouth to say something, but I don’t. I don’t know how to respond to that. I’ve never seen Kama get so worked up before. But he’s right. Dano and Banni would still be alive if I never decided to take on so many requests. They might’ve faired a bit better in combat if I had focused my efforts on training them instead of myself. I expected everyone to be trying their hardest in their own way, but I was wrong to think that. These aren’t the Academy days. “Look, I’m sorry. I’ll—“ “No, you’re not. And whatever you’re going to say, don’t. As soon as we get back to the Castle, I’m leaving the platoon,” he says and then walks away in the direction we came from. I grit my teeth and fists. It feels like there’s a lump at the back of my throat. What the hell’s up with that? First, he was scared and then angry. I was going to offer to train him every day. Training from me. Interrupting me and saying he’s leaving the platoon. He’s going to turn back on his team again? No one would care if someone like that left anyway…or died. No one would see or hear if I do it swiftly. I take out my sword and follow quickly behind Kama. I stare at the back of his neck at the exact spot I plan to stab him through. It’ll be quick. Suddenly, I lose my balance and fall forward. The Scrap Mana that was instructed to augment my lower body ran out. I stand back up. Kama now farther in the distance. Why’d I want to kill him again? I couldn’t have been that angry. I don’t know what I was thinking. It was a good thing that my Enhancement magic ran out. I sheath my sword. I look around. For some reason, I feel like someone’s watching me. Could it be more of those bandits we encountered earlier? The only thing around me are trees and stray monsters. The reality hits me again. Everyone from Kane’s group’s gone… Which means we failed the second request and the third request. We have no leads for the bandit hideout. Ragnar’s group is wiped out too. The missing husband, Henry, gone. Under the circumstances, it couldn’t be helped.  But it’s not all lost. We came back with Ariane and Ragnar. The family of four too. And the Artificial Magic Weapons. We have fewer arms to carry them with, but it’ll weigh out some of our losses. I hurry up and rejoin with the others. “There he is. Our great leader. Did you get lost?” Jetia asks. “Let’s get out of here already.” “Not yet. I need everyone to pick up the Artificial Magic Weapons again to carry back to our transportation,” I say. By Kama, Vicki, and Jetia frowns. “We may have made a few mistakes and failed the requests, but we can still balance it out a little with the value of those weapons.” “I’m not carrying anything back,” Kama says. “Sorry, Kai. I’m too tired,” Vicki says. “Forget about the weapons. It’s about time you paid for your stupidity,” Jetia says with a smile. He just wants to see me demoted as soon as possible. I’ve no doubt that I’ll be demoted to Corporal again, but he seems to have forgotten about the punishment. That’s for the whole platoon. “I’ll be able to help with that,” Ragnar says. “It’s the least I could do.” “I’ll appreciate it if you can take one or two lying around,” I say. “I’ll take all of them.” I knit my eyebrows. Several seconds later, something made out of stone appears in front of him. It looks like a wagon, but can it move? “Put everything in here. After a few adjustments, we’ll be able to move it over to your transport.” “If you say so,” I say. We gather the Artificial Magic Weapons around us and put them in the stone wagon Ragnar created. Somehow, it’s able to move as if it was an ordinary wagon. I lead everyone back to the transportation. Ragnar and Ariane take a small detour for Cedric. I haul the weapons on the wagon to our transportation. Ragnar and Ariane following closely behind. Ariane, Ragnar, and Cedric join Marin, Ruby, and me on the first wagon. Ariane heals my injuries on our way back to Beltan. I also inform her of the request we accepted. The gate opens for us before we get there. “Ragnar?!” one of the guards at the gate exclaim. “Alert the chief!” “Got it!” the other one says and then runs into the village. We go in as well and head to Ariane’s house. Her parents are waiting outside. Several guards tail us from behind. Many of the villagers’ eyes are on us. “Ragnar, let go of Ariane at once!” Ariane’s father exclaims. Ariane hops off the wagon. I follow her. “No, dad! You’re misunderstanding. Ragnar isn’t holding me hostage.” “What are you talking about?” “I heard from Kai. You told him I was kidnapped, but I wasn’t!” “If you weren’t kidnapped, then what happened? You randomly decided to leave and you came back with Ragnar?” “Ragnar came during the night. He asked me if I wanted to go with him. I went with him.” “He threatened you, of course you’d go with him.” “No, dad. He didn’t threaten me. I went with him out of my own accord.” “He brainwashed you. There’s no other reason why you would go with him.” “Why can’t you accept that I wanted to go with him? “Because your life is better here. Out there, you have no certainty about the future. You could die at any time.” “You exiled him from the village without telling me first. There was no other way I could be with him.” “Well, you’re not going to live a life out there, and that’s final.” “I’m not going to leave the village again. Ragnar will stay in the village too.” “That’s impossible. He’s definitely going to be executed for his crimes.” “No! Please, dad. Don’t let them execute him. He hasn’t done anything wrong. Anything you think he did is a misunderstanding. Please trust me on this.” “How can I trust you? We’ve told you to never use your magic and you said you won’t, but always break that promise.” “You’re right, and I’m sorry. Ragnar and I will never use magic again, so please. Give him a chance. If either of us use magic again, you can do whatever you want with Ragnar, and I’ll do everything you say.” “Why would you go so far for him? What’s your plan?” “I don’t have a plan. I just…love him. I can’t live a life without him. So, please…don’t take him away from me.” He crosses his arms, frowns, and closes his eyes for several seconds. He opens them and answers, “You’re not seeing clearly because you’re in love with him.” “You’re the one not seeing clearly because of your misunderstanding.” Ariane turns toward her mother. “Mom, say something to dad.” “Sorry, Ariane. I’m with your father on this one. He tried to have us killed over a year ago.” Four guards and an old man approach us. Ragnar hops off the wagon. Ariane continues, “I’m telling you, that was a misunderstanding! It wasn’t Ragnar who told them to do that!” “So it is true. Ragnar was captured,” the old man says. The guards surround Ragnar. “I am glad you are unharmed, Ariane.” “Thank god you’re here chief. Take him away,” Ariane’s father says. Ariane exclaims, “No, wait! Chief, please listen to what I have to say. Ragnar is innocent.” “What do you mean? Were you not kidnapped and held hostage by him?” the chief asks. “Of course she was, she’s been brainwashed by Ragnar,” Ariane’s father says. Ariane takes a deep breath. “I wasn’t kidnapped, chief. Besides, isn’t it strange that Ragnar isn’t putting up a fight? If he wanted to kill you, he could. There’s nothing stopping him. Isn’t that worth something? Please listen to my side of the story. I know what he’s been up to and what happened before he was exiled.” “Okay. I will give him a chance,” the chief says. “But chief—“ “Enough. We will discuss with everyone and get the facts straight. We will hear Ragnar’s and Ariane’s sides of the story before deciding. Let us go now.” “Yes!” Ariane exclaims. “Thank you chief. Isn’t that great, Ragnar?” “Yeah… Thank you for giving me a chance, sir,” Ragnar says. “Just one thing. There’s a badly injured man in the back of this wagon. Please help him.” “Do not worry about him. I will have someone bring a doctor to him,” the chief says. “Now, come with us. We have a lot to discuss.” “I almost forgot,” Ariane’s father says as he turns to me. “Sergeant Kai, thank you for bringing our daughter home. We’ll have to give you your reward for bringing Ariane home later. Enjoy your stay at the village until then.” “No problem. Glad to be of assistance,” I answer. With that, Ariane and her parents leave with Ragnar and the others in the direction the chief came from. I sigh. It’s been a long day. My stomach growls. “Marin, Ruby, do you guys wanna find something to eat?” “Sure. Ruby’s asleep, though. Let’s leave her be.” “Still? She must’ve been doing some tiring training earlier in the day,” I respond. I wish I could say the same for everyone else. Marin hops off the wagon. “Shouldn’t we invite everyone else?” I look away, feeling hesitant considering what happened earlier with Jetia and Kama. “Uh, yeah…if you want.” “Did something happen with Kama? You’re acting strangely.” “It’s nothing, really.” I don’t know what she’ll think if I tell her that I almost killed Kama in a fit of anger. “Go ahead and invite everyone else. I think it’s better if you ask.” “Okay,” she answers and then walks toward the wagon behind ours. She comes back in a minute. “They’re tired and want to rest for a while longer. They’ll look for somewhere to eat with the family.” “I see.” “So, that means…it’s just us,” Marin says with a smile. She brushes her fingers on the back of my hand. I gulp. “Yeah… Let’s find something quick then. I’m starving,” I say while walking deeper into the village. We don’t look around for that long. We sit down at an outdoor bar with seats since there’s no one else here. “Welcome!” a man greets us. “Oh, you’re from the army, right? The ones who saved Ariane?” “We didn’t exactly save her, but we brought her back,” I explain. “Everyone’s glad that she’s back. This one’s on the house for me. What can I get you two?” “I’d love something with soup that can fill me up,” I say. “I’ll have what he has,” Marin says. “Comin’ right up,” he says and then turns around. A full kitchen behind him. “So…tell me what happened between you and Kama back there.” I sigh. “I don’t know. I guess I kinda blew up on him. All my frustrations with his lack of drive and desire to get stronger. He’s so complacent with his training when he needs to get stronger. And I just couldn’t understand why he would run away in the middle of a fight, leaving everyone behind. That kinda behavior’s unacceptable. I think I let those feelings overpowered me. I said things I shouldn’t have and blamed him for Dano and Banni’s deaths. “And, well…he didn’t take it too well. He shouted back. I’ve never seen him so angry. Said everything’s my fault. That I’m selfish and responsible for Dano and Banni’s deaths. And he’s right. I decided on my own that I wanted to get stronger and reach my goal as soon as possible. And that means taking on as many risks as possible. Not everyone wants that.” “I understand. It’s okay to be selfish, Kai. It’s not your fault Dano and Banni passed away. They chose to come with us. It was an unlucky misunderstanding with Ragnar. You should make up with him.” “It’s too late for that. He said he was going to leave the platoon as soon as we get back.” “You can still make up. He might change his mind.” “Yeah, I could…but I’m just frustrated. I wish everyone could see eye-to-eye with me. Like in the old days, everyone worked toward the same goal in mind,” I say, my eyes feeling watery. “I’m sick of what our team’s become. It feels like everyone’s working against me. That I have to do it all myself to get anything done.” “You can rely on me and Ruby if you tell us. You can’t blame the others for being that way. They weren’t adventurers…and they haven’t spent their lives fighting. You need to be more open to them and maybe they’ll understand.” “Okay, I’ll do that from now on. By the way, did you see how they died?” “Dano and Banni? I’m not sure. It looked like they were drowning, but I didn’t see any Water magic. Ragnar did something.” “I see. Ragnar’s something else. He’s so strong and he didn’t even go to the Academy. He can make Fire magic freezing cold and Earth magic soft.” “What? Earth magic soft? Like dirt?” “No, he made stone as soft as a thin piece of paper. I don’t know. He said it was the same concept as making cold fire.” “That sounds impossible… He’s changing the special properties of the Fire and Earth magic.” “I know, right? The fire changed colors to blue too. I’m hoping he can teach us…but this village definitely won’t let him use magic again.” “That’s disappointing… I’m going to try writing instructions to make soft rock later.” “And I’m going to try making cold fire. I can’t believe I have so much more to learn. It’s exciting.” “Food’s ready,” the man comes back with two bowls and sets them on the bar in front of us. “Enjoy.” My the inside of my mouth waters excessively. Looks like noodles in some soup with meat and other stuff inside. As long as it’s soup, I don’t care. I start digging in. “Nooo,” a kid whines. “I wanna go to the Academy! I wanna learn magic. I won’t move until you agree to let me go!” “No, you don’t want to do that,” a woman says. “But I just said I do!” “Do you want to be like Sofiel?” I stop gulping down my food. Sofiel? I turn around, finding a woman talking to a small girl lying on the ground. “Who’s Sofiel?” “A girl who wanted to learn magic too.” “Tell me more about her!” I shake my head and turn back around to eat my food. “Okay, pay close attention. Sofiel was a girl from another village. She was one of many who admired the adventurers who passed through. Since she knew the village wouldn’t let her go to the Academy, she snuck out. Reaching the Academy and eventually graduating. She went on countless adventures hunting monsters with her magic. Her friends were delighted by the presents she brought. “Until one day, Sofiel stayed overnight at the village. Screams woke her up, and she smelled blood. Monsters invaded the village. Upright monsters she’d never seen before. She took her weapon and killed them all. But something was strange. They were weaker than any monster she fought before. There were no signs of any villagers anywhere. She only found the body of monsters. “Sofiel noticed something strange on one of the bodies. It was a necklace she bought for a friend. She walked closer to it and saw a reflection of something on a window. Long sharp fangs, red eyes, and spikes coming out of the skin. She screamed and turned around, but there was no one else. The monster on the ground wasn’t a monster at all. It was her friend. She looked at the window again. The monster was her all along. Sofiel realized she used so much magic, she had become a monster herself. The guilt of murdering the village overcame her. She summoned all her magic one last time. The same magic she used to kill monsters. Because she was a monster, she killed herself. “Do you still want to go to the Academy?” “No! I don’t wanna become a monster! That sounds scary!” The woman laughs. “It is scary, so never learn how to use magic unless you want to be like Sofiel, okay?” “Okay! I don’t wanna go to the Academy anymore.” “Good. Let’s hurry on to dinner.” “Okay!” Ridiculous. This must be the village folklore Ariane’s father was talking about. Using too much magic turns you into a monster? Heh. These noodles are something else, though. “I wonder what Sofiel’s doing now,” Marin asks. “Who knows. I hope she made it out and found somewhere to stay. It’s dangerous outside the city. We don’t know if she didn’t get attacked by monsters.” “I’m sure she’s fine. We could meet her one day at one of these villages.” “Maybe.” Footsteps resound rapidly behind us. “Sergeant Kai?” I turn around. A guard. I answer, “Yeah, what’s wrong?” “I need you to come with me. The chief has almost reached a decision regarding Ragnar. He requested your presence along with everyone in your platoon.” “Okay.” I turn to the man who made us food for a  moment. “Thanks for the food. It was delicious.” “Any time!” I follow the guard. We arrive at a house. Inside are the old man from earlier, Ariane, Ariane’s parents, and several other faces I don’t know. Jetia, Vicki, and Kama are here too, but not Ruby. “Now that everyone is here. From my understanding, Ragnar has killed two members of your platoon, correct?” “I think so,” I answer. “Ragnar killed them. I saw it,” Jetia says. “We have reached our own verdict. We cleared up the misunderstandings and will let him back into the village. His bounty is void, but we will give you a partial reward. First, we will let you decide what to do with him since he has taken your own. Do you wish to forgive him or do you want to punish him? Since you are the leader, you will decide, Sergeant Kai.” “Don’t forgive that bastard, Kai! Kill him! Get revenge for Dano and Banni!” Jetia exclaims. But I already have my answer. I want Ariane to be happy and to learn magic from him. Killing him is the last thing I want to do. I need to ask him if he knows about my Mana and how he stopped it. “I’ll forgive him. Everything was a misunderstanding anyway,” I answer. “I should’ve known you were going to do that,” Jetia says with anger. “Figures, since you don’t even know their names. Their deaths haven’t affected you at all.” Their deaths have affected me, but I don’t want to cause a scene here. I don’t respond. “It is settled then. I put Ragnar in a jail cell while we discussed the verdict. I will unlock him immediately and bring him here,” the old man says. “Yes!” Ariane exclaims. She runs over to me. “Thank you so much for forgiving him Kai!” “It’s not a big deal. I know he’s lost some too. Do you mind if I bring him here instead?” I ask. “I have more questions to ask him.” “If you insist. Here is the key,” the old man says and hands me the key. “The jailhouse is one house over to the right.” “Okay, I’ll be back soon,” I say. Marin tries to follow me. I don’t want to reveal anything to her yet. “I’ll be fine by myself, Marin. Stay here with the others.” “Okay,” she answers. I leave the house and turn right. I skip over one house and go into the next one. It’s pretty dark in here. There’s only one lantern inside near the entrance. I can’t see anything. “Hey, Ragnar. Are you here?” I ask. I wonder if I went into the right place. This is one house over, though. It’s weird how there’re no guards here either. I go deeper inside. The entrance to the jail cell is fairly visible. A dark figure inside. He’s facing the other way. “Ragnar?” “Kai, why are you so weak?” he asks. “Excuse me?” “That’s how you lost your friends.” Dano and Banni? They weren’t really my friends…but they were gone before I got there. Wasn’t because I was weak. The keyhole for the cell is right in front of me.  “What’re you talking about? I wouldn’t go as far as calling Dano and Banni my friends. Weren’t you the one who killed them?  Marin said you drowned them or something. What’d you do exactly?” I unlock the cell and open the door. The darkness of this place is kind of creeping me out. “They told me you’re free to go. They removed your bounty as well. Aren’t you glad?” “I’m talking about your other friends.” I freeze up, immediately thinking of Sitos, Drugo, and Hiro. How’d he know about that? Now he’s really creeping me out. “Wha-wha-what about them?” I ask. I think of that masked man I met. It makes me tremble. Ragnar laughs. It was just like that man. My eyes widen. He turns around. A white mask with a snake on the right side. “You’re weak, Kai. Nothing has changed.” No way. I take several steps back. I can’t believe Ragnar was that masked man. He walks forward. Before I know it, my back’s against the wall. He’s the one responsible. He’s right here. The one who killed Sitos, Drugo, and Luna. He’s right here. I can get revenge. I grit my teeth. He doesn’t have any weapons. I have both of mine. I grip onto both of them. I exclaim, “You’ll pay for killing them!” I unsheath both of my swords and slash Ragnar with both of them. He doesn’t dodge or flinch. I know I hit him, though. Blood is on the ground and on the tip of my swords. “I didn’t even feel it. At this rate, you’ll lose everyone else.” “No! I won’t lose anyone else! This ends right here!” I unleash a flurry of attacks on him. I have to kill him. I won’t let him hurt Marin. I’m not weak. “Do you feel this, you fucker?!” Die, die, die! All my attacks connect. There’s no way he can survive this. That’s what he deserves for belittling me and for what he did to Sitos. I swing one last time, cutting off his head. Blood spews out of his neck and all over me. My heart’s beating rapidly. His body falls backward. I did it… I killed him!   I smile while panting. Sitos you can...wait…   My eyes widen. I gulp. I look over to his head. He’s not wearing any mask at all. There’s no mask anywhere. No. Wait. No. I look everywhere, but it’s not there. No, no, no… I look down. Only my body and weapons covered in blood. No, I didn’t kill him, I didn’t! I killed the masked man. He was the masked man but he’s not wearing a mask!   A piercingly loud scream resounds next to me. It nearly bursts my right eardrum. Ariane’s standing right there.

I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m dead!   Pem hasn’t said anything yet, but she’s going to reveal everything any moment now.   “What about him, master?” Pem asks.   What? What the hell is going on?   “He’s suspicious. Even now, he’s the one with the most fear in this entire plaza,” Bazaleon says. “The same one from yesterday.”   “Ehehe! Yeah, he’s a scared little Human, isn’t he?”   “Examine him. If there’s anyone who can untangle the scents from the sweater, it’s you.”   “Okay, I’ll try.”   I have no idea what to make of this situation. Is this the same Pem that I met yesterday? That idiot? Even Bazaleon mentioned the sweater that Pem should’ve retrieved. She should know everything. Including the fact that I’m the one Bazaleon is looking for, but she’s not saying anything. Did she forget it all happened? She’s the one who said she wouldn’t forget me.   “Don’t move, brat,” Bazaleon says as Pem approaches me.   She has my scent memorized, so this is pointless. What’s her game? It’s clear that she’s covering for me, but why? I can’t even begin to imagine her motives. To start with, she exaggerated what happened between us. She told Bazaleon a man forced her to strip. It’s like she’s purposely incurring his anger.   Pem remains silent while sniffing me for several seconds, and then backs off. “I’m sorry, master. I can’t pick up anything.”   Bazaleon answers, “That’s fine. We’ll know soon enough if he’s the one.”   How can she spew all these lies, but Bazaleon doesn’t know a thing? Maybe she’s more formidable than what I initially gave her credit for. She’s not the empty-headed rat girl that she led me to believe. Or it means that the Xog can’t detect lies from each other somehow. I find it hard to believe that someone as naïve as Pem is capable of deceiving anybody else, let alone Bazaleon, while totally composed.   “Sir Bazaleon,” Captain Albius says as he walks toward us. He drags a man by the arm with him.  “I’ve found the one you’re lookin’ for.”   Captain Albius shoves the man forward. His chest is bare with the diagonal scar across it.   “Ah!” Pem interjects and points at the man. “That’s him! That’s the man who wanted to copulate with me and forced me to strip!”   “What?!” Bazaleon exclaims and then grabs the man by the shoulder. His huge paw-like hand effortlessly covers the entire girth of the man’s arm. He lifts him up into the air.   The man shrieks as his bones crackle. He struggles to break free of Bazaleon’s grasp, but it’s futile. I gulp. That could’ve been me if Pem told the truth.   “Some trash like you had the nerve to violate my pupil?”   “No, that wasn’t me! Ahhh!”   “Calling my pupil a liar?!”   “No! Argh! I didn’t say that!” the man exclaims and continues to scream.   “Master, you can’t kill him yet,” Pem says.   Bazaleon drops the man and says, “True. He can’t be let off that easily for the two grave sins he’s committed against us. He’ll receive a punishment twice as harsh.”   “Are you satisfied, Sir Bazaleon?” Captain Albius asks.   “Yes. Many thanks for cooperating.”   “No problem, Sir Bazaleon. What about the inspection?”   “There’s no need to continue since it turns out the two men we’re looking for is one man. The soldiers here are witness to Pem testifying that this man violated her. Inform your leader that I’ll hold up my end of the deal,” Bazaleon says. “We’ll be back before the agreed meeting time.”   “Very well,” Captain Albius answers.   Bazaleon picks up the man and rests him across his shoulders. He walks away and says, “Let’s go, Pem.”   Pem glances at me and smiles before following Bazaleon.   She has one hell of a master. I’m surprised someone as ferocious as Bazaleon would take someone like Pem for a pupil. It’s counterintuitive with their lion and rat relationship.   And I can’t believe Bazaleon would accept the first suspect he discovers with the crucial feature across the chest. Certainly, with this many people around, there could be multiple people that fit the requirement. This is what Captain Albius meant by luck. That he would accept the first one found as the culprit.   What about the two Feloidians I met? He definitely has contact with them; otherwise, there’d be no way that they know about me in the first place. Those two should remember my scent, but he didn’t bring them to the inspection.   Bazaleon had Pem examine me during the inspection. He didn’t do it himself because Pem’s sense of smell is better. It’s not that he has bad smelling abilities either. The ability to smell fear is already shocking. Then what’s the next level up from that unique to Pem?   Either way, I have to hope that the two Felodians have at best Bazaleon’s sense of smell. He’s obviously going to be bringing that man to them in the Xog district as one final check he has the right person.   “Everyone, stand by,” Captain Albius says as he walks across our line. “I’m goin’ to report to General Nero.”   I sigh. There’s no inspection, but we can’t leave yet. I suppose it would be a bit chaotic if everyone were to move at once. We still need to escort the ministers to the Grand Hall. It’s so close, yet so far.   With the other kingdoms here too, it can’t be that they were here for the inspection. It was going to immediately transition into the event, so we probably will move forward ahead of time. That would be nice because it would push our plans ahead too and arrive earlier.   Jetia snickers. He’s never going to let me live it down. Everyone must’ve heard Bazaleon and Pem’s remarks against me. Better humiliation than death.   How’s Aisha’s team holding up? Hopefully, their batch of ministers isn’t making a big deal of her absence. If their leader is missing, the higher-ups should be sniffing around if they found out.   That’s the last thing that needs to happen because then they would probably be on lockdown to find out where Aisha went. The only way they could avoid that is by throwing Aisha under the bus, which may be the sole option available. I don’t care how they do it as long as it doesn’t affect our plans.   With so many people here, it’s hard to tell who’s who. We don’t so much as know if the Neomeris government were able to find any snake earring bandits disguising themselves as Drosera soldiers in the past few weeks. At this point, they could’ve camouflaged themselves as another kingdom. They could be here this very moment, and we wouldn’t know.   The whole Floyd experience taught me that I can’t trust anyone. Not because the snake earring group could be anyone, but people with motives outside of my best interests. Who knows what they’re really planning. I won’t be fooled again. That’s why I have to be careful with Pem. It could be all part of a ploy or part of some plan to gain my trust for something bigger.   Eventually, the line in front starts to move. Captain Albius comes back and informs us that we will be bringing the ministers to the entrance of the Grand Hall in an orderly fashion.   We are to be ready to escort them back two hours before dusk. A few of us should be stationed outside at all times for safety measures. I’ll leave that to the ones not participating in our plans. Jetia will accept that with no issues.   After escorting the ministers to the building, we regroup at the Icy Tavern. Irwin and Deniz take a little longer because they have to get the pass again.   We go on ahead to the entrance of the underground city. There must be a lot of people attending the auction because we aren’t the only ones going down the hatch. A person is ahead of us, so we keep our distance.   I’d expect more people pouring in here since the auction should be starting soon. There must be a more popular entrance we don’t know about but still hidden.   The big door to the underground city remains open at the bottom with a surplus of stationed guards. We show them our passes as we move along.   Our first stop is the Casino because Ada and her team want to check if Aisha is back. We arrive, but the place is locked, and no one is answering. We aren’t getting any answers.   I wouldn’t expect Floyd to be here after his apparent interest in the auction starting soon. We might run into him there, and then ask him what’s up with Aisha.   Ada doesn’t make too much of a fuss, and Hina’s team lead us to the mask shop.   Surprisingly, it isn’t too crowded. There is an assortment of masks with over a hundred different designs. Most of them have a white base.   Yesterday during the game against Floyd, he made it seem like he was one of the masked men because he knew that the masks were white; nevertheless, it was just a guess. Hina was right.   “Darling, what do you think about this one?” Hina asks. She’s wearing a rat mask. The entirety of it is the face of a rodent.   She’s never going to stop making references. I sigh before answering, “It’s perfect for you.”   “No way!” Ada suddenly exclaims.   What happened? She’s pointing at something.   I drop my jaws. It’s a white mask with a black snake on it. The tail is next to the mouth, curls around the cheek, and the head is situated on the bottom of the forehead with the tongue sticking out. There’s no doubt about it. This is what the masked men wore.   “Wha’ be wrong, dear customers?” a Dwarf asks.   “Nothing,” I respond, not wanting to cause a scene. Having found the masks here, it makes me inclined to believe that the masked men are here. We don’t want any attention drawn to us because of our interest in this mask.   Ada takes one of the snake masks and then holds it in front of the Dwarf. “Have you seen anyone with this?!”   “Ay cou’ have seen a few people, yeah.”   “Where?! Where are they now? How long ago was this?”   “Calm yer tits. Hoo be Ay supposed ter knoo de answer ter all deez questions? Ye be interested in purchasin’ dis mask er nae?”   This girl doesn’t have any discretion. Without Aisha around to keep her restrained, she is a liability. Someone needs to make sure she doesn’t screw us over. Clearly, Aisha was the one holding this team together.   “Sir,” I say, stepping in front of Ada before she has a chance to reply. “We’re interested in buying other masks, but we were just wondering... Do you remember selling this mask to any Humans recently?”   “Ay dun knoo. Maybe. Maybe nae.”   I take out my pouch of coins, shaking the contents in front of him. Money never fails to be a persuasive incentive.   “Hmm… Oi’m startin’ ter remember somedin. Dare been a strange lad who bought a bulk o’ deez masks a year ago. Nodin’ sin’ den.”   “Were they wearing snake earrings?”   “Ay dun dink so. Oi’m guin ter need ya ter buy somedin’ nigh.”   “Okay, ummm…” I interject and look around. We should all buy the same disguise, so it’ll be easier to identify each other. And definitely not the same one that they use. Hina already has a mask picked out, so it’ll be easier to use that one, much to my dismay. At least we won’t confuse one of us for a stranger. No one else would be willing to put those over their faces. Reluctantly, I take it from her and continue, “We’ll take twelve of these.”   “Dat will be one gold an’ sixty silver.”   “One gold and sixty silver?!” I exclaim. That’s a total scam I can’t afford.   “Dat guin ter be a problem? Ten silver each fer de masks an’ forty fer yer question.”   It’s either pay him, or we can’t go into the auction. I doubt there’s going to be another place to buy these masks, and if there were, it wouldn’t be any cheaper. All these merchants are taking advantage of the Inteiru Expota.   I hand him my pouch and respond, “This is one gold and fifteen silver.”   “Here’s a gold coin,” Hina says and hands him the coin.   “Ay will be back wiff yer change,” he says and walks away.   “You should’ve pushed for more information,” Ada says, glaring. “Forty silver coins for nothing.”   “Hey, if I didn’t interrupt you, you would’ve gotten us all kicked out. Anyone could’ve seen his patience was running thin,” I reply quietly.   “To top it all off, you couldn’t keep your rat fetish in check.”   “It doesn’t matter what mask we go with. As long as we have the same one,” Hina says.   “Says the one who picked out the mask. Kai should’ve picked this instead to blend in with them,” Ada says.   “That would’ve been a terrible idea,” I say.   “Well, I don’t think so. We should’ve voted on it,” Ada says.   Deniz puts a hand on her shoulder and says, “It’s done. Let’s move on.”   “Fine.”   The Dwarf comes back and gives me what he owes me. Each of us takes a duplicate of the rat mask.   Our next stop is the marketplace. Before that, we have a much-needed team meeting to review our next step. We talked through a few scenarios last night but only about the general actions we would take. I need to make sure Ada and everyone else has their emotions and priorities in check.   Since we didn’t find Aisha at the Casino, she might be somewhere in the bazaar or the auction. We don’t know, but if we do see her, we can’t make a scene about it. The auction is the worst place to cause trouble, and it could endanger all of our lives. I make Ada promise she won’t do anything rash no matter what happens.   Floyd is a sketchy character, but from what he said, Aisha would return alive. I believe that, though, I don’t need a vivid imagination to know what she would be going through. Everyone is aware of this, and we can’t help her with any of it. She’s in this situation because we don’t have enough money to pay off her debts.   So, despite that she is openly humiliated, we won’t do a thing. Finding leads on the masked men and snake earring group is our main priority. That’s what Aisha would want too.   After a short discussion, we put on our masks and head into the marketplace in pairs. Covers more ground during the limited time we have. We will meet back at the entrance after exploring a bit.   Nearly everyone here has their masks on. From what I can tell, most of these people are probably Humans based on their height. It would be easy to know if someone was an Elf or Xog because masks can’t hide their unique features.   I wish I had more money. Some of these items look interesting. Things that must be rare because I’ve never seen before. Though there are some everyday things that I could buy anywhere too. Your usual stock of Mana Crystals, Affinity Crystals, and low tiered weapons and armor.   Oh. And then there are girls with their tits hanging out. They’re cute, but the thing on their necks is more interesting. I know I’ve seen that before. If I’m not wrong, that’s the same metal collar I saw that day when she…   Hina pulls my ear and says, “Don’t get distracted.”   I turn toward her and answer, “I’m focused. It’s just—“   Someone suddenly pulls me the other way. I interject, “What—“   I cut myself short as the bare back of a purple-haired girl comes into view. Aisha?   She drags me into a large tent. As the flaps of the entrance glide over my mask, she turns around, confirming that it’s her. She has quite a rack. Way bigger than Hina’s and Marin’s for sure.   Hina enters the tent, not long after me. “Aisha?“   “Yeah. Sorry to drag you in so suddenly,” Aisha says.   “How’d you know it was us?” Hina asks.   “Hard to confuse the blue pigtails and red waist cape with anyone else.”   “Fair,” Hina answers.   “What do the others know?” Aisha asks.   “Floyd took another interest in you and was offerin’ a new deal to settle the twenty gold coin debt. You didn’t hesitate to agree before he changed his mind.”   “I see…”   Hina squeezes my hand and asks, “How long are you goin’ to stare, Darling?”   “I wasn’t—where else am I supposed to look?”   “They’re here,” Aisha says suddenly.   “What?” both Hina and I interject simultaneously.   “Which one?” I ask.   “The snake earring group.”   “Where?” I ask. I have so many questions.   “Here. They told me to stay here five minutes ago. I don’t know when they’re returning.”   “Wait…they told you to stay put?” I ask. That would mean that she had direct contact with them as a client. Here. Right on top of that dirty mattress?   “They appeared a few hours after you left yesterday. I don’t know if it was lucky or unlucky…but I caught their interest.”   “They bought you? Hina asks.   “Yes. Two days for seventy gold coins.”   That’s a lot of gold. Exactly enough to pay off her debt with Floyd, but who would be willing to pay that price for one girl? I don’t know the usual price for this sort of thing, but that’s outrageous. Floyd said to be careful. It makes me uneasy if this is related to that.   “I’m sorry, Aisha... That’s… After they come back, they’ll be resumin’ their activities with you. I wish we could help,” Hina says.   “Oh, no. They haven’t done anything to me yet.”   “Why?” I ask. “What’s the point if they‘re not getting the best bang for their buck?”   Aisha doesn’t answer. What I said might’ve been insensitive. I continue, “I mean. It’s good that they haven’t, but seventy gold coins is a lot.”   “They’re going to bring me to a different location first,” Aisha says.   I widen my eyes. “You mean…like their hideout?”   “Yes, I think so,” Aisha says, shivering. “They said they were going to have a marathon with me.”   “We won’t let that happen. We’ll save you before they do anythin’.”   “I was hoping you would say that, but I can’t come with you now. They didn’t put restraints on me because they know that I can’t run. Not until the deal with Floyd is fulfilled. Otherwise, they’ll go after my family.”   “So, we follow them back to their base and then save you,” I say. “They can’t complain if they’re dead. Floyd’s already received his payment.”   “Yes, but I don’t expect you to barge in at that moment. It’s too dangerous.”   “What do you expect us to do then? Go back for reinforcements?” Hina asks.   “That would be safest.”   “By that time, you’ll be…” Hina mutters.   “I’ll live.”   I say, “That’s not gonna work. The snake earring group isn’t important enough to be on anyone’s radar during the Inteiru Expota. They wouldn’t be willing to sacrifice defenses at Syrina for the raid. We’ll be under General Nero’s scrutiny too because he’ll find out that we disobeyed orders. So, even if we got reinforcements, the only way it would be worthwhile is if we found evidence linking this bandit group to the masked men. If we wanted to avoid danger, we wouldn’t be here, now would we?”   “Darling’s right. We signed up for this knowin’ the dangers, so we won’t leave you in there.”   “Thank you.”   “Don’t thank us yet. We still need to figure out how to tail them without getting caught.”   “I’ll trust the specifics to you. You live up to your reputation.”   “What? No, I’m not trying to make a move on you.”   “Your Academy reputation.”   “Oh…” I interject. That’s a little awkward. Considering my current reputation and the couple’s fight Aisha witnessed yesterday.   A short silence follows before Hina says, “Well, we should gather the others.”   “Good call. One of us should stay here to keep watch,” I say.   “It’s more appropriate if I take that role,” Hina says. “You get the others.”   “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. What if the snake earring guys come back while you’re still here? You have no good excuse for being in a tent with Aisha.”   “And you do?” Hina asks, but then curls her lips inward and shakes her head, apparently answering her own question. “I’ll watch from a distance.”   “Yeah. You’ll only be the only girl with flashy blue pigtails wearing a laughable rat mask conspicuously standing there in a fast-moving market.”   “Darling, if you really want to be the one to stay, you can. I know the real reason why you’re insistin’ on stayin’.”   Oh, no… Nothing good ever follows this. She’s got that look in her eyes.   She holds a hand to her chest. “I know I’m lackin’ in this department, and it makes me insecure because we’re not doin’ so good. As long as you don’t break up with me, okay? Do whatever you want.”   She turns around and leaves the tent without another word, leaving me in this awkward position. Damn you, Hina.   Aisha doesn’t cover herself in any way despite what she witnessed. She asks, “How much money do you have?”   “Fifty-five silver coins.”   “Good. So, you will have that excuse. That’s around the price for the working girls around here,” Aisha says and then looks straight at me. “I’m tired of not having any choice in these matters, so I’m going to make one of my own before it’s too late. I won’t tell anyone if you play along.”   I scream inside my head. I don’t know how to respond. Why would Aisha ask me to do that after everything that’s happened? Obviously, a quick refusal would be my preferred answer, but it wouldn’t look good considering recent events.   For all Aisha knows, I’m a scumbag who only lusts after Hina’s body. If I’m suddenly out of character, she’ll be suspicious of what happened yesterday. And one realization might lead to another, which could reveal that the whole thing is a sham.   I can’t believe I would ever think this, but I hope those snake earring guys interrupt us. These are dangerous waters. Stalling for time is my only option now.   Luckily I’m wearing a mask because I can’t keep a straight face. “I do, but…there’s not enough time to do much. If Ada catches us during…well…our activities. It’s not gonna be good. Not to mention, it would be awkward if those snake earring guys come back too.”   “Hina won’t be coming back for a while. I can tell you that much. It’ll take a while to gather everyone. If the snake earring men come back, it’ll be stranger if you weren’t doing anything to me. That’s why you’re here, and Hina’s out there, right?” she asks.   “Right,” I answer promptly.   She lies flat on the mattress, putting her hands above her head.   I would be lying to myself if I said it doesn’t excite me. Any guy would be right now.   Aisha quirks an eyebrow as I climb on top of her. She asks, “Do you usually do this with all your equipment on?”   “No, but I’m usually not forced to keep a mask on. I’ll take it off once I’m ready,” I say. I slowly reach for her breast, still ambivalent about everything.   I gulp. This will be my first experience with large breasts. Something I’ve been curious about, although never having the opportunity. I never thought it would be like this.   Her face flinches a little as I give it a squeeze. The softness is incredible. It’s like a sponge.   But, an uneasiness lurks within me. Like I’ve felt this sensation before, but that’s impossible. Yet, I’m trying to understand why I’m feeling this way.   “Is something wrong?” Aisha asks.   I’m still holding onto her boob. “No, it’s just um…Hina’s a lot smaller, and I never felt one this big, you know? I’m still processing it.”   I grasp her breasts in different ways while still trying to figure out this puzzle.   Footsteps approach, and someone exclaims, “Hey!”   Two men with smiley face masks appear in the tent. They’ve got armor and weapons. Most importantly, one of them has a green thing around his left ear. It’s hard to see if it’s a snake earring, but it’s probably them.   “Whatcha think you’re doing?” one of them asks menacingly.   “I have money. What’s the problem?” I ask while standing up and taking out my pouch of coins.   One of them snatches it from me and then takes a peek inside. “Less than a gold coin in here. It’s not enough for her.”   “Fine. I’ll leave,” I say and reach for my coins, but he doesn’t let me take it.   “Still gotta pay for your time.”   “Come on. I barely did anything,” I say, wishing that I could have my money back. This mission is killing my wallet.   “Piss off.”   I don’t push the matter anymore and leave the tent, though I stick around to eavesdrop. I still have a trick up my sleeve if they catch me snooping.   “Bitch, you that impatient to get some action? I oughta shag you right now. See if you’re really worth the price tag.”   “Boss’s gonna be pissed if you touch her now.”   “Yeah, but shit. Why drop seventy gold coins on a whore?”   “Questioning the boss? Come on. We’re already late because you forgot to buy masks. Whole crew’s waiting.”   “Tch. Bitch, get up.”   I walk away before they see me. These two members don’t know why Aisha was bought for that absurd amount either. At least I know where they’re headed next.   I go back to the entrance, where Hina’s still waiting for the others to loop around. I tell her what developed after leaving me in there with that exit speech. She gloats at me as usual.   Later, everyone comes back. Unsurprisingly, no one else discovers much. I twist my story a little bit to avoid some trouble, and we go to the auction together.   I recognize one of the Dwarves standing guard by the entrance as a member of the Vanguards. These masks won’t conceal from their eyes if even Aisha could identify us. He looks toward us and snickers but says nothing.   We wait in line. All the rules of the auction are written on signs posted on the wall. Nothing we didn’t already know except for no drawing of weapons. Eventually, we reach the receptionist.   “Hoo big be yer party?”   “Twelve,” I answer.   “Hoo much gold dae ye have?”   “A few,” I respond, though I’m only estimating what the other two teams have.   “A few?! Ye be flat broke! Ye canna buy anydin’ wiff dat. Go straight ahead wiff de rest o’ de observers,” he says and points to the passage behind him.   Stairs are leading up to the left and right of the door.   Ahead, we arrive in a spacious room with a crowd of people in front of the stage. Dwarven guards are standing all over the edges of the room. More members of the Vanguards too. The security of this place is no joke.   On all sides except the front of the room are platforms extending from the wall on five different levels. Over half of them are occupied with at least one person on each one. This place is built to accommodate a lot of people. The snake earring group could be anywhere.   We find an empty place to stand on the left side of the room. None of us see Aisha, so I’m not sure how we’re supposed to follow her after this. The best we can do is find one of their members. A large group of them should be here.   Some time passes, and a Dwarf walks onto the stage. He holds something next to his mouth. I suspect it’s the sound-amplifying magic item I saw before. “Welcome ter de first day o’ de auction! Our featured item o’ de hour be a Miffril great sword forged by Vozek, one o’ de finest Dwarven blacksmiths exported roight from Khuldan! Dis be de first o’ many Miffril products ter be sold outside o’ Dwarven territory.”   Another Dwarf walks onto the stage, holding a large blade of deep blue color. I know that’s Mithril now. I’ve always wondered about the weapons we found under the Academy. Instructor Fulharm took it off us, but we never bothered to find anything more about it. How much is it worth? Why isn’t it sold anywhere? I guess now I know that it was only sold in the Dwarven kingdoms, but then why was it in those ruins?   “De bid will start at twenty-five gold coins!”   I gape. What the?! Twenty-five gold coins? That’s insane! And I thought Titanium was expensive. Something of that size would be around five gold coins.   “Twenty-five gold!” someone exclaims above me in one of the platforms.   “Thirty gold!”   “Thirty-one gold!”   “Thirty-three!”   Chaos erupts from the entire room. The price continues to rise. If people are paying this much for a Mithril weapon, does that mean we missed our chance of getting rich? Back when we discovered those weapons under the Academy?   I can’t help but feel bitter. Did Instructor Fulharm know the value of the weapons and scammed us? It doesn’t matter now that he’s dead. But the weapons we didn’t take should still be down there. A part of me wants to go back down there to take more of the Mithril weapons, despite the presence of those ominous blue slimes.   The bid for the sword ends at seventy-two gold coins. That’s over nine times my current yearly salary. Imagine how much money I could make just by collecting those weapons down there. How different would things have turned out if we didn’t tell the teachers anything about what happened? We could’ve been practically swimming in silver coins.   The atmosphere suddenly changes as a man with a smiley mask walks past us. He has the snake earring, and brown slicked back hair. It matches one of the descriptions of one of those referees that could be linked to the snake earring group. Is it him?   He steps onto the stage and hands the Dwarf a bag of coins. After counting the money, the other Dwarf gives the masked man the Mithril great sword.   The masked man takes the same path off the stage. He stops in front of us for some reason and snickers. The amount of killing intent he directs toward me puts me on edge.   I instinctively grab onto my weapons, but I can’t cause a scene and get into trouble with the Vanguards.   “Rats… If yer not careful, you’ll be swallowed whole,” he says before continuing his way past us.   Why’d he say that to us? Snakes prey on rodents. I don’t know if he’s just playing around because we happen to be wearing rat masks or if that was some sort of warning that he knows we’re digging into them.   I bite my lip. We shouldn’t have been grouped together. Those two must’ve found me suspicious despite my excuse with Aisha. Now they’ve made an association and found all of us shady. They could take precautions now.   Hina stops me from following him, and no one else takes interest despite that we spent so long investigating them. Everyone’s focus is on Aisha. I get it, though. If someone I cared about was in her position, I’d prioritize her too. We already have a way to get into their hideout through Aisha, so letting this opportunity go is fine. It might be glaring to tail him in this environment anyway. Only those with money are located on the platforms. The rest of his party should be there.   “Next, we have our most anticipated seller o’ de day. De mysterious group wiff de new generation of Aerkins!”   Someone with the smiley mask walks onto the stage. The snake earring group are the ones with the new batch of Aerkins? With Floyd’s interest in the circuit, this could be the reason why he knows about the group.   “I’m sure many of you are lookin’ forward to obtainin’ one of Aerkins we tamed usin’ a new method, though we won’t sell any today. I know there are still skeptics that doubt the validity of our claim. We’ll set that straight with a demonstration and the technology that makes this possible,” the man says while holding a sound amplifier to his mouth.   I raise my eyebrows as another smiley masked man steps onto the stage, holding onto that metal collar above him.   “You might’ve seen this before as we’ve already had many clients take an interest. This is a Slave Collar. We’ve brought a batch of ‘em fitted for Humans, Elves, and Dwarves. Put this around their necks, and they’ll be under your control, regardless of fightin’ expertise. Even the toughest badass will be subjected to your mercy. How? The Slave Collar prevents the user from usin’ magic. The method is a trade secret.”   I gasp. Stop someone from using magic? How can that be possible?   “The fun doesn’t stop there. Each collar is paired with a unique Slave Remote that helps you bend their will to do your biddin’ with a little negative reinforcement. The remote can make ‘em squirm in pain. It has other fun features too.”   Another smiley masked man drags two naked women into view from the backstage area. They have Slave Collars. Most importantly, they have pointy ears; they’re Elves. The man shoves them to the floor.   Shit. I look around. These are Elven slaves, no matter how I see it. A war almost broke out because they were discovered in Syrina eight months ago. Viessa suspected that it was the snake earring group that planted them in a noble’s home, but that might not be entirely true. The crowd murmurs.   “Are you tired of beatin’ your slaves into submission, accidentally killin’ ‘em in the process? How about the trouble of keepin’ ‘em on suicide watch? Runnin’ away? Retaliation? All of your problems are solved with the Slave Collar. They’re sealed with a unique key, and they’re made of the highest quality ingredients. As you’ve noticed, it’s made out of Titanium, so it’s quite sturdy.   “These two Elven beauties have already been subdued into submission through the pain inflicted through the Slave Remote. You’ll never have to worry about excessiveness either. They submit because the pain will never be enough to kill ‘em. Even the most prideful Elves crumble,” the man says and picks up one of the Elves by her hair. She doesn’t struggle at all.   He tosses her aside and then says, “Go play with your friend over there.”   The Elf crawls over to the other one, and then they kiss. Deep kisses. Audible enough to her all their slobber. They both get into it and touch each other intimately.   The man laughs. “See? Once they’ve been trained, you’ll rarely need to reinforce ‘em usin’ the Slave Remote. You know the best thing about Elven babes other than their tight pussy? They’re low maintenance. Tie ‘em to a tree and give ‘em water. Use ‘em when you need ‘em.   “This brings us to our Aerkins. As you may have guessed, we put Slave Collars on ‘em. Custom fitted for different sizes and shapes. It’s far more effective and efficient than usin’ drugs to control ‘em. They can’t harm you so long as you’re holdin’ the connected Slave Remote. It’s as safe as trainin’ ‘em naturally, and turnin’ ‘em into killin’ machines is one click away.   “We’ve brought ten sets of new Slave Collars and Slave Remotes. Each pair startin’ at ten gold coins. The Elves will be sold first with the Slave Collar, and Slave Remote included. Each one startin’ at fifty gold coins, now.”   The room goes crazy with bids. Everyone here is a bunch of perverts. The starting bid for the Elves is twice as much compared to that Mithril great sword. That goes to show the rarity and high demand for Elven slaves. No one would be bold enough to risk capturing one for themselves.   But, Aisha’s buying price was seventy gold coins. She’s just an ordinary Human. Does that mean they value her higher than the Elven slaves? If not for the Slave Collar, the starting bid would only be forty gold coins.   Everything that happened was because of the Slave Collar. Because there’s no way she would do those things otherwise. I can’t even begin to imagine how those Slave Collars and Slave Remotes work. They can stop someone from using magic, so does that mean they can’t manipulate Mana either? Not even magic can do something like that. I’m not ready to believe their other claims, either. This could all be a marketing scam, though I can’t discredit it because of my personal experience with it.   From the way these guys presented, they must be the inventors of these devices. They did mention they sold it to other people already. Could the masked men be one of them? Or are they the same group?   Both Elves end up getting bought for two hundred gold coins. Completely outrageous. How do these people have so much money?   The bigger question is how they plan on smuggling these Elves out of here without running into authority. All hell would break loose if that were to happen. The Dwarves know all about these Elven slaves. Who’s to think that they won’t divulge that all this is happening? Strangely, the Dwarves were apathetic when they mentioned the Slave Collars could be put on them too.   Then there are the Xog who are out for blood for the smallest grievances. Something doesn’t add up. It’s not like the Dwarves are all chummy with us.   What Floyd said continues to bother me. His mention that his hands are tied must mean there’s a power at play that he can’t fight. Could the snake earring group be that power? It would explain the way the Dwarves are acting now too. That or they’re paying off the Dwarves. Considering that they take an interest in us when money is involved makes that more believable. There’s no way that the snake earring group has power over an entire race.   All the Slave Collars and Slave Remotes are sold for at least fifty gold coins each. The snake earring group has made over a thousand gold coins in less than an hour. That’s more money I’ll make in a lifetime in the army.   “Splendid. Today is only a premiere of what’s to come. Soon, we’ll be tradin’ everythin’ on the underground market, includin’ the Aerkins. If you’re interested in our products, seek us out. By the end of the Inteiru Expota, you’ll know our name,” the smiley masked man says before leaving the stage.   Sounds like they’re planning to do something within a few days. They won’t have a chance after we raid their hideout. Their defense could be lax because they haven’t been discovered yet. That weakness will be the key to taking them out. No one else has been lucky enough to have this opportunity.   We still haven’t figured out how to tail them without getting caught. They’re probably going to use another exit than we know of out of this place. I only hope that there’s a steady stream of people leaving; otherwise, we mind as well announce ourselves to them. If we’re too far, they’ll be long gone by the time we reach the surface.   There’s no time to plan. If they’re on the move, we need to be too. We hurry out of the auction. I make the suggestion that we ditch our masks to blend in better with our surroundings. They could be vigilant regarding anyone with this rat mask. It’s a shame we spent over a gold coin of these disguises that only ended up discarded in less than a day. We won’t be able to come back to the auction.   We take various positions around the building in pairs of two. Soon enough, the guy who bought the Mithril blade walks out the main entrance alone. Just him? There has to be more.   Several large convoy transportations pull into view in front of the man. He opens the door and then goes inside one.  We don’t know if Aisha is in there, but we can’t miss an opportunity to track them back to their hideout. They’re leaving. It’s now or never.   There’s only one place where they’ll go next, and we can’t follow them. That guarded secret entrance the others found has to be the exit they’ll utilize.   What can we do? Run around the perimeter of the city and hope to find the other end of the tunnel? If we find the right place, we might be able to pick up their trail. Otherwise, our pursuit will be thrown off by random markings on the ground left by other transports.   That Dwarf by the exit we left by owes us a favor. Maybe he can help us out. We make haste there as we’re on the clock.   “Ya agin. Danks fer last time. De Vanguards bought de story. Passage be clear, go ahead.” the Dwarf says.   “We’re here to collect on that favor,” I say.   “Sure. Wha’ dae ye need?”   “We know there’s a secret entrance where wagons pass through. We need to use it.”   He crosses his arms and says, “Dats one din’ Ay canna dae.”   “Why not?”   “Dats a restricted entrance reserved fer merchants intendin’ ter sell in de marketplace er auction. Ye need ter explain wha' product yer bringin’ several hours in advance ter get it approved. Only den, ye will receive an audorization token dat allows ya ter use dat passage.”   “Or we can steal one. Let’s go back to the marketplace. Hurry!” Ada exclaims.   “Calm yer tits. Wha’ be so urgent?” the Dwarf asks.   “We’re chasing someone who recently left,” I inform.   “Okay, Ay ken help ya wiff dat. Ye will have ter find it yerself, but de entrance ye speak o' leads ter a grotto at de base o' a mound located in de woods. 'Tis somewhere betweun de Dwarven district an' Human district entrances frum outside de city.”   We thank him and make no hesitation in leaving the underground city to find that mound. There’s a lot of ground to cover between the two entrances to Syrina. Not to mention roaming through snow takes more time.   Eventually, we locate it, but it’s been too long. By now, they could’ve reached their hideout. There’s a visible trail to follow thanks to the snow. One problem, it also includes all the other merchants that came to sell something at the marketplace. How can we know we’re following the right trail?   “Hey! I found something!” Ada exclaims. We regroup around her. She points to a purple substance that has melted through the snow. “It’s Aisha. She’s left us clues to follow.”   Aisha was the only one out of all the working girls I saw in the marketplace that didn’t have a Slave Collar attached to her neck. She said it was because she couldn’t run anyway because of what they’ll do to her family. That’s good for us because she was able to leave these traces of magic.   Still, that’s really careless of that group who has had a flawless record of staying hidden up until now. Wouldn’t they have considered the possibility that Aisha would use magic to leave behind a trail?   “She’s not our leader for nothing. Let’s not keep her waiting too long,” Deniz says.   I keep my thoughts to myself for now as I don’t think Aisha’s team will pay mind to my worries. We search for the nearest remnant of Dark magic from the first one Ada found. Repeating this, we eventually read the end of a trail.   A small cave rests at the bottom of a cliff. The entrance is unconcealed. This is supposed to be the hideout of the snake earring group? When I heard that one of their shelters could be inside of a lake, I expected something more than this. If this is the definition of well hidden, a bunch of incompetent people searched for their base of operations.   We’re still a bit far out from the entrance, but we can’t get any closer without risk of detection. One person is standing next to the cave. The convoy transports don’t seem to be in sight.   “What are we waiting for?” Ada asks. “There’s only one guy. Let’s rush in and take him out.”   “No, we should think about this more carefully,” I say.   “We can’t wait anymore. Aisha’s in there. She could be in trouble this very moment,” Ada says.   “I agree with Darling,” Hina says. “We don’t know how many of them are in the cave. Goin’ in blind would give the lookout a chance to alert everyone inside.”   “Ada, we all want to save Aisha as soon as possible, but we can’t afford to be careless,” Deniz says. “We should approach this wisely. We need a way to take out the guard quietly from a distance.”   Magic isn’t going to be a good contender for that. Fire magic doesn’t kill instantly, and the guy will be prone to making a ruckus while he’s burning. Earth magic could work, but it has to be done delicately, so it doesn’t create any vibrations. It would be hard to write the instructions from this distance.   This would be trivial with Void magic, but I can’t do that with everyone watching.   “Melody, Doris, can either one of you make the shot?” Ada asks.   “I can’t see the distance, but this looks at least 150 feet away,” Doris says. “It’s too far.”   “I agree,” Melody says. “Aisha is the best of us, and she can only hit bullseyes at eighty feet.”   “I-I can do it,” Marin says.   “You don’t sound sure. You heard Melody and Doris. It’s too far,” Ada says.   “No, I’m sure I can do it.”   “You couldn’t land a simple shot during the mock battle we had, how can I trust you to make this one? If you miss, we lose our preemptive strike.”   “Trust her on this,” I say. “I’ve never seen Marin do the whole run and shoot thing, but I know accuracy’s her strongest strength.”   “We’re a team. If Marin says she can do it, I trust her,” Hina says. “Does anyone have a better plan?”   Following the silence of everyone else, I say, “I don’t have a better plan, but I wanna make sure everyone understands that this plan could fail even if Marin shoots the perfect shot. If I was standing over there, it wouldn’t matter if the arrow comes out of nowhere. I’d react. This plan’s only guaranteed to succeed if the guard isn’t that skilled. We have to assume that they’re as good as we are or better. Don’t blame Marin if it doesn’t go as planned is what I’m saying.”   “I know. I won’t,” Ada says.   “Whenever you’re ready, Marin,” Hina says.   “I want to move to a different spot. He’s less likely to see my arrow coming from another angle. Kai, can you come with me?” Marin asks.   “Uh, sure,” I respond.   “We’ll all come with. We should stick together,” Deniz suggests.   “No, just Kai’s enough,” Marin says.   “Do you have an idea? Share with us,” Deniz says.   “I’m just there in case something happens,” I say. From the looks of it, Marin has a plan. This isn’t the time or place for a romantic getaway, so it must have to do with my Void magic. I’ll make up some excuse for her. “If we’re all moving together, we’ll have a higher chance of being spotted.”   “Alright,” Deniz answers.   “Can I come too?” Ruby asks.   “No, stay here with everyone else. We won’t be gone long,” I say.   “Fine.”   I sneak with Marin along the trees. When we’re far enough from the others, I ask, “So, what do you need me for?”   “I want to try something with your Void magic.”   Unquestionably, she knows that I can’t afford to let anyone see it, so I have no clue what she has in mind. It can’t possibly be another one of her experiments. We’ve done them whenever time allows for both of us to better understand Void magic. That time has decreased since the whole pretend act with Hina. “Explain.”   “Do you remember that one time you put a portal on a wall in two different ways?”   Here we go. That was a strange day. The first time I created a portal on the wall, it wasn’t really on it. We broke the boundary rule while inside the portal, which should’ve put us inside the wall. Instead, it relocated our position somewhere else in the room. It had no pattern. We found that if two objects try to occupy the same space as a result of the portal, the object in the portal is relocated somewhere nearby at random.   The second time I managed to cover the surface of the wall with Void magic, almost like Intermediate Enhancement magic. We couldn’t break the boundary rule no matter what we tried, though I’m sure something weird would happen if we broke the wall, we would get into some trouble with that. I answer, “Yeah.”   “I want you to try doing the same thing to the tip of my arrow. What do you think would happen if I shoot my arrow with your magic attached?”   What? Her intention is to put a one-sided portal facing the arrow with the connected one-sided portal somewhere else. The result would make the projectile invisible from the front, making it impossible for the guard to react because he sees nothing. My issue with the idea isn’t what happens in flight, but when it hits the target.   “I have no idea. I know what you’re going for, but we have no idea what’ll happen when the arrow pierces him. Or will it even do that? Who knows if something weird happens and the arrow relocates somewhere else. Now’s not the time to do experiments.”   “How about this? Deactivate your portal before it hits him. He’ll have less time to react proportionally to how late you do it.”   “That could work, but there’s one other problem. If anyone from our team can track the arrow, they might notice something purple attached to it as it passes their view.”   “That’s easy. Just make another pair of one-sided portals to hide it from them.”   I pause for several seconds before replying, “You want me to make one of my portals invisible by using another one-sided portal?”   “Yeah, why not? You made your Fire magic invisible, right?”   “Fine, but let’s test it out before doing it for real,” I respond. It’s a good plan if it works. I thought it would be enough if the shot came from his side rather than the front, but it’s still not a guaranteed hit. Invisibility increases our chances.   We reach Marin’s ideal shooting spot. I test out a few things to make sure our assumptions about the scenario aligns with reality. It turns out that I can make the portals invisible with another portal and keep it connected. I’m able to attach the one-sided portal to the tip of the arrow too, and it moves with the portal. The projectile is also invisible from the front. I’m sure Marin is ecstatic about the results.   So, I prepare my magic for the real thing. I attach a one-sided portal at the tip of the arrow facing us. Just round and large enough to cloak the arrow from the bandit. The connected one-sided portal next to us. I have to get used to using just enough Void magic to conserve my Mana.   The next step is trickier because I can’t create the second portal with the first portal already inside of it. It has to start outside and then move into it. Only then, binding itself to the first portal. I do just that with a one-sided rectangular-shaped portal perpendicular to the first portal. The height is set to the same as the other portal and length generous to cover the arrow’s length. Its paired portal is also next to us.   Now, viewing the arrow from the side shields the appearance from the portal, providing invisibility. There’s no way anyone would see what happened. The arrow itself is still visible from the side too, so there’s nothing suspicious.   The final step is execution. One way we could approach this is by putting a deactivation timer to my Mana at the moment Marin makes her shot to about three-quarters of a second. She thinks that it’ll be at most one second for the arrow to hit the target.   I’ll leave the timing to Marin. I move some Mana to the portals on the arrow, instructing it to deactivate in ten seconds. I give Marin the countdown as she prepares her shot atop a branch. She said she’d be able to achieve a faster speed this way.   Marin draws her bow back gradually to full draw as my countdown reaches five. Moments after it reaches one, the bowstring snaps, propelling the arrow through the trees and branches ahead. The guard might hear it, but we should be far enough for that to not matter. Worst case, he turns his head but sees nothing. It’s not unusual for random sounds to occur in the forest.   Her aim is perfect. The arrow pierces through the lookout’s skull, and he collapses. A lot of effort went into this single shot, which may have been unnecessary if he was on the same level as Soldiers in the army.   I would be a goner too in his shoes. Really goes to show how fragile life is. I’m starting to understand why Emdos wanted me to keep a low profile with my abilities. It’s too powerful. I can’t help but wonder if this has to do with my parents’ death. Emdos said they weren’t killed out of hate, but maybe related to their Void magic abilities. After all, it’s not even a known magic type. Makes me wonder if I’m the only one with a unique talent or if there are any other people out there with Void magic.   We regroup with the others at the entrance of the cave. From here, we discover that the guard had Titanium equipment. No way a simple underling has that type of equipment. I’m tempted to loot him and turn his gear into a new set of armor for me, but we don’t have time for that. There’s a half-smoked cigar next to his body.   “Great shot, Marin. Sorry for believing in you,” Ada says.   Everyone briefly praises Marin. It’s nice to see because she’s rarely acknowledged for her skills. She’s not the type to show off. This will give her more confidence.   We advance into the dimly lit cave, though it’s not really a cave. It looks like someone dug out the wall. A doorway is in sight ahead. Ada leads the way because her weapons will be least restricted in these narrow spaces. I haven’t taken the time to practice fighting in this type of environment. I’m used to an open field.    “Jonah, pass me a smoke too, wouldja?” someone asks from a room nearby. He must’ve heard the clattering of our armor and weapons. It’s not something we can avoid.   The moment he walks into the hallway, Ada slices his throat before he can say anything. He’s unarmed.   A high pitched scream resounds in the distance. Expectedly, Ada disregards all stealth and rushes in. Reprimanding her would only draw attention to us, so the rest of us follow her lead. Thankfully, the ground is dirt, so our footsteps don’t make too much noise.   “I’ll cover the left side,” I say while chasing after Ada. I can’t look both ways to make sure we don’t leave someone behind.   All the rooms so far are empty, but there are some connected corridors that we can’t check. The hideout is more expansive than I thought. It gives me the impression that they have over a hundred members in their group, considering that they have multiple shelters.   Right now, the place is practically empty. Combined with the fact that their transportation is nowhere in sight, this dwelling could’ve been a detour. This is a dilemma. Our planned depended on wiping their entire group out in one go. That’s how we could safely extract Aisha from the clutches of the snake earring group without backlash from Floyd. We don’t know when they’ll be back.   “Intru—“ someone exclaims behind, followed by a grunt.   At the end of the hallway opposite the entrance is a room bigger than the rest. If I didn’t know better, inside are cages with monsters inside. The rumored Aerkins?   More screams resound from the right. They’re close and increase in number.   Along the way, I find several dead bodies. These guys have Iron weapons and armor. If Ada can kill them before they can draw their weapons, the level of these guys isn’t high. Viessa spoke as if their lower-ranked were skilled, so this doesn’t make sense. They can’t be any better than the foot soldiers of the army. The guy Marin took out must’ve been the only threatening force present.   “Flash!” Ada exclaims. A bright light illuminates the room up ahead for a few seconds, groans following.   Finally, Ada is in sight. Just in time to see her pierce a man’s neck with her dagger. She took out three men by herself.   “Aisha!” she exclaims and runs into the adjacent space.   I chase after her, finding Aisha suspended in the air with every limb shackled by a chain. They put a Slave Collar on her.   “Aisha, it’s me, Ada!”   Aisha doesn’t respond. Her head lowered, eyes red, and fresh tears drop from her face. Combined with the piss puddle under her, she probably endured some torture. Was it the Slave Remote? She doesn’t have any external injuries.   Ada puts her finger on Aisha’s wrist. “She’s still alive.”   Getting her out of these restrains is going to be problematic. They’re made of Titanium, like the Slave Collar. We can’t brute force it with these weapons.   “I’m gonna see if I can find a key off one of the three guys,” I say and go back to the other room. By this time, the others have caught up. Everyone seems unharmed. I inform, “Aisha’s safe. She’s in the room back there.”   “Thank God!” Deniz exclaims. The rest of Ada’s team grin, and they rush into the backroom.   I search the bodies in the room for the keys.   “Darling, what’re you lookin’ for?” Hina asks, crouching down to one of the bodies.   “Keys. Aisha’s got a Slave Collar and several chains binding her.”   Neither of us finds anything. Everyone suddenly calls out Aisha’s name in the backroom. Did she wake up?   Marin and Ruby guard our flank while the rest of us flood into the backroom, a piece of cloth now covering Aisha’s body.   “You guys have to go back…” Aisha mutters, her voice hoarse.   “Aisha, what are you talking about? We’re not leaving you here,” Ada says.   “Ye—“   “No! They—” Aisha suddenly exclaims and then coughs.   “Calm down, Aisha. Talk slower,” Deniz says.   Aisha takes several deep breaths before trying to talk again. “They’re headed to Syrina. They plan on making a public appearance. It’s them. The masked men and snake earring bandits are the same group. I saw them put on the masks.”   I widen my eyes. I’ve always considered the possibility, but hearing the truth is still shocking. Now, there’s a chance for one or all of those strange referees to be a part of the masked men. It makes sense if I assume they were mapping out the area.   Aisha continues, “I heard them say, ‘Today, the world shall know our name, Cascabel.’ You have to go back and warn them!”

On an upward trail toward the castle, two men approach us. The man in front is holding on to a stack of papers. He asks, “Are you lot here to join the army?” “Yeah,” I respond. “Have you served or graduated from the Academy before?” “Yeah, we’re Adventurers.” The man hands me a piece of paper. “Fill this out and hand it to Lieutenant Elinnore in front of the castle gates. She’s the one with orange pigtails. When you’re finished, wait on the right side.” I take a pencil from the other man before continuing up the trail. Ruby asks, “What’s the paper fer? I skim over it and answer, “Looks like we have to answer a few questions about us.” “Kai, look,” Marin says. I look up and then widen my eyes. The castle is in view in front of us. Everything seems to be at least twice the size of the Academy. The main structure and the walls surrounding it. I have seen it before from afar, but never up close. I admire the view, forgetting about what’s on the piece of paper. The people ahead are separated into two groups; one on the left side and the other on the right. Soon enough, we arrive at the front of the castle and join the group on the right side. There are many familiar faces around here. Particularly the teams we fought in the tournament. We stop next to Hina’s group. “Y’all made it,” the guy with a buckler says. “Yeah, but what’s going on here?” I ask. “Not sure. They haven’t said anything yet.” I look toward the three in armor in front of the gates. One of the men is calling out names. Lieutenant Elinnore drops a few papers on top of the table. The last one is sitting in front of a table. He’s shuffling through the papers in front of him. I glance down at the paper I’m holding. I look around and say, “We still need to fill this out…but where do I—“ “I got ya,” the guy with a buckler says and then squats down. “It’s fine. I can do it,” Marin interrupts and crouches down. She places a hand flat on the ground. A few seconds later, a small wooden pillar rises from the dirt. I place the paper on it. I skip the irrelevant questions. Year of Academy graduation. 3568.   Adventurer rank.   E.   Are you joining as a group?   Yes.   What are the names and roles of the members in the group?   I look at the space below, finding eight places to fill in. I knit my eyebrows. Eight blanks…so we can have eight members in a group? We have three and Hina has four…   I raise my head and ask, “Hey, can’t we combine our groups into one?” “It’s not possible,” Hina answers immediately. “I already asked earlier. They’re tryin’ to split the power as evenly as possible into different groups.” “I see,” I reply and then fill in our names and roles. Below is a block of text. “Hey, this looks important. Ruby, Marin, come read this too.” “’Kay!” Ruby exclaims and then stands next to me. Marin stands on the other side. You will form a special class platoon composed of 8 individuals called the Sigma Platoon. Missing members will be filled in by new recruits or by individuals from The Reserve. Only one member can be leader and hold the military rank in-name. The rank applies to the entire platoon, and other members won’t have any additional roles. Choose from the names above your leader.    I press the pencil into the paper but don’t write anything. “Kai, what’re you hesitating for? Marin asks. “Well, we should discuss—“ “There’s no way I can do something like that… Ruby won’t care either. Right, Ruby?” “Yeah! Kai’s our leader!” I smile and fill in my name. “Kai?” multiple people ask around me. The familiar faces I saw earlier turn toward us. I turn toward Ruby and then point toward the three in front of the gates. “Ruby, take this and turn this in for us.” “’Kay!” she exclaims and takes the paper and pencil from me. She skips the way there. “Elinnore~ Elinnore~!” A group of people comes toward us. “Yo,” a girl greets. I recognize her as the dagger girl from the tournament. “You’re still alive.” “Hey,” I greet back. I count them from left to right; all six of them are there. “All of you are still alive.” “Yep, our teamwork’s pretty good!” she exclaims and then smiles smugly. “You should learn from us.” “Excuse me?” I ask. “Hmm… Where’s the rest of your group?” she asks while glancing left and right. “Oh, that’s right. They all got themselves killed like the idiot on your team!” She laughs loudly. I grit my teeth and fists while glaring at her. Another girl puts a hand on dagger girl’s shoulder and says, “Ada, that’s enough. Leave them alone.” She’s the girl we took hostage in the tournament. Ada asks, “Aisha, you heard it too, didn’t you? Everyone did.” “Ada, your name was it? Take it back. What you said about Hiro and them,” I demand. “I won’t let you spit on their graves.” “Or what?” She asks and then laughs. “Are you gonna kill me like your team killed each other? That Castalia kid’s better off—“ I draw my weapon and point it at her. She backs away. Chatter around us stops. Eyes around linger on us. “Shut up, or I’ll make you shut up.” “Kai,” Marin says quietly and puts a hand on my arm. I shrug it off. “Resorting to violence, just like them. You’re working with them aren’t you?” “What the hell are you talking about?” “Ada, stop,” a guy says. Ada pushes his arms out of her way. “Team Aisha, come forward,” A man says loudly. “Powell and John from the left side come forward.” “Everyone saw it. You were trying to claim that Sitos was innocent. That he wasn’t one of them. But he was. And everyone here knows it!” Ada exclaims. Two guys pull her back. “And everyone here should know that you’re a traitor! Only a traitor would defend scum like him!” “I’m back! What’s goin’ on?” Ruby asks. I sheathe my sword and bite my lip. “Nothing.” “I’ll apologize on behalf of Ada. Sorry.” Aisha says with a bow before walking away with the rest of her team. I turn away from all the prying eyes around us. The chatter around us resumes. I lower my head and ask, “Why the hell does Ada know about Sitos…?” “Haven’t ya heard? Everyone’s talkin’ ‘bout Castalia and their involvement in the attack. Sitos is one of the names mentioned in the report,” the guy with a buckler informs. Report… I glance over to Ruby. She’s smiling as usual. Not knowing she’s the cause of everything. I glare at the buckler guy and ask, “Do you believe it too? The report.” “Stop it,” Hina says abruptly. “It’s the truth, isn’t it? I heard parts of it from Luna yesterday.” Hina gestures her head toward Ruby. Ruby tilts her head sideways and asks, “Who’s Luna?” Hina knits her eyebrows. I answer quickly, “Well, some stuff happened… Her name’s Ruby now.” “Yep, that’s me!” Ruby exclaims. “I see… In any case, you shouldn’t be pickin’ fights with everyone unless you have proof because the army does. You won’t last.” “Team Kai, come forward. Vicki and Kama from the left side come forward.” “We’re up. Let’s go,” I say and walk toward the front. “’Kay!” “Bye, Hina,” Marin says behind me. A woman and a man from the other group are walking toward the front of the gate where the man in armor stands. We arrive shortly after them. They appear to be at least twice our age. “Follow me,” the man instructs as he walks inside. We follow. “I am Lieutenant Petrus. Major Gaius has decided that you five and three Soldiers from The Reserve will form Sigma 4. You will meet the other three members some time after orientation held at 4:30 PM at the Crossroads. You will find it at the center of the first floor in the Castle.” We enter the courtyard. I widen my eyes, witnessing the grand size of the Castle. It looks more amazing up close. The trail leading into the courtyard splits off into two paths on the left and right. The path on the right appears to lead into the Castle while the left leads into a smaller building and somewhere else off to the side. Lieutenant Petrus continues, “For now, the three of you will help train Vicki and Kama until you receive new orders later. You will find various types of weapons placed in the barrels in the courtyard. The archery range is located behind the Castle. They never had any training, so it is up to you to help them choose a role. Kai.” “Yes,” I respond. “Major Gaius has granted you the rank Corporal. Ruby and Marin are granted the rank Soldier. Vicki and Kama, you two will be only granted the rank Soldier when you have completed basic training. Any questions?” “I have one, Lieutenant Petrus,” I say. “What is it, Corporal Kai?” I hesitate for a moment before asking, “When will we look for the ones responsible for the attack?” “That is not up to me, however… I suspect that General Nero will not make any moves until the bulk of our elites return from their mission in Neomeris.” I clench my fists and look down. He continues, “If you manage to reach the Lieutenant rank, you may start your own investigations with upper brass permission…or reach the Captain rank and go without it.” “Really?!” “Yes, if you do good work, you will progress quickly. Now, carry out your task Corporal Kai.” “Yes sir!” I answer with a salute. He smiles and then walks back. I turn toward the two new additions to our group. “Well, you heard him. What’re your names?” “I’m Kama,” the man answers. He has short black hair, a mustache, and a small beard. He seems completely out of shape with his belly protruding outward. “My name’s Vicki,” the woman answers. She’s the opposite of Kama, but not in a good way. She’s on the thin side. I can’t see battle ending well for either one of these two. “Well… What kind of weapon do you want to use?” “Hmm… I’m not sure. What kinds of weapons are there?” Kama asks. “There are weapons like mine that favor speed and precision over pure power, weapons that are very heavy and hit hard, and weapons for combat from afar.” “I think the bow Marin has would suit me best,” Vicki says. “Marin can teach you the basics, right?” “Yeah… Um… Follow me,” Marin says and then heads toward the opening on the left side of the Castle. Vicki follows her. “Have you decided on a weapon?” I ask. “I’m still not sure.” I sigh and then say, “Well, you can decide later. Come with me.” I walk toward the barrels far in front of us. I shuffle through one of them and then pick out a long wooden sword. I hand it to Kama. He asks, “What should I do with this?” I lead him to an open area away from everyone else. I hold one of my swords with both hands in front of me. “Practice this motion of swinging the sword.” I swing the sword down from above in front of me twice. “Now, you try it.” He brings the blade up and then swings it down. His form is wrong. “Like this?” “Keep your back straight. Your shoulders are too tense. Relax them,” I instruct. I circle around him as he swings it down over and over again. I put away my sword. “Move your left foot a little more back. Straighten out your entire arm through the motion of the swing.” “Hows this?” “Looking better. Just keep doing that until you can’t anymore,” I instruct. “What should I do?” she asks. “There’s nothing to do right…” It’s getting noisy at the front of the Castle gates. There has not been another group to go inside after us either. “Kama, I’m gonna check something out! Just keep practicing!” I run back out toward the gates, Ruby coming along with me. There’s a guard in addition to the three officials next to the table. As we get closer, I ask, “What’s going on? “That’s a problem,” Major Gaius says. “Reinforcements are needed at the Academy,” Lieutenant Petrus answers. The Academy?! I think back to what Moria told me. This is my chance!   I smile before exclaiming, “If you need reinforcements, let me take part!” “Who are you?” the guard asks. “Corporal Kai.” “Sorry, but Moria instructed me to bring veterans only.” “I’ll allow it,” Major Gaius says. “What?! But sir…” “We don’t have any Delta or Omega platoons to spare. Most of our forces are in Neomeris right now, and our remaining units were injured in the recent attack. These two here and the remaining recruits over there are the best we can offer right now.” “At least come with us, Major Gaius.” “I don’t want to.” “Excuse me?” “I’ll stay here and handle the recruitment process. If the enemy comes my way, I’ll take care of them. Lieutenant Petrus and Lieutenant Elinnore go with them.” “Yes sir!” “We’re comin’ too,” Hina declares. The four of them come forward. “Me too!” Ruby exclaims. “Take eight more, and you’ll be fine. Can we get more volunteers?” Some familiar faces appear; the team we fought in the second round of the tournament. There are three of them. Five other I don’t recognize come along too. A few of them have ten years above us. The sixteen of us and the messenger head to the Academy, eventually meeting up with Moria. Moria facepalms himself and shakes his head. “I thought I specifically asked for veterans, did I not? Over half of these faces are recent Academy graduates.” “Well… Major Gaius said this was all that was available for immediate deployment. Lieutenant Elinnore and Lieutenant Petrus are here as well.” “It’ll be fine, Moria,” I say with a smile. “It cannot be helped. Kai, you and the other rookies will have to stay in the back,” Moria says and then leads us to the entrance of the Underground. Four other instructors are waiting for us. “What are those kids doing here?” another instructor asks. “I asked the same thing, but we have to make do. They will stay in the back. Have there been any movements?” Moria asks. One of the other instructors shakes his head. “Let us go. Remember to stay close together and cover our flank.” We nod our heads, and then Moria opens the door to the Underground. Two of the instructors stay behind. We go down many flights of stairs in a dimly lit passage, eventually reaching the large open area. I take out both of my swords. The other instructor provides additional light. I haven’t seen anything unusual yet. Moria says, “We will check the ruins area first.” We slowly creep around every corner checking around us at every second of the way. Half of us climb onto nearby buildings to get a better view. Ruby and I remain on the ground. No one says anything. At least ten minutes pass when suddenly, someone screams. I immediately turn toward the girl who screamed. She’s on the ground. There are no signs of the enemy around her, but there’s something on the ground.  I move closer to check, my heart skipping a beat as I find a bloody arm on the ground. Moria and the other veterans rejoin us. The other instructor lights the view ahead of us, revealing more cutoff limbs and something more. Moria utters, “My goodness…” I walk down the path. Several unclothed bodies of young girls and boys lay lifelessly on the ground. Gashes, punctures, and burn marks decorate their corpses. Their genitals mutilated. I discover a body in a healthier condition compared to the rest. She only has a few minor cuts and bruises. There’s a metal collar around her neck. I check her pulse and then declare, “She’s still alive.” “That is good to hear,” the other instructor says. “Lieutenant Petrus, be a gentleman and escort her out of here,” Lieutenant Elinnore says. Lieutenant Petrus puts away his weapon, picks up the naked girl, and then answers, “Right. I will drop her off with the two other instructors and be back.” Lieutenant Petrus leaves with the girl. Someone else exclaims, “There are more survivors over here!” We discover three other confirmed survivors grouped in one spot, though their injuries are serious. One of them is missing both of their legs while the other two lack an arm. The girl who screamed earlier casts Healing magic on them to stop the bleeding. There’s another body a bit farther in front of us. Moria’s running toward her, so I search around us. “The enemy!” Moria exclaims suddenly. There’s a masked man standing between Moria and the body in the distance. I gulp. This is my chance… I tightly grip my swords and charge toward him. “You finally—“ Our blades meet. He’s using two short swords, one in each hand. “Kai, what are you doing?!” Moria exclaims. “Get back!” The masked man laughs and then says, “Oh, it’s you again.” He pushes me back with brute force and launches me back. I slide several feet on the ground. He knows me?   “How dare ya do that ta Kai!” Ruby exclaims and then runs forward. Moria stops her. “Stop. He has a hostage,” Moria says. Lieutenant Elinnore and the other veterans make a line at the front. I stand up.  Hina and the others stand vigilant around me. “Hostage? You mean her?” the masked man asks as points to the girl behind him. He puts away his weapons and then walks toward her. He kneels down and then smacks her across the face multiple times. “Hey, wake up.” The girl screams while flailing her limbs around. The masked man picks her up and then chucks her in our direction. He laughs and then says, “I don’t wanna hold you back. Take her.” Moria and the others don’t move. Moria says, “Stand up, quickly. You will be safe soon.” The girl smiles as she looks up. Her legs are shaky as she tries to stand up. She’s about to take a step forward when suddenly, a large explosion erupts around her. I close my eyes as a gust of air pushes me back. What happened to Moria?!   I open my eyes, finding the eight who were in the front on the ground. There’s a wall of water in front of them. The masked man runs off and yells, “See ya suckers!” I bite my lip, stand up, and then chase after him. I won’t let him get away!   “Kai, no!” Moria exclaims behind me. “Kai, wait fer me!” Ruby exclaims as she follows me. I chase closely after the masked man in several twists and turns. Suddenly, he jumps from wall to wall and climbs onto the top of a tall structure. I raise my eyebrows. Those movements!   I recall the same movements from that day. A masked man dragged a woman to an alleyway and then jumped up the walls to get away. I grit my teeth. I turn toward the direction he ran to as soon as I can, but I don’t see him anymore. It’s still not too late!   I run in the most likely direction he would run in: toward the entrance of the Underground. I have no idea where he is while running senselessly. I stop running as I discern something odd near me. There’s a big rock next to a wall. There shouldn’t be any rocks in the Underground. I sheathe my weapons and then move closer to the rock. It’s blocking something. I grab both ends of the rock and pull. A small passage is revealed. I release a small amount of fire from a finger on my left hand to illuminate the tunnel. It’s slanted about 45 degrees downward and can barely fit one person. The surface inside is made of dirt. This must be where he fled to… Should I tell everyone else about this...? No... If I do, Moria won’t let me go down there, and the enemy would be long gone. It’s now or never.   I gulp and then squeeze into the crawlspace. The end isn’t in sight. About five minutes pass when a thought enters my mind. Wait, what if this is a trap…?   I stop moving forward and attempt to move backward, but it’s impossible at this angle. I reluctantly continue moving forward. There’s a faint sound in the distance. A steady, constant sound. It becomes clear when I get closer; it’s the sound of a water current. The exit is in sight. I climb out of the hole, finding myself in the sewers. There’s no sign of the enemy. I sigh. Continuing to pursue him would be pointless. There are too many places he could have gone. I climb back into the hole in the wall and make my way back up without a light aid. My pace is slower compared to going down.   How long has it been? I just wanna get out of this place… The air around me is murky, and my entire body feels damp. It feels like I should be able to see the exit by now, but there is only darkness. Eventually, I reach a dead end. Huh?   I reach the end with my hand and push. The rock I moved is in the way again. I push it out of the way. I gasp for air while climbing out of the passage. “Kai, it is just you…” Moria says with a sigh. I look up, finding Moria, Ruby, Lieutenant Elinnore, and several others I don’t recognize gathered around me. Over half of the others aren’t present. They have their weapons out and appear tense. They sigh and then put away their weapons. “We have been looking for you. What have you been doing?” “Well… I found this suspicious looking rock and moved it. I thought the masked man might’ve used this as his escape route, so I went in to check it out. It led to the sewers. There was no sense in trying to find him there, so I came back.” “How reckless.” Moria shakes his head. “It is good that nothing happened to you.” “What were you guys doing here?” “We were looking for you until she found this suspicious rock blocking the hole,” Moria says as he points to Ruby I knit my eyebrows. “I suspected the masked men entered the Academy through here and decided to keep watch after moving the rock back.” “What do you mean she found a suspicious rock blocking the hole? I didn’t move it back after I went in. Ruby, you’re sure that you found it that way?” “Uh-huh.” “That is troubling to hear. The others could be in danger. Let us hurry,” Moria suggests. Footsteps approach us. “Moria, there’s trouble!” Hina exclaims as she and her group run over to us. “Lieutenant Petrus’ missin’!” “What do you mean?” Moria asks. “We brought a batch of survivors to the entrance, but the two instructors stationed there didn’t expect us. I asked about Lieutenant Petrus, and they told me he hasn’t passed through there.” “That is not good. We learned that the enemy might still be in here with us. Where is everyone else?” “They’re split up lookin’ for more survivors.” “Let us meet up with them quickly. But we cannot leave this place unguarded.” “I’ll be fine here by myself. You should hurry and meet up with the others,” Lieutenant Elinnore says. “Alright. We will be back,” Moria says and then runs in the direction Hina came from. The rest of us follow. We go toward the area where the tournament game ‘Watch Your Step’ took place. Along the way, the axe guy from the team we fought in the second round of the tournament calls out to us from behind. “Oh shit, Moria, you’re here!” he exclaims with his hands wrapped around the sides of his head. We turn back to where he is at the entrance of a structure. “We-we found Lieutenant Petrus… He-he’s…!” “Calm down Balan. I am glad you are okay. Where are the others?” Moria asks. “I’m only with Zeke and Ain. I dunno about the rest. I was too scared to move from this building.” “Take us to Lieutenant Petrus.” Balan leads us into a room where the other two members of his team are. The two are sitting against the wall. Lieutenant Petrus is lying on the ground face up with a pool of blood around his neck. His throat has been slit. A familiar scene. “What happened to the girl?” “We don’t know. She wasn’t around when we arrived.” “I see. Let us hurry and find the others.” We resume our course toward the ‘Watch Your Step’ area. The other instructor and the last two members of our team are standing outside the entrance. “Thank god, you are all okay.” “Yes, we are. What is wrong?” the other instructor asks. “The enemy might still be in the Underground area. Lieutenant Petrus is no longer with us,” Moria informs. “Oh no…” “Did you find any more survivors?” “No, we did not. There was nothing in this entire area.” Moria closes his eyes for several seconds with a hand around his chin. “Let us rejoin with Lieutenant Elinnore and leave this place.” “What about the masked men?” “We have higher priorities right now: the survivors. We will seal the hole we found earlier and pick up the bodies as a group. We will scout the area again another day.” With that, we head back to that area. Lieutenant Elinnore reports that nothing happened. Moria kneels down and puts one of his hands into the tunnel. Several seconds later, dirt from the top of the tunnel falls. Afterward, we make our way to Lieutenant Petrus’ body. Two people carry his body, and then we make our way to the first place we discovered bodies. Ruby picks up several severed limbs to carry back. I take two bodies with me. Eventually, everyone is carrying something. We return to the entrance of the Underground where the other two instructors are waiting. We drop the bodies and limbs on the ground. Moria asks, “Where are the survivors?” One of the instructors answers, “They’re in one of the training rooms. The medics sent from the Castle are attending to them now. What happened to Lieutenant Petrus?” “We do not know. He was found dead. Our next priority should be finding out who these survivors are.” “Can you take care of things here on your own now?” Lieutenant Elinnore asks. “Yes, we will be fine for now. Good work,” Moria says. “Well then, we’ll be on our way. Orientation has started already,” Lieutenant Elinnore says as she heads out. We follow behind. “See ya, Moria.” “Take care, Kai.” We make our way back to the Castle.

We follow them to an inn near the edge of the city. We go into a room on the first floor. There’s no one in here other than a wounded man on a bed. Moria rushes over to the man with a green glow over his hands. The man’s armor is chipped and broken. Multiple gashes and punctures are visible. His blood oozing from them has stained the bed sheets.   “Why’d you come with us?” I ask while looking at Hina. “Don’t you have a job to do?   “We-well…” Her eyes point away. “I was curious.”   “Hmm…” I stare at her for a moment. I smile. “Slacking off to see your boyfriend I see. I never would’ve imagined Hina would slack off for such an impure motive…”   Her face flushes red. “Shu-shut up! It’s not impure!”   She turns around and storms out of the room.   “There is nothing more I can do for this man,” Moria says while standing up. “He should be out of the woods. There is no telling when he will wake up, though.”   “That’s great news!” the guard exclaims. “I will inform my superior right away! Thank you for your assistance!”   The guard dashes out the room. Moria sighs. There are dark circles under his eyes. “Well, I should be going back. We are going to do our best to bury everyone from the Academy by then, but the funeral will be held at 9 AM tomorrow regardless. I will see you then.”   “Okay. Hiro and Drugo are on the back of the wagon parked in front of the Academy,” I inform.   “I understand,” Moria answers and walks out of the room. Marin is staring intently at the unconscious man.   “We should get going too, Marin. Let the man rest,” I suggest. “He’s gonna wake up eventually and tell us what happened.”   “Okay…” Marin says, and then we head out. “What’re you going to do now?”   I think about it for a moment. Luna comes to mind, but I don’t want to deal with her right now. “I’m gonna see if Emdos is back.”   Marin suddenly grabs my hand and stands in place. I stop and turn around. She looks me in the eye and says, “That’s not good.”   I look away. “Stop finding excuses…to not see her, please.”   I squeeze her hand tight before replying, “Fine. Let’s go.”   I pull her along, still holding her hand. We walk in silence for two minutes.   I clear my throat and then ask, “So...when was the last time you saw your parents?”   “It was the day before they left on the expedition,” she answers. I open my mouth about to say something, but she smiles and continues. “We went out to eat at my favorite place close to home called, ‘The Monarch.’ I loved that place because they treated you like a king or queen no matter what.”   “That sounds nice… I wish I could eat at ‘The Green Boar’ with Emdos again. The last time I saw him was a month ago on an ordinary visit. He didn’t tell me he was gonna leave or anything…”   “I’m sure he’s fine,” Marin says with a smile. “I’m sure he wouldn’t leave or go anywhere dangerous without saying goodbye first…”   Marin loosens her grip on my hand. Her eyes are shaky. I tighten my grip on her hand and don’t say anything the rest of the way. Marin stands by the entrance of our inn and says, “I’ll wait here. I won’t let you leave until you’ve settled things with Luna.”   I nod and then walk inside slowly. Memories of Luna from when I first met her all the way to earlier today flood into my mind. Her smile. Her expressions. I go up the stairs while taking deep breaths. The second door on the left is closed. I knock on it.   Luna opens the door and greets me with a smile. “Kai!”   I look at her now and only see what she has done since killing Sitos. I grit my teeth and grimace. You’re not her…   “I went and waited here like you told me!” she exclaims and sits on her bed. The same bed she shared with an older man. I close the door behind me. She kicks her legs up and down. “I don’t mind on fulfilling our promise right now.”   I clench my fists. You’re an imposter wearing her skin.   I take another deep breath before saying, “Listen… I’m gonna be straight with you.”   “Kai…?”   I point my eyes away from her. Stop using her expressions…   “I can’t stand being around you. I don’t want to see your face. It makes me angry. Stop pretending to be her. Luna is like nothing of what you are…”   Tears flow down her face. “Kai… I don’t understand… You said...you said you would love me forever! No matter what happens…”   Stop using her memories…  My eyes feel watery, but I hold the tears back. I bite my lip before answering, “No… I made that promise with Luna.”   She sniffles and then asks, “So...you hate me because I’m not Luna?”   “Yeah.” Luna lowers her head while continuing to cry. A tear escapes me. Even though she’s only an empty shell compared to what she used to be, I can’t help but associate her with Luna.   “Okay, I understand Kai… Starting tomorrow, I won’t be Luna anymore… I’ll become Ruby…and you won’t recognize me… So please don’t hate me or abandon me…”   I turn my back to her, open the door, and then close it. I stand there in place with my eyes closed. All my memories of Luna flash before my eyes. Bawls resound behind me. I can’t hold back my tears anymore and let them out. I try not to make a sound. I wipe my eyes and calm down. One final image of her smile fades out. Goodbye, Luna…   I go down the stairs. Outside, Marin is nowhere to be found. I look around the inn but don’t find her. Five minutes pass and still nothing. Hmm… That’s weird… I guess I’ll go see Emdos.   I do just that and arrive at his place. The front door is still open as I left it. I rush inside. “Emdos, are you here?!”   No one answers. I grit my teeth and squeeze my eyes shut. Emdos… Where’d you go…? You wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye...would you?   I think back to the events that unfolded yesterday. I shake my head. No… Emdos wouldn’t lose to any of them.   I raise my eyebrows as something comes to mind. I open a nearby drawer, finding a key inside. I stare at it for a while. Emdos...you really…   I take the key and then leave the house. I lock the door with the key. With no idea where I’m heading next, I start to walk in a random direction.   “I can’t believe one monster was responsible for killing all of the other expedition members. A weapon that sucks up our magic? Unbelievable,” a man says nearby. I stop and knit my eyebrows.   “I know right?” another man asks. “Like such a convenient weapon exists in our world… He’s makin’ that shit up. Takin’ advantage of the dead.”   He…? They can’t possibly be talking about… I approach the men. “What man are you talking about?”   “Huh? What other man would I be talkin’ ‘bout right now? The survivor from the expedition. Haven’t ya heard the news?”   I widen my eyes. Marin…!   I run without knowing where I’m going. I think back to what she told me. I run up to a random person. “Excuse me, I’m looking for a restaurant called, ‘The Monarch.’   “‘The Monarch?’ Yer lookin’ in the wrong street. It’s in that direction,” the man informs while pointing north. I thank him and run that way. After asking several more people, I arrive at the establishment. Panting, I look around for stationary people. I walk up to a group of three.   “Excuse me, I’m looking for a girl. She has red hair. She’s wearing a short-sleeved blue blouse and a white skirt. Have you seen her?”   “Sorry, bud. Can’t say I have,” a man responds. The other two shake their heads too. I repeat this process nearly a dozen times around the area.   “Hey, kid,” a lady calls out to me on my right. I turn toward her. A woman sitting on a porch is smoking out of a pipe. She has long blue hair tied in a ponytail and wears glasses. “I overheard ya. Why are ya lookin’ for a girl like that?”   I look down while thinking for a moment. “She’s an important friend of mine who was there during my worst… I want to be there for her too and…”   I stop mid-sentence, finding the woman is pointing her thumb behind her. She takes a hit from her pipe and then blows out the smoke. “She’s in there.”   I gulp while going up the steps. I turn the handle on the door, discovering it’s unlocked. I go inside. Quiet sobs resound. I slowly walk up the creaking stairs, the cries growing in volume. Marin… You were willing to be Luna’s replacement… But now…   I arrive at a door not shut all the way. I gently push the door open. Marin is lying face down on a bed crying. “Sheila, I told you to—“ Marin raises her head up. “Kai…why’re you…”   She sits up and rubs her eyes with her fingers. I walk over to her. “How’d you find—“   I hug her. Several seconds pass, and she continues to cry, wrapping her arms around me in the process. She lightly presses me away with her hands only to look me in the eyes. I slide my hand down her cheek onto her neck. I gaze down at her slightly parted lips. She closes her eyes. I close mine too as our lips meet.   I want to soothe her sadness like she has done the same for me. We repeat yesterday night, but this time I only think of her. With hopes she forgets about the sorrow if only for a moment.   …   I open my eyes slowly, finding Marin rubbing my cheek with her hand. She’s smiling. “Your sleeping face is cute.”   I slide my hand over her body toward her flower. She lets out a soft squeal and her body twitches. Her face flushes red. I smile and say, “Your face is cute too.”   She grabs my hand and pulls it up. “That’s cheating…”   “If you want you can do the same thing to—“   “How’d it go with Luna?”   I stop smiling and then sigh. I let go of her and then lie on my back. “I told her that I hate her because she’s not Luna and I can’t stand being around her.”   “Ho-how’d she respond…?”   “She said that starting tomorrow she won’t be Luna anymore.”   Marin cuddles next to me and smiles. “I see.”   Suddenly, she slides her hand down my chest toward my sleeping friend. She wakes him up. It sends chills up my body. My heart pounds as my eyes are locked onto hers. I move in for the kiss.   “Dinner’s ready!” someone exclaims. I stop moving as does Marin.   I knit my eyebrows and ask, “Who’s that?”   “Sheila,” Marin answers quietly as she starts to put on clothes. I get dressed too. We go down the stairs together and then into the kitchen. The woman that was sitting on the porch is seated at a table.   “I made yer favorite, Kai,” Sheila informs. I walk over to a seat with a bowl in front of it. It’s some kind of meaty soup. My stomach growls and my mouth generates a lot of saliva. I sit down and then start chowing down the food. Marin sits down next to me.   “How’d you know my name?” I ask and then continue chowing down the soup. Sheila smiles.   “Marin’s told me about ya. Yer favorite food is soup, yer favorite—“   “Sheila!” Marin exclaims and blushes. “Don’t tell him that! It’s embarrassing…”   “Why would that be embarrassin’ but not—”   “Wait… I’ve never told you his name…”   Sheila laughs and then says, “Yeah ya have… Ya were practically screamin’ his name over and over again. At least have the courtesy to close the door. The whole city heard it.”   Marin’s face flushes completely red. She covers her face with both hands. A wave of heat spreads across my face with droplets of sweat forming on my forehead. I tilt my head down just enjoying the soup. Oops…   “So, how many times have ya done it with Marin?”   Please, no… Stop asking me these questions! I look up, finding Sheila grinning. It looks like she’s trying hard not to laugh. She’s enjoying this. “Uhh… I prefer not to die later.”   She laughs before answering, “Well, alright. I’ll leave ya two rabbits alone. I thought Marin would never graduate, but I won’t have to worry about that anymore.”   With that, she walks away. The sound of a door opening and closing resounds. Marin looks at me with a frown and narrowed eyebrows. She doesn’t say anything and simply eats her meal. Soon enough, we both finish and retire to the same room. Marin closes and locks the door and then looks at me with the same expression as earlier. “Now you’ll get your punishment.”   “Wait—“ Marin pushes me down onto the bed. I learn about the other side of her that night.   The next morning, we wake up, eat breakfast, and then head to our inn. Marin lets go of my hand as we go inside. We go upstairs, stopping in front of Luna’s door. I knock.   The door opens, and I widen my eyes. With a smile, Luna greets us, “Good mornin’, Kai and Marin!”   Her hair is completely red. It reminds me of the scene where she was painted red. Marin points at her and exclaims, “Lu-Luna! What’d you do to your hair?”   Luna cocks an eyebrow, looks behind her, and then back. “Who’s Luna? I’m Ruby.”   I think back to the questionable actions she’s taken in the past two days. That’s right… All those times, it was Ruby. It wasn’t Luna. It was Ruby. It was Ruby. It was Ruby.   I rewrite what I saw, trying to keep my vision of Luna pure. I focus back on the girl in front of me again. I only see Ruby, a girl I met two days ago. I smile before saying, “Ruby, we’re going need to arrive at the Academy by 9 AM for the funeral. Can you get ready and wait downstairs?”   “Okay!” she exclaims with a grin. I head toward my room. It’s still a mess with my stuff everywhere. I close the door behind me and sigh. I reorganize everything before taking a shower. I put on some black clothing and then head downstairs. Ruby and Marin are already waiting. We head for the Academy.   As we make it on the ramp to the Academy, I see other groups of people heading there as well dressed in similar clothing. We make our way to the back of the Academy using the same path as last time. We stand silently in place next to the large mound of dirt as the crowd grows. Eventually, Moria moves to the center of the mound.   “We are all here gathered today to mourn the loss and say our goodbyes to the students and instructors who were caught in an awful tragedy two days ago. It was a day like any other. In the middle of teaching the first-years, a loud noise resounded and shook the entire room violently. I instructed the students to evacuate, but that is when screams resounded in the hallways. Armed masked villains came from all directions and slaughtered everyone in an instant.   “I did my best to fend off the attackers, but it was futile. They were organized, and there were a lot of them. The exits were blocked, and many were trapped. Some put up a good fight, but the enemies were too skilled for them. Outnumbered, we were forced to flee using the back exit. A large band of the senior students managed to barricade themselves in the dormitory. We were prepared to fight until the bitter end. It was not long before they simultaneously retreated. We thought we had won, but…a powerful wind erupted from inside the dormitory that collapsed the entire building.   “I would like to apologize for the behalf of all the instructors here,” Moria says, his voice cracking. Tears flow down his eyes. “As an instructor, one of my many duties is to protect the students…but I was not able to accomplish that. I was not able to protect a single one. I ask myself, why. Why am I still alive, despite that not one of my 597 students was able to make it. I am ashamed of this fact, and I am deeply sorry. I regret I was not able to trade this old life for any of the growing buds for our next generation.”   “Please, take all the time you need to part with your loved one. In the very least, know that none of them had to suffer in their last moments. They were merciful on that end.”   Chatter erupts around us as Moria walks away. I think back to the good times with Hiro and smile. “Hiro annoyed me sometimes, like the time he splattered bird guts all over me. But reflecting back, his light-heartedness and dimness brought a nice flavor to our group.”   Marin giggles and then adds, “I had a similar experience with Hiro. He splattered worm juices all over me… I admired his straightforwardness. He was never afraid of speaking his mind. I was jealous of his endless confidence. But I have to apologize to you now Hiro… I was the one who dropped that rock on you in the sewers.”   Marin and I look toward Ruby who is smiling, but she doesn’t say anything. Several seconds later I face forward and continue, “I fulfilled my promise to you, Hiro. You’re home.”   A few tears escape me. I close my eyes and bring my palms together in front of me. “Rest in peace.”   I open my eyes, finding Marin making the same gesture with a smile. “Goodbye, Hiro. Sleep well.”   I think back to the good memories of Drugo and smile. “Drugo was a nice guy. I don’t think anyone could hate him. He could always break up a fight between us the fastest way possible. He’s the kind of guy that would try to understand rather than hate for being stabbed in the back.”   Marin continues, “He had a sense of responsibility… Something I wish Kai had more of…”   I frown at her smile. “He always took the job no one wanted to do like buying team supplies. It was nice to have someone run errands for me when the person on duty was taking a nap.”   I cough and then glance over to Ruby again. Still standing with the same expression. “Drugo, I hope you’re allowed to eat as much as you want wherever you are. Say hi to Hiro for me.”   I close my eyes and bring my palms together in front of me. Marin says, “Keep Hiro out of trouble, Drugo.”   I open my eyes, focusing on Moria. He’s walking toward the back entrance of the Academy. There are two people barely visible from inside. All three disappear from my sight when Moria goes in. It piques my curiosity.   “Kai, what’s wrong?” Marin asks.   “Nothing… I’m just looking for Moria. I want to ask him something.”   “Want to look for him together?”   “No, stay here with Ruby. It’ll complicate things if she comes too. I’ll be right back,” I say and then head toward the back entrance. I hear small mumblings as I approach. They’re just around the corner from the back entrance. I move my head the closest I can without getting caught. There are blood stains smeared everywhere in the parts visible from here. They are to my right.   “We cannot call for more backup right now. It would cause a panic,” Moria says.   “It’s better than letting another tragedy occur right before our eyes,” a man says. “They could be planning their next move as we speak.”   “We can’t afford to wait any longer. They know we know,” another man says. My palms sweat.   They? I think of the masked invaders. I clench my fists. I reveal myself and ask, “They’re still here?”   Moria turns around. “Kai…?”   “Teacher Moria, if those masked guys are still here, let me help!”   Moria glances at the other two men before facing me again. He quietly says, “I will fill you in, but no one can know about this.”   A drop of sweat slides down the side of his face. “I understand.”   “We discovered very disturbing scenes throughout the Academy yesterday. We had thought all the students were killed immediately, but we were wrong. The fortunate ones died instantly, but the less fortunate ones, we discovered in secluded rooms and places around the Academy,” Moria informs and then clenches his fists. Tears flow out of his eyes.   “They were tortured… They were raped and abused… Just children as young as 11… Some of them were still alive and could have have been saved, but I thought it was too late. I could not bring myself to tell the truth to everyone.   “We discovered one of them in the act. He fled to the Underground area where we suspect the rest of them are. His victim was already dead and cold,” Moria informs and then pauses for a moment before continuing. “We are standing guard here in the meantime. I do not wish to call for reinforcements because it would cause a panic. I want these parents to have their peace.”   “I can help! I’ll bring my equipment later. Let me avenge Drugo and Sitos. There could be more survivors.”   “No, it’s too dangerous. We can’t allow more casualties,” one of the men says.   “Kai is one of the most talented students to have ever graduated from the Academy,” Moria says.   “Yeah, I can—“   “But, you are still too inexperienced. I do not want to put you in this situation. These men are dangerous,” Moria continues. “Do not worry too much about it. We will do something about it. Remember, do not tell anyone about this.”   I sigh and then answer, “I understand, but there’s still one thing on my mind. It’s about…Hiro.”   “Yes, I heard from Marin that a monster killed him.”   I think back to my fight with the monster. “Yeah… It was really strong. Its red eyes gave me a creepy feeling.”   Moria drops his jaws and widens his eyes. He grabs me by the shoulders. “Red eyes? Are you sure?”   I gulp and then answer, “Yeah. Do you know something?”   Moria lets go of me and sighs. “Indeed… I have read about them in the past in tall tales. I have never seen them myself but know many seasoned Adventurers who have fallen to them. They are called Anomalies. Exceedingly rare and powerful. There is no account of anyone defeating one. You are very lucky to have survived an encounter with it.”   “They’re that big of a deal?” I ask and then look down, reflecting on my experience. Why’d it run…?   “Okay, I’m gonna get going now. See ya, Teacher Moria!” I exclaim and then head back outside.   “Take care. Do not forget about our discussion.”   Marin and Ruby are not where they were before. An ear-piercing bawl resounds that I distinguish among other cries. I run toward it, finding Marin and Ruby standing next to Hina’s group. Hina has her face buried in her arms on the ground.   “What’s going on?” I ask.   “We lost two yesterday,” the larger-built guy answers. I widen my eyes.   “No way… Hina told me they sustained only minor injuries…”   He continues, “Yeah… We don’t know what happened. Hina was checking up on Lucius and discovered his mouth foaming. He wasn’t responding. Angela was found in the same condition.”   I frown while looking at the sky. “Everyone’s going far away…”   “Are y’all gonna find replacements and continue adventurin’?” another boy asks.   “No…” I reply and glance over to Marin and Ruby. “I’m not sure what we’re gonna do.”   “Why not join the army? That’s what we’re gonna do. They’re recruitin’ outside the castle at 3 PM today. Pay’s not as good, but it’s enough.”   “We want to pay them back for the hole they tore in us,” the larger-built guy explains.   Revenge… I wanna find who’s responsible. I clench my fists and look over to Marin and Ruby. “What do you guys think?”   “I’ll follow wherever ya go, Kai!” Ruby exclaims.   “I’m the same,” Marin answers with a smile.   “Then it’s settled,” I say. “We’ll see ya guys later.”   We say our goodbyes and then head back to the inn. We clean up Drugo’s, Hiro’s, and Sitos’ room and then decide to preserve them. I hide the key to Emdos’ house in a drawer in Hiro’s room. Presenting roughly four gold coins to the receptionist, we pay upfront the cost of board for the next six months. We gather our equipment and then head toward the castle.

“Wha-what’s going on?” I ask and turn my head to Floyd. His smirking face tells me that he set us up.   “Sorry, it’s nothing personal,” he says. The Dwarves grabs us by the arm, moving us by force. “Do what they ask, and everything will be fine. Find me in the Casino if you’re ever around again.”   “Where’re you taking us?” I ask but get no answer. “Does this have to do with us not having passes?”   “Shut yer mouff er Ay will shut it fer ya,” one of them says.   I won’t get any answers out of them, it seems. That has to be the only possibility, but it’s strange. The Dwarves at the entrance let us through pretty quickly despite not having passes. We mentioned Lotrem and Nazug, so those two are the only people that could’ve said something otherwise. We went straight to the Aerkin arena, and Floyd came talking to us shortly afterward. Considering that none of those Dwarves from the entrance followed us, there’s no way they could inform anyone of us.   There was that moment Nazug looked our way, but there was no exchange of words. Lotrem isn’t anywhere near us, and I don’t think he would put us in a situation like this. A bit of a jokester, but friendly.   With the safety regulations at the Aerkin arena nonexistent combined with the fact that this place is hidden, it’s safe to say that whatever goes on here isn’t allowed on the surface. That’s what Floyd meant by protecting this place and why I haven’t heard of the Achilles Sundance Circuit until now. But it’s impossible for this place to have stayed hidden forever. And the only way that this place exists in the first place is that it was built at the time of the city.   Doesn’t that imply Syrina was built recently? Each race could’ve been responsible for their own district. But this entrance was in the central zone. So that means every race knew about it, but then there’s no point in keeping this place a secret. There are also other entrances, as Hina suggested. I find it hard to believe that every entry could remain hidden. There’s too little to go off of right now.   Floyd said to find him at the Casino…wherever that is. Must be a unique location in this underground city. I’m not sure if we can trust him again, but he may be our only source of additional knowledge. The information he gave regarding the Achilles Sundance Circuit was right as far as I know. So, if I do what the Dwarves ask of us, they’ll let us go unharmed according to him. I’m scared about what they’ll ask, though.   They lead us into a small building. The sound of a hammer hitting metal resounds. A blacksmith inside. He turns toward us and asks, “Vanguards? Wha’ ken Ay dae fer ya?”   “We got deez rats sniffin’ ‘round whaur dae shou’ nae be. Give dem de usual,” the Dwarf next to me says.   “Wait, no,” I object. I think I know what’s going on here now. “I’m sorry we came in without passes, Lotrem didn’t tell us before he referred us here.”   “Doze lies be nae guin ter work on us. We already knoo Lotrem dint refer ya here, army dog,” a Dwarf says and shoves me forward. How’d they know that we’re from the army? The blacksmith in the shop holds onto a hot piece of metal. So blazing that it’s glowing bright red. My eyes widen.   “No no no, you’re right. I’m sorry. We lied. We’re from the Drosera army,” I say quickly. It seems like honesty is the only card we can play now. “Lotrem didn’t refer us, but we had a nice chat with him at the Icy Tavern. We only discovered this place by chance. I thought I saw a monster in the street, and I was curious where it went. That’s all. And we’re not rats. We won’t tell anyone about this place. We swear. Right, Hina?”   “Yeah,” she answers promptly.   Despite that, they push me down and put my arm on the table. “Dun worry. We be guin ter make sure o’ dat."   They remove the arm guard on my right arm and then roll my sleeve up. I continue, “Yo-you don’t have to do this. Just give us the passes, and we won’t let this happen again.”   “Okay,” one of them says. I sigh. I managed to convince them before it was too late. But they’re not letting me go, which makes me feel uneasy.   Suddenly, something scorching burns my upper arm. I exclaim, “Fuck!”   It catches me by complete surprise. The Dwarves laugh. “Dun be a baby. ‘Tis nae dat bad. It ken get way hotter dan dat.”   It’s not the worst pain I’ve felt, but I wasn’t expecting it. The blacksmith pulls the hot metal away from me. The Dwarves grab me and then pull me up.   “Dare be de pass ye wanted,” one of them says.   That’s the pass? It’s not an actual pass? He reattaches the arm guard.   “Nigh fer de girl,” one of them says and pushes Hina onto the table as they did with me.   I can only watch. Fighting them would be impossible, given that we’re in their territory. We wouldn’t be able to escape, assuming we get past these capable warriors. The blacksmith called them Vanguards. They must be powerful. Hina whimpers weakly as they brand her arm the same, pulling her up afterward.   “Dat be embarassin’. Yer lady friend been quieter dan ya.”   She knew what was coming. I keep my thoughts to myself. On the bright side, we got the passes we needed to get out of here without wasting time. We were just on our way out, so this works for us.   “Nigh yer comin’ wiff us, boy,” one of them says and the two of the others tag along. They grab me as before.   “Kai, they’re separatin’ us!” Hina exclaims. I resist their pulls and turn around. She struggles to break free, but the two Dwarves restrain her and drag her toward the backroom.   “Wait, what’re you doing?!” I exclaim. My heart pounds rapidly as possibilities course through my mind. Is this the moment to fight back? Hina chose to tag along, but it’s still my fault she’s in this mess. This is my responsibility. I can’t let anything happen, but… I bite my lip. We could break free from this current situation, but we would alert everyone nearby. That wouldn’t be good for us, and we don’t know how to leave this place either. It’s a death wish.   “Juss shut up an’ walk. Dae wha’ we say, an’ we’ll return de girl alive,” one of them says as he yanks me arm forward.   “Kai!” Hina cries out.   “Don’t worry!” I exclaim, but they’re empty words to make her feel better. Though I’m fearful of what happens next, I want to say something else to follow up. I open my mouth, but no words come out. Something like, We’ll find a way out of here, seems like it would make the situation seem more hopeless.   Hina doesn’t say anything more. I don’t know of my meaningless words reassured her that it would be fine, if they shut her mouth, or something else. It’s better that she’s alive than dead.   I think back to my careless actions half a year ago. My stupid, selfish decisions that endangered everyone. It feels the same now as it did then. All the negative thoughts fill my head. What if we never make it out of this situation? What if it’s my fault something happens to Hina? It would be all my fault. I haven’t learned anything from my mistakes. Orders are everything, and I’m breaking them.   But it’s necessary to achieve my ultimate goal of finding those masked men… And things are different this time. I tried to do everything alone back then. Now, I have the support of everyone. Well, almost everyone. I should focus on what the Dwarves want me to do instead of the potential consequences if I fail. It’s not over until it’s over. I won’t let this result in another negative outcome like that day with General Nero again.   The Dwarves continue to pull me through these underground streets. The passersby give me long stares like I’m some kind of spectacle, be it a Human or Dwarf. If this was on the surface and roles were reversed, there’d be a very different reaction. Like how a war almost broke out when Elf slaves were discovered in the city.   Eventually, there’s a huge door ahead. Like the entrance I first came through, but at a different location. It’s strange how there’s no one guarding it, considering how much trouble they go through to make sure no one speaks of this place. You’d think they’d bother to station some guards.   They could be beyond the door next to the gate. That’s where the guards from the initial entrance went after they let us in. But, there’s no openings or windows along the wall. There’s no way for them to see us. It was like that at the entrance too.   As we approach the gate, the door next to it opens. A Dwarf emerges and asks, “Vanguards? What be guin on?”   Who are these guys? Everyone recognizes them by sight.   “Takin’ care o’ a high-risk rat. Let us drough.”   “Roight away, sir,” he says and goes back into the door. He comes out less than a minute later. “All good ter go.”   What does he mean by high-risk? Because we’re from the army? Or because we didn’t have the pass? I’d ask them, but they wouldn’t answer.   He goes back into the door, closing it behind him. Two of the Dwarves pull the gate open. We go through the gate, which leads to a similar looking passage, except that it’s illuminated. So mysterious. A part of the wall sticks out like a rectangle at the end. The ceiling underneath is shorter than a standard room. At the end, there’s a ladder leading up. The closing of the doors behind us resound.   “Dun dink abart runnin’. Ye knoo wha’ will happen ter yer friend, if ye dae.”   “I won’t,” I answer.   “Good.”   “Are you gonna tell me what you want me to do yet?”   “We juss need yer help wiff a wee somedin’.”   I don’t like the sound of that. If it’s only a little help, they won’t bother going through all this trouble. We reach the end of the room. There’s a small circular opening in the ceiling in front of the ladder. I could probably climb this without the ladder, though it would be tiresome. Darkness fills the void above the ladder.  There’s also a narrow hallway to the left of the ladder and the right.   “Climb de ladder an’ wait fer us at de top.”   I do as he says and climb the ladder. Something rumbles from under us. I ignore it and continue my way up, eventually reaching in a tiny room enclosed by four solid wooden walls. The three Dwarves shortly arrive.   “Alright, take aff yer armor an’ remove yer weapons.”   “Uh, why?” I ask, feeling suspicious.   “Juss dae it er we will dae it fer ya.”   “Fine,” I concede and begin by unclipping my scabbards off my belt. Afterward, I take off my arm guards and then my chest plate. They’re not going to ask me to take off my clothes next, right?   Before I know it, they’re spread around the room. One on each side of the room. Each of them are looking through a small gap in the wall. I swear those holes weren’t there before.   “Clear dis side,” one of them says. I turn to him, who slides a part of the wall back that closes the small opening. “Take aff dat red waist cape. It sticks art loike a sore dumb. Ye will dank me later.”   I sigh as I loosen my belt momentarily to remove my waist cape without questioning him. He then presses a camouflaged button on the wall. A way out appears on the same side. He looks at me and continues, “Ya first.”   Beyond the door is a restaurant. The Dwarves around the room give me nothing but a glance. My eyes linger on a Dwarf with long hair. It reminds me what’s been bothering me. I haven’t seen any Dwarven women. And it can’t be that there aren’t any…but every Dwarf I’ve seen today had a beard.   If only this Dwarf was seated toward me instead of the other way. Then I could get a good look at the chest region to know for sure. I curl my lips inward. I’m not sure I want to imagine that. I don’t have anything against them but…they’re not my type.   “Get movin’,” one of the Vanguards says and shoves me forward. He exerts too much force, and my face meets the ground. He gloats.   Shit. These bastards are making a fool of me, and I can’t do anything about it. I stand up and leave the building. This must be the Dwarven district. Seeing how there’s any direction I could go, I ask, “Where to now?”   “Dis way,” one of them says and walks in a direction. I follow him. It’s a little cold without my armor warmers. Hina and I are unquestionably going to be late to our agreed meetup time at the Icy Tavern. This is taking forever, and I still don’t know what they want me to do. It could take even longer. What will the others think?   We end up in an alleyway, but this one is different somehow. There’s a tall fence-like divider on one side.  The city continues on the other side, so it must be another district.   “So haur be de ding. We have an escaped Aerkin who jumped de fence. We need ya ter go owor dare an' find him. He does nae loike people, so he be probably hidin’ somewhere. Catch him an' bring him back.”   “What’s the catch…? I ask skeptically. “Why can’t you do it instead? Why me?”   “'Tis nae a secret dat 'tis de Xog district owor dare. Dae dun loike oder races walking in dare, so we be nae takin’ dat risk. Ye be instead. Dun be seen an’ ye will be fine.”   “Okay,” I respond. It’s not like I have much of a choice. With my armor off, it’ll be easier to scale this wall. “What’s this Aerkin look like?”   “’Tis a rat. Sin’ yer a rat, ya shou’ knoo wha’ dat lewks loike. Let a rat catch a rat,” one of them says. They all laugh. “Get guin. We will be roight haur if ye need us.”   I don’t know how I’m going to find a rat…but there’s nothing to do but scale this wall first.   “Almost forgot. Ye will need dis,” one of them says and pulls out something from his shirt pocket. He tosses it to me without delay. “We dun want ya ter be seen. Dis be insurance.”   It’s a black balaclava with only the eye holes. Usually good for keeping the head warm, but could also be used for anonymity. I put it over my head and then adjust it to position the holes to be over my eyes. The mask obstructs my vision a bit that would be annoying if I had to fight with it on, but to catch a rat shouldn’t be a problem. I walk over to the wall while moving Scrap Mana to my legs with immediate activation, instructing them to strengthen my leg muscles for several seconds.   Upon reaching the wall, I jump, easily reaching the top of the barrier. The other side isn’t too different from the Dwarven side because it’s another alley. Luckily for me, this place is quiet, which means that the main street isn’t near here.   Wait a minute… How’d a rat escape that underground place? Those heavy doors blocked anything going in or out.  Does that mean there are small holes in the ceiling or walls that lead to the surface? I imagine there would have to be ventilation holes present for oxygen. Breathing down there wasn’t so much different than in the city.   Still, I find it hard to believe a rat managed to run away. And how am I going to know if I catch the right rat? They could be everywhere…especially in a filthy place like this. Is that a food trail?   There are these thin, long brown things on the ground. They’re a tad bit bulkier than a rice grain. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that’s poop. Rat poop.   Strange how I would stumble upon this as soon as jumping over the fence the Dwarves told me to, but I have no choice but to follow their orders. They can’t blame me if I bring back the wrong rat. They weren’t very specific in their instructions. They’re probably doing this for someone else, anyway. It’s likely that the Dwarves don’t know what this rat looks like either, so any rat should work.   I should be satisfied with that, but I’m not. If the rat escaped through an opening in the wall or ceiling, there’s no way for the Dwarves to track it. Let alone know that the rat traveled to the Xog district.   I remember how I saw a monster run in the city. The rat must’ve been the same. Brought from the outside. It was a little disobedient, escaped the owner, and climbed this wall. Yeah. That’s it.   I follow the feces trail to a connecting path. I continue, peeking my head out first to make sure it’s clear. I resume tracking the rat. Speaking of which, I haven’t seen a rat use any magic even though all living things have Mana. They aren’t exactly hostile creatures, though. I’ve noticed that docile animals don’t use magic. It makes me wonder what the owner was thinking of making a rat an Aerkin. The small size of the creature wouldn’t be any good for fighting. Even without magic, a larger beast could step on it with some force to end its life.   Small rustling resounds near a trash can. A long-tail connected to some white fur is visible near the end of it. I can’t tell if that’s a rat, but I’ll find out after I grab it. I haven’t seen a white rat before, but this could be why the owner decided to make this an Aerkin for good luck of sorts.   I don’t want the critter to run away. It would be troublesome if it did. If it retreated into a small hole, I’d be at a loss. And if its fast, so the chances of running into a Xog would increase.   I’ll have to be quick…or use Void magic. Using Void magic to catch a rat. I laugh to myself. Hina’s life is on the line, so I can’t take any chances.   I bond my Mana with Void Affinity, write the instructions, and send out my charged Mana. One quick movement is all I need. It will only stay active for two seconds – more than enough time. I raise my right arm and bend it in a 90-degree angle in front of my chest. The Mana activates upon reaching the destination. A circular portal appears  right behind the rat. The other one is facing the tips of my fingers. The size of the gate is wider than it needs to be, but it allows some room for error in case the rat bends its body toward the edges of the portal.   I lunge my right arm into the portal and grab the white creature, careful not to use too much pressure. I quickly pull my arm back in the same motion. My magic disappears without a trace. The rat squeaks and tries to break free of my grasp. I bring it in front of my face and then stare into its black eyes.   It stops struggling for a moment and centers its head on me, staring right back. It stops squeaking too.  Such a tiny creature. I almost want to let it go, but I need to return it to have Hina released unharmed. Sorry, bud. You’re going to have to come with me.   Suddenly, it escapes my grasp and leaps toward me. Before I know it, it leaps off the front of my body. My right hand lunges toward it before it’s too late. I’m sure I grasp onto it, but it slips away anyway. Oh, no!   I chase after it. Luckily it’s going on a straight path instead of climbing a wall or going into a hole. Some sort of thick liquid coats my right hand. It’s a bit gross. I wipe it onto my pants. The rat must have released it somehow to make it impossible for me to grab onto it. How am I supposed to catch it now? I should’ve put him in a box instead of carrying him. I was careless.   It scurries away while squeaking. It sounds more panic-stricken this time as if it’s crying for help. Worst case, I’ll have a rat swarm to deal with…but wait. That’s actually a good thing. I only need to bring back a rat. But for now, I need to make sure this rat doesn’t sway too far from this alley.   I grab onto a nearby trash can while running toward the rat. It’s not too fast, so I’m not worried about it straying too far. I dump the contents of the trash toward my left side. A whole bunch of junk falls to the ground. I’m careful not to trip on a random object. Soon, I catch up to the rat and slam the top side of the trash on it. Damn rat giving me so much trouble.   I retrace my steps a little to retrieve the garbage can lid. I’ll need it to keep the rat inside. I return to the trash can, the rat still squeaking pointlessly. No other rats have come to its aid.   Now, I need to scoop it into the empty trash can. If I’m not careful, I’ll have to repeat the entire process. I slowly lift one side of the trash can and put my head on the ground, so I can see through the small crack. There it is.   I raise the garbage can up and simultaneously use the lid to smack the rat inside like a ball. I return the trash can to a vertical position and close the lid. Can’t escape now even if you’re slippery. I turn back and begin retracing my steps.   It hasn’t even been a minute, but a bad feeling creeps down my spine. Then a quiet sound behind me. I turn around and find a monster in the air coming my way. I widen my eyes.   But it’s not like any monster I’ve seen. It’s too late to do any evasive maneuvers. It slams into the trash can. I hold onto the garbage can tightly. I can’t afford to lose the rat after coming this far. The blow is powerful, and I fall through the air backward, eventually sliding aross the ground. As I come to a stop, the lid pops off. No!   The rat jumps out, and there’s nothing I can do about it. I toss the can aside now that it serves no purpose. It gives me full view of this thing in front of me. It’s standing upright. An upright monster… There’s only one thing that it could be. Xog.   The clothing choice makes it clear that this one’s a girl. The fur on her face is colored like that of a tiger, mostly orange with some white and black. The head isn’t like a Dwarf, Human, or Elf but that of an animal. It bulges out with a pink nose in front and white whiskers protruding from the sides of the face.   I don’t know if the fur extends throughout her body under those clothes, but they do cover all four paws. Long claws extend from each of them. Her orange tail with black stripes wags slowly as she stares at me silently with her golden eyes. It sends a chill down my spine.   I…I need to get out of here! The Xog hasn’t moved yet, so it gives me time to move Scrap Mana into my legs. I’ll get up and dash for it at the same moment.     Now! I activate my magic and kick off the ground. The moment I turn around, another one of them is running toward me. The same fur and golden eyes but different clothes, I think he’s a dude. His steps are entirely silent. I can’t stop my sprint at this point, so I swerve to the side. There’s no space in this damn alley. The random obstacles like trash cans and boxes don’t help.  My heart skips a beat as he extends his claws right at the moment I pass him.   I dive forward along the side of the wall, but I’m still within his range. I grit my teeth as his claws swipe across my chest. I crash into several trash cans. With no time to lose, I get up and continue running without looking back.   He ripped off a large portion of my sweatshirt. He barely scratched the surface of my skin enough to draw trace amounts of blood. Good that it wasn’t deep.   Since their footsteps are silent, I don’t know if they’re chasing me. I hope they don’t have more friends nearby.   Suddenly, a stone wall erupts in front of me right before the intersection, leaving not even a sliver of space on the sides. I don’t see a way through the top either, which leaves me one choice. I move Rich Mana into my right palm and then exclaim, “Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!”   Balls of fire fly toward the center of the wall. I don’t know what kind of Mana they’ve utilized, so it’s hard to tell how much Durability it has. I can only hope that three of my fireballs will be enough to leave an opening big enough for me to leap through.   My magic collides with the wall and rips a hole through it with only the first one, so it was probably made of Scrap Mana. Since an actual wall was right in front of the magic wall, my balls of fire burst into nothing soon after. It returns my Fire Affinity immediately, so I can create a larger opening for myself before I reach the wall.   “Fireball! Fireball!” I exclaim and point them at different points near the first hole.   I lunge through the opening head first with my arms extended forward. After going through and before I hit the ground, I launch myself back into an upright position by pushing my arms into the ground. I make a quick turn to my left. With the corner of my eye, I notice that they’re still coming for me, though they are lagging behind. I don’t linger a moment and maintain my rush forward.   I come to a stop in front of the barrier between the Xog district and the Dwarven district. It’s not exactly where I initially vaulted over the wall, but I want to lose my pursuers. I clear the wall. The Dwarves are no longe stationed where I left them. I don’t know if those tiger guys are going to keep chasing me, but I don’t waste any time standing still.   It doesn’t take long before I reach the main street filled with Dwarves. They’re probably giving me strange glances, but I don’t care. I’m used to it by this point. The only place I know where those Vanguards could be is that restaurant I came through when we left the underground area.   The Vanguards are waiting outside my destination. Those Xog aren’t chasing me.   “Relax. Dae be nae guin ter come haur,” one of the Vanguards says. None of them look surprised that I got attacked.   I look down, regretting I was careless the first time I caught the rat. If it weren’t for that, I’d have accomplished the task. Now, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’ll be honest. It’s worked out for me so far. They could give me another opportunity to accomplish the task. I inform, “I didn’t get the rat. It got away.”   “’Tis all good. Come haur,” one of them says and points to the space between the restaurant and the building next door.   Are they going to kill me where there aren’t any prying eyes? I walk there as instructed. Worst comes to worst, I’ll fight back. Then break into the underground place with everyone to break Hina out.   “Listen, ye did well an’ accomplished de main goal. We will let de girl go,” one of them says.   I smile for a moment but then frown and knit my eyebrows. “What do you mean I did well? I didn’t get back the Aerkin.”   They snicker. “Dare been nivver an escaped Aerkin, boy.”   I was set up…? I grab one of them and exclaim, “Wha-what do you mean?!”   He shoves me away and answers, “Get yer hands aff me. Yer lucky we left boaff o’ ya alive. Be dankful fer dat.”   I grimace, not knowing what they really wanted from me. Did they want to give me a scare? Or did they just want me to wander into the Xog district? As far as I know, it’s not illegal to go there, just frowned upon. There shouldn’t be a problem.   “O’im guin ter contact de oders,” one of them says. The other two nod their head. He walks away, presumably back into the restaurant.   “Ward o’ advice, boy. Ye shou’ ditch yer shirt an’ replace it as soon as possible,” one of the two remaining Vanguards says. He walks over to me and takes my mask off. “Ay will take dat aff yer hands too.”   He’s obviously saying this in case those two tiger humanoids come looking for me. I ask, “Why’re you giving me advice? If you think I’m gonna be a problem.”   “We be only wha’ be necessary ter ensure secrecy. Dun confuse us fer roofless barbarians. We cou’ have easily slaughtered ya underground wiffout anyone ever findin’ art.”   “You could at least tell me what’s gonna happen next,” I say. This is all strange to me. “How’re you gonna ensure that I don’t rat after you leave?”   The other Dwarf returns. “De oders be on dare way. Seems loike we have a chatty one, dun we.”   Somehow, they have a way to contact people long-distance. That’s confirmed now. The same way we got caught earlier not too long after entering the underground place. They contacted Nazug somehow to verify the information. Now, that’s two magic items they have that I’ve never heard of.   “We cou’ tell ya, but dat ruins de fun. Dae ye want ter ruin de fun?” one of them asks.   “Yes,” I respond. I’m not trying to have fun here, especially when it regards my safety.   He lets out a drawn out sigh. “Haur be wha’ Ay will tell ya. Dun let dem find ya, er ‘tis curtains fer ya. Dats all ye need ter knoo. Dun get caught.”   So he’s still not going to tell me straight up. They’ve only told me what I already know. I sigh. Now it’s a waiting game for Hina.   I think back to my encounter with the Xog. How’d they discover me in the first place? I couldn’t hear their approach at all. Was it the rat? The Vanguards told me that there never was an escaped Aerkin, but a conveniently placed rat right there can’t be a coincidence. That must’ve been how they discovered me. An incredibly good sense of hearing. If that’s true…they should also a great sense of smell.   I gulp and look at the damage they did to my sweatshirt. They could locate me by following my scent. They’ve marked me. I can’t simply ditch the shirt now, or I’ll really be out of place without a shirt in the dead of winter in this city. It’s also cold. The Vanguards snort as if they know my exact thoughts.   Now I understand why they had me wear the mask and ditch my armor. Those tiger humanoids shouldn’t be able to find me once I switch outfits and put my other equipment on. The smell is the main problem. I’ll have Hina buy something for me, and I’ll return to our assigned inn for a shower.   Wait…to begin with, why am I scared that those upright monsters will come after me? They’re not going to attack me in the middle of an entire city. The same reason why I wouldn’t attack an Elf or a Dwarf, especially given that it’s the Inteiru Expota. There’s obviously something the Dwarves aren’t telling me that would certainly explain things. I’ll just have to wait and see.   Eventually, the two other Vanguards join us with Hina, along with my things.   “Kai!” Hina exclaims and runs to me. She gives me a tight hug. I hug back. “I’m glad you’re okay.”   “We will leave ya nigh. Haur be yer final warnin’. If ye er any o’ yer friends rat, we will nae hesitate ter turn ya in,” one of them says before all of them turn their backs and walk away.   Hina lets me go. I ask, “Did anything happen to you?”   “No, nothin’. They took me to a room, they didn’t do anythin’. “   Is that absolutely true, though? She could be putting up a front to avoid talking about it. I look into her eyes and ask again, “Are you sure? Nothing happened?”   “Nothing happened. That’s scary thinkin’ about it for other reasons…” she mutters and shivers.   She sounds normal, so she’s telling the truth. That’s a relief.   “What about you?” she asks and looks at the scratch mark on my chest. “Showin’ off your battle scars again, I see.”   I sigh and reply, “I’m fine, but I have a lot to catch you up on. We don’t have any time to waste.”   “We’re goin’ to be so late,” Hina says.   “Mind as well be later. I’m gonna go back to the first inn. I need to shower and ditch my shirt,” I say while putting all my armor and weapons back on.   Hina looks at me with a skewed frown. “I don’t know what happened to you, but don’t you think meetin’ with the others is more important? They’re goin’ to be pissed.”   “I’d rather that they’d be pissed than total disaster taking place. The Dwarves tricked me into doing something. Well, I didn’t have a choice.”   “What happened?”   “Okay, look… The Dwarves said they needed help catching an Aerkin. Told me it was a rat, and I had to go into the Xog district for that. Didn’t specify on the rat, so I went for the first rat I saw. It was a white rat nearby. After a bit of struggle, I trapped the rat into a trash can. But then… I was attacked by a Xog.”   Hina raises her eyebrows and asks, “You saw it? What’d they look like?”   “Yeah,” I respond and then start walking toward the center of Syrina. “I don’t blame you for being scared anymore. Imagine a Human…but with the head replaced with a tiger’s head and the skin replaced with fur. That’s essentially what I saw in a nutshell. The head’s not precisely the same, but you get the point.”   “An upright monster…”   “Literally. They’ve got the senses and physical advantages of a monster too. Their paws allowed them to sneak up on me in total silence. I think they also heard the rat squeaking from far away. I know for a fact that the main street was nowhere near me at the time, so either they happen to be in the area, or they heard from afar.”   “Don’t talk about them anymore!” Hina says while pressing her palms onto her ears and grimacing with her eyes shut.   “They’ve got claws, a tail...and wore clothes,” I continue.   Hina takes her hands off her head and asks, “Clothes?”   “Yup.”   “Why? They’ve got fur.”   “Beats me. Could be to distinguish their gender? The two I encountered wore distinctively different styles of clothing. One was girly, and the other one wasn’t. I could be wrong, but it’s not like I had a whole lot of time to study them thoroughly. I was running for my life. If I had stayed any longer, more of them might’ve appeared.”   “Maybe they don’t have any fur closer to the center of their body.”   “Perhaps. Next time, I’ll ask them nicely to take off their clothes so that I can make sure. Those two I encountered weren’t very friendly, attacking me with no warning. Didn’t speak a word to me throughout the entire encounter.”   “It’s strange why’d they attack you. People said bein’ in the Xog district was allowed but frowned upon. Do you think they’re goin’ to come lookin’ for you?”   “That’s what I’m worried about. That’s why I’m ditching the shirt and taking a shower.”   “But…they saw you, didn’t they?”   “Oh, right. I forgot to mention the Dwarves gave me a balaclava to wear. They definitely knew I was gonna get attacked, but they didn’t say anything. By the time I got back to them, they didn’t even care I failed to capture the rat because it wasn’t an escaped Aerkin to start with. It was all a trick.”   “All a trick...? The whole point was to get attacked by the Xog?”   “I don’t know what else it could be.”   “Hmm…so you’re concerned that they’re goin’ to sniff you out.”   “Exactly. The Dwarves mentioned that I shouldn’t get caught by the Xog.”   “What’s the worst that could happen? They wouldn’t dare attack you in the midst of the city. Too many pryin’ eyes. They wouldn’t want to start a war.”   “I don’t know. The Dwarves are hiding something important. I wish they’d tell me outright. Now, all I can do is trust their warning. I think they’re trying to be helpful in their own twisted way like suggesting I ditch the shirt. They’re just not very direct about it. Like how they’ve gone through a roundabout way of silencing us using the Xog threat. They said they’ll turn me in to them if they ever find out we tell someone about the Aerkin arena.”   “What’re we goin’ to do if we can’t disclose it to Aisha’s team? They’re goin’ to want a good explanation to why we’ve been gone so long.”   “No, I think they meant the army…or the government. They called us army dogs, remember?” I ask. I almost forgot Hina can’ t comprehend most of what they’re saying, so she might’ve not caught that. “We should be fine if we reveal everything we’ve discovered…but can we trust Ada and her team with that information? They could decide to tell someone.”   “I say we tell them. We’re goin’ to need their cooperation to continue with our investigation.”   I’m skeptical. Mainly because Ada and I used to be at each other’s throats. She’s cooperating now, but I’ll never forget how she treated me in the past. A part of me still can’t trust her fully. She could screw me at any point. At the same time, I have to take the risk. Hopefully, her team can keep her in check if she has another bout of anger. I saved her life, so unless she’s an ungrateful brat, I won’t have anything to worry about.   “Fine, we’ll tell them,” I concede. “But something still bothers me about why the Dwarves are trying so hard to keep things a secret.”   “I know what you mean. We know that their underground base must’ve been built at the same time as Syrina. I’m sure that Humans built the city considerin’ the villages in Neomeris are populated by us. It would be strange if the other races played a role in the construction of the capital.”   “Exactly…and we know Viessa told us that other races could live here or do work about three Inteiru Expotas ago. The Dwarves weren’t here until about then.”   “Don’t we already know the answer then?” Hina asks. I cock an eyebrow. “The government must already know about the underground city. They allowed the Dwarves to build it or even constructed it themselves.”   “The Humans built it…” I mutter. “Of course! It’s all for the sake of coexistence. They must’ve used the underground city as some sort of bargaining chip to convince the Dwarves to come to live here.”   “If that’s true, why would those Dwarves go through so much trouble to threaten us?”   “Yeah…that has me stumped. I find it hard to believe that they’ve managed to stop everyone from ratting for ten whole years. Why don’t we go probe for more information down there? Floyd might know more. The Casino, he said.”   “We barely got out, and you want to go back? First things first, we need to inform the others on what we’ve found.”   “Yeah, yeah. But first, buy me a replacement shirt, would you? Gonna need a new one. You have money with you?”   “I have more than enough,” Hina says with a giggle.   I cock an eyebrow and then warn, “You don’t wanna fuck with me.”   “I won’t. Anythin’  warm should be good, right?”   “Yeah. You don’t need to spend too much thought on it. We don’t have any time to spare,” I say, feeling like she’s still going to ignore that and buy something ridiculous.   “Don’t worry, Marin’s goin’ to love it,” she says with a mischievous smile.   I sigh. Well, it can’t be all that bad. My chest plate will be covering most of it. We split ways after finding our way into the Human district. I increase my pace back to The Windmill Inn.

“Kai, wake up,” Marin says. I open my eyes briefly before closing them again. “Ugh, it’s too early.” “You’re going to miss breakfast. And don’t forget about the report.” “It’s that time already?”  I open my eyes, yawn, and stretch. “Same time as always,” Marin answers while getting dressed. I sit up and rub my sore eyes. Doesn’t seem like I slept well at all. I think back to that dream. For some reason, I can’t remember a lot about it. “What’re you thinking about?” Marin asks. “This strange, realistic dream I had last night.” “What was it about?” “I was in some kinda bedroom… There was a naked woman with red hair… She wanted to…” I say but cut myself off. I was just thinking out loud. I probably shouldn’t have mentioned the woman. Marin stares at me blankly. She knits her eyebrows. “You’re still thinking of her?” “Huh?” I interject. It takes a moment for me to remember that Ruby does have red hair. I did tell Marin about that time too. While I have been thinking of her sometimes, it’s not in the way I think Marin’s implying. And definitely not the woman I was talking about, but I shouldn’t have mentioned it to her in the first place. I don’t let my eyes linger away from her face and answer, “No… I’m not.” She smiles slightly and looks away. I know she doesn’t believe me. “You don’t have to lie to me about this, Kai. I know you’ve had feelings for her for a long time. It doesn’t go away in this short period of time,” she says. Her eyes bounce down for a moment. My body acted on its own again. That’s not important right now. I ignore it and ask, “When have I ever lied to you?” I think about yesterday’s events, but it doesn’t make sense because she said she believed me… “Nevermind. I’m going to the cafeteria. Are you coming?” “Nah, I need to work on that report. Captain Albius said he wanted it by morning, so…” “Want me to come with you?” Marin asks. “No, I can handle it myself, but can you do me a favor?” I ask. “What is it?” “Gather everyone at one of the rooms on the second floor of the training area after breakfast. I wanna apologize to everyone and start discussing a group training exercise. I’ll meet you there after I turn in the report.” “Okay. I’ll see you then,” Marin says with a smile and leaves out the door, closing it behind her. I lay back down and sigh. I can’t help but think of what she was referring to about a lie. Did she really not believe me and was lying about believing me? I shake my head. I can’t be wasting time doubting her right now. I need to get up and turn in that report before Captain Albius penalizes us more. I get off the bed, get dressed, and then head to the third level. I decide to check the mail station first. Maybe a decision was made overnight about our punishment. I check inside, but there’s nothing. I sigh and head to one of the study rooms. Same one I always go to. Other people are here, but it doesn’t matter to me. I take a clump of lined paper from the stack on a table near the entrance and a pencil before sitting down on an empty seat. I really didn’t want to be in this situation again. Same as last week. Having to write a report on a mission gone wrong. I’ll want to just get this over with, but I don’t know where to begin. There were several requests this time, after all. I’ll start writing down all the important details from the moment we arrived at Beltan to collect further request details. It takes a while, but I nearly finish. I ponder a bit on how I should report the last bit of it. I figure from my perspective seems to be the best option. General Nero will understand that everything was an accident and outside of my control. I finish. Overall, couldn’t have been more than an hour or so. I return the unused paper to the stack along with the pencil. Hopefully, Marin and the others aren’t waiting for too long. I’ll drop this off and be there soon. I reach Captain Albius’ office in no time. I frown upon seeing Captain Albius present in his office. I was hoping that he wasn’t there so that there wouldn’t be a chance that he keeps me any longer than I spent writing that report. There’s still a chance he’ll let me go, though. “I’ve been expectin’ you, Kai,” Captain Albius says with a smile. “Is that the report?” “Yes, sir,” I say and drop the report on his desk. I bow my head and continue, “If you’ll excuse me now…” I turn around and take a step. Captain Albius asks, “What’s the hurry? It won’t take long for me to read through this.” I bite my lip before facing Captain Albius again. There’s a stack of folded papers on his desk. He slowly shifts through the report without saying a word. The silence makes me nervous. Maybe I should’ve been more descriptive. What if he takes what’s written there as the complete truth? I didn’t exactly put down all my thoughts and line of thinking on the report. He still has a smile though. Doesn’t that mean that he likes what he’s reading? My heart races. There are still some missing gaps that I wasn’t able to write down. I wouldn’t be able to explain to him some points that involve telling him about my Mana. Based on how many pages he flipped through, he should be reaching the end. “I just wanna say that I know some of the stuff I have written down’s hard to believe…but everything’s true,” I say. Captain Albius doesn’t budge. “I really did see the masked man from the attack. He said only things that the masked man from back then would say. It was an accident. I didn’t wanna kill Ragnar.” Captain Albius nods several times and flips another page but says nothing. I gulp. “I wasn’t really that close to Dano and Banni, so I wouldn’t have wanted revenge that bad. I wouldn’t kill Ragnar for a reason like that. I mean, no, I said that wrong. Dano and Banni were valuable members of our team, but I wouldn’t let misunderstandings get in the way of what’s right.” “Maybe it’s my fault for not training them good enough, but you can’t blame everything on me. Their motivation to get stronger was lacking.” I take the lack of nodding from him to be a sign that I need to say more. I try to think of something to say that puts us in a better light. “What happened to Ariane was outside of our control too. Maybe killing Ragnar was completely my fault, but he wasn’t part of any of the missions. We weren’t tasked to keep him alive at all. So Ariane killing herself as a result of what happened to Ragnar was something we couldn’t help but let happen. You understand, right?” Silence follows. My palms sweat. I ask again, “You understand, right…?” Captain Albius puts down the report and looks at me. “Well, I understand, very clearly. That this report and what you’re tellin’ me’s a load of shit.” “Wh-what do you mean?! I told you, this is really what happened!” “Is it? You’re not lyin’ about anythin’? No details missin’?” “No,” I answer quickly despite that it’s not true. “Take a look at a few of these letters,” Captain Albius says and points to the stack of folded papers I saw earlier on his desk. “I was notified earlier today that there was an influx of letters sent from Beltan.” Beltan…? It couldn’t be…from yesterday’s events? Based on his tone it seems like these letters are for his reason for being suspicious of my report. There’s no way that so many of these could’ve in a short period of time. I thought it took a week or longer before the army sends check-up appointments to each village. I think about the impossible. I did take a nap before we left the village. I didn’t wake up until we were already back in the Castle. Was it…Marin? Did the villagers write those letters right after everything and then asked Marin to bring it back to the Castle? I bite my lip as I take the first piece of paper on top. It’s addressed to me. MURDERER   That’s all it says. Doesn’t say who wrote it. Was it Ariane’s father? “There’s more than one. Keep readin’,” Captain Albius says. I take another from the stack. This one’s addressed to the army. I thought you were supposed to keep us safe! Sergeant Kai did the opposite! I’m going to think twice if I ever need to send a request to the army. I don’t know what this person’s talking about. Who’s speaking? It’s not like I exposed them to any danger. There are dozens of more letters. Captain Albius gestures his head toward the stack. I take one more. Another one addressed to me. Sergeant Kai, the village of Beltan will curse you until the day you die. I only hope my daughter and Ragnar can rest in peace. Otherwise, they’ll curse you too. Don’t you ever forget that you murdered my daughter.   This one was definitely from Ariane’s father. Stubborn as always. I haven’t done anything to his daughter. I didn’t murder her. She killed herself. It wasn’t my fault that I didn’t consider she would. “This is very serious, Kai,” Captain Albius says. “Accordin’ to these letters, the village swears that you’re a cold-blooded murderer. Your report stated that everythin’ was an accident and that you explained it to the village. Lyin’ on a report’s another serious offense.” “I’m not lying. It’s not my fault the village didn’t believe me.” “Your platoon will be blacklisted, but I’m not sure for how long. I’ll have to report this to General Nero as well to get his input.” “Bla-blacklisted?! I thought you said General Nero would be understanding!” “That’s if you did your job and nothin’ was your fault. This report you wrote’s laughable too,” Captain Albius says and then laughs. I don’t like how calm and easy-going he is.  “This is bullshit. You don’t believe my story either, do you?” Captain Albius smiles and stands up from his seat. He walks toward me slowly, stopping right in front of me. He bends down until his head is level with mine. “Listen, you little shit. This isn’t just about one request you took involvin’ the girl who ended up killin’ herself and the village hatin’ you for it. You ended up killin’ whom you were supposed to save too. You failed every request that you took and damaged our reputation greatly despite my initial warnin’.” I frown and clench my fists. What initial warning? He wasn’t hard to convince at all. Now that I think about it, he was strangely calm when he allowed me to take on all the requests. That smile. His smile now reminds me of that smile yesterday too. I clench my teeth too. He knew this would happen. He was wishing for it. I look him in the eye and ask, “You planned all of this, didn’t you? You knew that I would end up failing everything! This is your responsibility, too!” “You stupid monkey. What have I told you about respectin’ your superiors? I’m not lettin’ you off the hook on this one. I’ll report this to General Nero too. And that time the red one attacked me with Fire magic.” “What?! You can’t do that!” I exclaim. Damn it. I should’ve kept my mouth shut. I can’t have Ruby be punished for something I did. “Oh, yes I can. I’ll teach you that monkeys should never talk back to me.” “I’m sorry,” I say with my head lowered. “Everything’s my fault. Please don’t punish Ruby or anyone else from the platoon for my mistakes.” “I understand, Sergeant Kai. I’ll have to explain things with General Nero first to see his input.” His change of tone and manner of speaking throws me off. I should stay calm to avoid angering him any further. “Okay.” “Did I come at a good time?” General Nero asks. I widen my eyes and turn around. He’s standing right behind me. I didn’t hear him approaching at all. “Yes, Sergeant Kai has finished givin’ me his report. It’s not good,” Captain Albius informs pushing the report toward the front edge of the desk. General Nero picks it up. “Let’s see what we have here,” General Nero says as he begins reading. I gulp. This could be my chance. Captain Albius started being more polite after General Nero walked into the room. Could it be that he doesn’t want General Nero to find out the way he’s been treating me? Captain Albius mentioned that General Nero would be really understanding of my situation, but I can’t trust that now. He doesn’t know about the previous time General Nero let me go for letting Sofiel escape. Maybe he really is understanding and forgiving. With his back toward me, I can’t see any of his expressions. Only the flipping of paper resounds in the room occasionally. He points to the stack of letters and asks, “What’s this?” “All letters from Beltan. They have a lot to say of Sergeant Kai as well,” Captain Albius says. “Hmm,” General Nero interjects as he shifts through the letters. “This is not a laughing matter, Sergeant Kai.” “Sir, I understand it looks bad, but as I stated in the report, it was out of my control,” I say. “This Ragnar character you mentioned in the report. He was unarmed in the cell, correct?” General Nero asks. “Yeah, but what I saw wasn’t Ragnar. It was the masked man from the attack. Wouldn’t you kill him too if you saw him kill someone close to you?” “No, I wouldn’t. I would capture him and ask questions first, eventually giving him a slow, painful death. But after you killed Ragnar there wasn’t a mask anywhere to be found, was there?” General Nero asks. “N-no…but like I said I saw someone else.” “His report’s bogus. He’s hidin’ somethin’,” Captain Albius says. “It makes more sense that he killed Ragnar as revenge for Dano and Banni who were killed by him earlier that day.” “No, that’s not true!” General Nero turns around with a stern expression. “Lying on a report’s a serious offense. You’re aware of this, Sergeant Kai?” “I-I’m not lying! Captain Albius’ trying to sabotage me! He has been since he allowed us to take on so many requests at once. He wasn’t against the idea at all!” I exclaim. “He shares part of the blame for my failures too.” “What’s this about, Captain Albius?” General Nero asks. “Well, you see, Sergeant Kai came to me, beggin’, ‘Captain Albius, please let us take on several requests at once. Please let me make up for my past failures. I swear we’ll be successful this time.’ What kind of senior would I be if I didn’t give him the opportunity to prove himself? I sincerely believed that he would be successful.” “No! I didn’t say that. Sir, he’s lying.” “Is he?” General Nero asks. “I looked into what you’ve been up to since we last met. You haven’t been very successful recently. What part of what he said was a lie?” “I-I didn’t use those exact words,” I say, but realize I backed myself into a corner. I shouldn’t have tried to bring Captain Albius down with me. Now, nothing’s going to stop him from mentioning that incident I had with him on my first day. “So, you didn’t use those exact words, but you were hoping he would give you permission to take on those requests,” General Nero says. He’s right so I don’t say anything more. “I had high hopes for you, but I’m disappointed. I let you off the hook with Sofiel escaping because you were honest and didn’t make excuses for your mistakes.” “I’m not making any excuses. I killed Ragnar, but I’m saying it was an accident. A misunderstanding.” “Enough. Disrespecting your superior and lying on a report’s very serious. On top of that, you’ve failed all four requests you’ve taken on. Bring the remaining members of your platoon here immediately. Captain Albius and I will discuss the severity of your punishment.” “Wait, everything’s my fault. You don’t need to bring anyone else into this,” I say. General Nero turns his head toward Captain Albius and asks, “Did you tell him yet?” “Yes, sir.” General Nero turns back toward me and says, “Disobeying orders while your platoon’s blacklisted is another serious offense.” “I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t know. What does being blacklisted mean?” I ask, unsure if I’m allowed to. “You can’t take on any requests, you have reduced meal portions and can’t purchase additional tickets, and you must follow all given orders,” General Nero informs. “Now, bring your platoon here, immediately.” “Yes, sir,” I say and then walk out of Captain Albius’ office. At least Captain Albius kept quiet about my disrespect toward him when we first met. And Ruby’s attempt to harm him. I wonder if it’s because he would have to admit to challenging me to a duel. He was only trying to work me up so I dig myself into a bigger hole. I run toward the second floor of the training area on the first level. I’m not sure which room Marin and the others are in, but I hope I find them soon. Who knows what’ll happen if I take too long in bringing them back. Luckily, I discover them within the first few rooms. “What took you so long?” Jetia asks. “Late to your own meeting. What’d you call us here for?” I told Marin I wanted to apologize, but Jetia’s attitude always sets me off. I answer, “I promised I would start training you after the last mission. We can incorporate a group training exercise too.” Marin, Jetia, and Ruby are present, but not Kama or Vicki. Jetia says, “It’s too late for that, you stupid monkey. Dano and Banni are gone. There’s no point in teamwork training when we’re missing two members. I’m not sure we’ll still exist after the punishment comes down.” “That’s right…punishment! Where’re Kama and Vicki? We’ve gotta report to Captain Albius’ office immediately!” “Kai, what’s wrong?” Marin asks. “I turned in the report and General Nero came around the same time. He told me that we’re blacklisted and I had to gather everyone to Captain Albius’ office immediately.” “Oh, so the day’s finally come?” Jetia asks with a smile. “I may not have to work in the same team as you after our punishment comes down.” “What? What do you mean by that?” I ask. “I mean… I know platoons have been disbanded before,” he says. I didn’t think about that possibility. What would happen if we disbanded and I’m separated from Marin and Ruby? That would be the worst case scenario. Or would seeing them suffer be worse? There’s no point thinking about this now. I need to gather everyone in Captain Albius’ office as soon as possible. “Look, we’re going to have a worse punishment the longer we take to gather in Captain Albius’ office. I’ll need your help in finding Kama since he usually hangs with you. The punishment’s for everyone. Unless you want to see him and everyone else in the platoon suffer, you’ll find him and bring him to the third level,” I say. Jetia clicks his tongue and then responds, “Fine. I think I know where to find him. We’ll meet you there.” “Vicki’s probably still asleep. I’ll check her room. You and Ruby go on ahead,” Marin says. The both of them leave ahead of us. I look toward Ruby who seems spaced out. She’s been quieter recently.“Ruby, let’s go.” “Okay.” We arrive at the third level on top of the stairs. “Aren’t ya hungry, Kai?” Ruby asks. “Ya didn’t come ta breakfast.” “I’m fine for now.  None of us will be able to eat well while we’re blacklisted. We have reduced meal portions and can’t buy additional tickets. It’s all my fault.” “It’s ‘kay, Kai. I told ya I’d endure anything’ fer ya. You can have some of my portions if yer hungry.” “No, you need to eat too. You’ve been training hard lately. You need to be eating to replenish your energy.” “I can take a break from trainin’ hard, so you can have some of my food.” It’s hard to encourage her to be more selfish. Everything she’s been doing has been for the sake of me…and our goal. But that’s how Luna’s always been, but she’s not the same person…or is she? Other than the red hair, she looks the same. Same smile too. I shake my head. She’s still Ruby. She’s similar to Luna, but not the same. “I’ll let you know when I’m really hungry. Until then, eat all of your food.” I say. I don’t want Ruby to cause a scene when we arrive in Captain Albius’ office. “Don’t talk back to General Nero or Captain Albius. Do what they say. And don’t say anything, no matter what happens to me.” “’Kay.” Jetia and Kama run up the stairs. I thought I would know what to say to Kama when I see him again, but I don’t. We wait in silence for Marin and Vicki. Soon, they arrive. I lead everyone to Captain Albius’ office. “I’ve brought everyone, General Nero,” I say upon walking into the room. “Great, we’ll give each of you your own punishments now. Sergeant Kai, follow Captain Albius,” General Nero says. “Wait, what’re you gonna do to me? And what about everyone else? You don’t have to give everyone a punishment. Everything’s on me,” I say quickly. “Captain Albius and I both agreed that this mess was mostly your fault, so you’ll have the worst punishment. But, everyone will be punished. Each person will have their own punishment. What a punishment is for one of you might not be for another. Now, go with Captain Albius. The punishment’s up to his discretion,” General Nero informs. I do as he says and follow Captain Albius out of the room. I exchange glances with Marin before we’re completely out of sight.  “Where’re we going?” I ask. “It’s a surprise.” What’s he planning? Is he going to humiliate me in front of everyone? Is he going to put me through harsh training? If it’s as simple as that, I won’t have to worry about everyone else because I’ll have it the worst. We end up going to the second level and then the first level. He asks, “Are you hungry?” “Yeah…?” I answer. “Alright, I’ll let you have a nice meal before your punishment.” I don’t like the sound of that. Why’s Captain Albius being nice all of a sudden? After I tried to get him into trouble too. There has to be a catch. He’s going to poison it. I thought the cafeteria was closed at this hour anyway. I ask, “How? They don’t serve food at this hour.” “True, they don’t serve food at the cafeteria, but…there’s the cookin’ station. You can make your own food there usin’ your own supplies at any time. Normally, you need to send in a request, but Lieutenants or higher can walk right in. I’m sure there’s someone in there right now. They’ll share some of their food with you.” “And if they don’t?” “Heh, that won’t happen.” “Why’re you doing this? You’re gonna report me that I ate food here and I’ll get into deeper trouble.” “Even I wouldn’t do that. Besides, they’ll note that I signed in with my name, not yours. The higher ups can check the Record Zone and see that you never checked in or took a request in. You wouldn’t get into trouble. This one’s on me. I pity you,” Captain Albius says and then laughs. When he puts it that way, I don’t want to accept his charity even if I won’t get in trouble for it. “I don’t want it.” “Well, then. I order you to eat until you’re full.” I guess I can’t refuse. We go into the cafeteria and into one of the connecting rooms. Captain Albius shows his ID to a woman sitting behind a table at the front before walking further in. There are multiple hallways with several smaller rooms inside. Most of them look empty and unpopulated. Voices resound ahead. Captain Albius goes into one of the rooms. I follow him. “Captain Albius!” a man exclaims. “Everyone, salute!” Everyone in the room stands up and salutes him. Does everyone in the Castle know Captain Albius? There are a dozen people in here. The same man asks, “What can I do for you, sir?” “You got any leftovers? Sergeant Kai here’s starvin’. I’d appreciate it if you can share some with him,” Captain Albius says. “O-of course! We’ll prepare something for him immediately,” the man says. He gestures his head behind him. Three of the five women rush behind. I look around. The facility here reminds me a lot of the Academy living quarter’s kitchen. It’s much more spacious here, though. With more than enough space to seat the dozen people here. The man walks toward me. He points to a seat nearby. “Please, have a seat, Sergeant Kai. My cooks will prepare several dishes to fill you up.” I sit down and wait in silence. No one in the room says a word the whole time. Only the sizzling of the cooking ingredients resound. It isn't long before one of the women brings a large cup filled with orange juice and a plate of assorted sliced meat. My mouth waters and stomach growls. It looks really good. A man brings me a knife, spoon, and fork. I take several gulps of the juice before picking up the fork and digging in. After the first bite, I can’t stop even if I wanted to. Beef, chicken, rabbit, squirrel, lamb, pork, fish, and several more I’m not sure about. It’s not the best quality I’ve had, but it’s much better than the food they served in the cafeteria. Much more filling too. They bring two more plates filled with a variety of different foods, a cup of apple juice, and a large bowl of assorted fruit. I take my time to eat everything. “How was the food, Sergeant Kai?” the man asks. “It was great. Best meal I’ve had here since I enlisted in the army.” “That’s good to hear. Will that be all, Captain Albius?” Captain Albius smiles and responds, “Yes, thank you. We’ll be on our way now. Come on, Sergeant Kai.” I stand up and follow Captain Albius out of the cafeteria, unsure of where we’re headed next. I ask, “Who was that person?” “It’s Lieutenant Ken. I helped him get promoted to that rank not too long ago in exchange for a few favors every now and then. How’re you feelin?” “Pretty full,” I answer. “Good, good…” We’re back at the crossroads. Captain Albius walks toward the stairs, but not the ones that go up. The ones that go down. The only thing down there is the prison. “Was that my last meal before you make me live down here for a few days?” I ask. “No, you’ll only be down here until around 6 PM,” Captain Albius informs. We reach the entrance to the prison where a guard is stationed. “It’s Captain Albius. Open the door. I’m here to escort Sergeant Kai to one of the torture chambers.” Torture chambers? So he’s going to inflict pain on me? Figures, since I tried to shift some of the blame on him earlier. I can take a little pain. What’s the worst he can do? There’s a line he can’t cross or he’ll be no better than one of those invaders. “I understand,” the guard says and then opens the door. I follow Captain Albius. This place is just as I remember it the last time I came to see Alios. The smell is awful. I don’t miss it at all. We walk for several minutes straight ahead without making any turns, eventually arriving at another door. He opens it and then we go through. Inside is another long passage. Instead of the standard jail cells that I saw lined on the sides of the previous hallway, these have doors. Captain Albius opens the first door on the left. “This is where you’ll be stayin’,” Captain Albius says. It’s a fairly small room. There’s a thin pillar at the other side of the room opposite of the door. The elevation of the floor curves downward toward the front of the pillar where there’s a steeper drop into a small ditch. This room smells bad but not as bad as the halls where the prison cells are. “Take off your clothes.” “Excuse me?” I ask, unsure if I heard correctly. “You heard me. Take off your clothes. All of it,” Captain Albius says with a smile. “Or are you disobeyin’?” I frown. I have no other choice but to do it. I take off my clothes, one by one. I hesitate on the last piece covering my bottom half. “Come on. I don’t have all day. Take it off.” I grit my teeth and remove it from my body. He snickers. “Great. Now put all of it into that ditch over there,” Captain Albius says and points in front of the pillar. I do as he says. I already know where this is going. There isn’t a hole here, so he’s planning to have me use the bathroom all over myself. That’s why he forced me to eat. He’s going with the humiliation route. All I have to do is hold it in until they release me. It’s only until the evening. I’ll wash my clothes later. No big deal. “Good. Now, sit in the hole and wrap your arms around the pillar,” he says and then moves behind the pillar. I crouch down into the ditch. As I stretch my arms back, he grabs a hold of them. Something metal clanks around my hands. I try to break free, but it’s locked pretty tight. He’s doing something else behind me, but I’m not sure what it is. There are clicks here and there and rocks grinding. He comes back around and stares at me. He smirks and laughs. “This’ll be great. I can’t wait to see your expressions later.” I smile but don’t say anything. I’ll let him have his fun. He’s only trying to bait me into lashing out at him to get me into a deeper hole. “We’ll see how long you can keep that act up. You won’t be smilin’ for long. I’ll drop a present for you in a bit,” Captain Albius says and then cackles. He leaves, closing the door behind him. Heh. He’s given me a great chance to take a nap. I’ll spend the entire time sleeping. It feels like the smell’s getting worse. There are several brown stains all over the floor. Some on the walls too. Is it poop? There has to be more to this punishment than I’m getting. It’s getting warmer too, but that’s probably just because there’s no ventilation in here. I close my eyes and relax my breathing. I slow it down to the point that I don’t have to take in this nasty smell too often. Several minutes pass, but I feel like the smell and heat worsen. I think back to what Captain Albius was doing behind me. Did he activate some kind of device other than tying me up? I try to move my body around so that I can see what’s behind me. Whatever is tying my hands together won’t budge at all. I can’t stand up or twist my body around the pillar without dislocating my arms. I stop trying and relax. I wonder what everyone else’s punishment. I hope it’s not humiliation. I wouldn’t be able to bear even the thought of another man forcing Marin and Ruby to strip. And what if it goes farther than that? I shake my head. I don’t know what I’m thinking anymore. There’s no way something like that would happen. That would be going too far. It’s the army, not a group of criminals. The only thing left I can think of is harsh physical training or labor. That isn’t so bad, but Marin and Ruby have struggled with that over the years. They’ve improved, but depending on the type of training, it could be hard on their bodies. Or will they force them to spar with other soldiers in close combat? I sigh. No point thinking about any of this. If I have to stay down here until 6 PM, that’s about nine or ten hours from now. I close my eyes and try to empty out all thoughts so I can fall asleep. My palms sweat. There’s no doubt that there’s something going on behind me. It’s not long before the rest of my body sweats too. What seems like forever passes. I can’t seem to fall asleep despite not having a good rest last night. My body itches too, but I can’t scratch it. It’s itchy everywhere. Something resounds above me. A hole appears in the ceiling in one of the corners. Something yellow and brown falls. Oh god… I close my eyes, grimace, and turn my head away as some of it splashes onto me. I open my eyes, finding that the hole in the ceiling is gone. The urine ramps down into the ditch. It soaks into my clothes. Doesn’t seem like it’s diluted at all by water. Some of the poop comes down too, but most of it is stuck onto the part of the floor it fell onto. It broke into multiple pieces with some on the walls. That explains the brown stains around the room. I would hate to be the person to clean this up. So it doesn’t matter if I hold in my bladder. Other people’s mess will rain from above. Where is it coming from? This can’t be happening on a regular basis or some unfortunate soldier will have have to clean this up every time. There aren’t any bathrooms in the training area, so it has to be the cafeteria, request center, or clinic. Since it was a straight hallway to this room, it has to be the clinic or cafeteria. I hope it’s the former, since not as many people go there. Some kind of mist is forming. I think it’s responsible for this humidity and heat. It’s a very faint purple. The only magic this could be is Dark. I’ve never seen it, but there’s nothing else can produce this purple color that I know other than Void magic and that’s impossible. This isn’t so bad yet. I can endure this. More waste drops from above, this time from another place on the ceiling. Only a small amount of dark-colored urine. At least two hours pass. I haven’t got a second of sleep. I can’t even if I tried in this hot and stinky environment. Just when I thought the smell couldn’t get worse, it does. All the smells in this room have nowhere else to go. It’s like the entire sewer concentrated into one room. I think the urine has completely soaked my clothes at this point. My feet feel filthy. I look at the ceiling. It seems like there’s a drop every twenty minutes or so. The next one should be coming soon. I have to pay attention to where it comes from so I don’t get any of the aftermath on my face.  The hole appears on my left. I turn my head right. Some of it splashes on my neck and probably my hair, but better than my face. A clump of poop rolls onto my feet. The smell is slightly less terrible when I have my head raised up. It’s putting my nose farther from the mess below me. Suddenly, resounds directly above me. What the…   By the time I realize, a brown liquid drops down and covers my entire face. I close my eyes and mouth immediately, but it’s too late. Some of it makes it in. The rest of it slides down my body and into the growing pool around my legs. I try to gather the warm goo that dropped into my mouth and spit it out without tasting it while my eyes burn tremendously. But the thought that I know liquid poop got into my mouth was too much for me. I gag and throw up. I end up tasting the warm goo mixed with my vomit in my mouth. I can’t stop myself from throwing up again and again. My eyes burn, itch, and throb with pain. My body itches. I’m sweaty. It tastes bad. It smells bad. My throat burns. I feel sick. Now my head’s spinning too. On top of everything, it feels like my bladder’s going to explode. Maybe I should just let it out. I’m already covered in poop and urine and I’m practically sitting inside a toilet. How many more hours do I have to go through this? I can’t help but cry with my burning eyes. This isn’t a joke at all. I’m such an idiot. I should’ve taken things more seriously. Not do something stupid like taking on four requests at once. It doesn’t matter anymore. I let everything out. Both number one and two. Footsteps resound nearby. I try to force myself to stop. The door opens, but I don’t know who it is. I try to open my eyes, but my vision’s blurry. It’s less painful to keep them closed. A laugh resounds. It’s a girl. I grimace as more tears drip out of my eyes. I don’t know who she is or what she’s doing here, but this is the worst. She laughs uncontrollably. I’m glad someone came. With the door open, some of this bad smell can leave the room. This purple mist too. She says, “This is great.” I try opening my eyes again. Still a bit blurry, but I recognize her. It’s Ada, that girl who thinks I’m in league with those invaders. “It’s so refreshing to see you cry and suffer. Do you feel miserable?” she asks and then laughs. “I take it my shit made you feel pretty miserable.” I grit my teeth but don’t say anything. This is a trap. I shouldn’t say anything. I can’t let myself get into a worse situation. I lower my head so she can’t see my face. She continues, “General Nero told me what you did. Killed a bunch of innocents and screwed up your mission.” What? General Nero told her of all people? Why would he do that? “He remembered that I didn’t like you and gave me an opportunity to make you suffer. To make sure you understand the weight of your actions. The medicine he gave wasn’t very pleasant, but seeing you here made it all worth it.” She walks closer. “Say something. Look at me when I’m talking to you.” She kicks me on the side of my face. It hurts, but it kind of feels good because it relieves some of the itching. I look up, begrudgingly. She pushes the bottom of her boots onto my mouth. It tastes like shit. I remember the taste of this just a few minutes ago. I gag but I can’t vomit with her pushing me back. I can’t control my bladder either and let it out. She removes her foot from me. I immediately vomit, adding onto the nasty below me. She only gloats at my misfortune. This stupid girl. I grit my fists. Her laugh fills me with so much rage. I think back to those words that masked man said. No, I can’t be like them. I won’t. I empty out my thoughts of wanting to kill her. I’m not a murderer. Maybe humiliate her too like she is doing to me. An eye for an eye. I can’t do that now, but I won’t forget this. The best I can do now is spill some of this filth onto her somehow. I ask,  “Hey, can you kick me on the other side of my face? My arms and legs too. It feels good.” Ada frowns and says, “You’re sick and disgusting. Literally. You want me to kick you? I’ll kick you.” She takes a few steps closer. She’s practically standing over me. She can’t be thinking of that, is she? I squeeze my legs together and bring my knees close to my body as she pulls her leg back. Her kicks are aimed toward my groin. I block with both legs initially but switch to one. I dig into the filth below me with my other foot. I force it upward, spewing pieces of shit all over Ada. She stops kicking me and looks at herself. “Shit!” she exclaims. I giggle and then say, “Yeah, that’s shit.” “You think this is funny?!” she exclaims and kicks the side of my body several times. She stops, though. She smiles. “I’ll tell General Nero about this. That you attacked me. Who do you think he’ll believe? Me or you?” I grimace. This stupid bitch. One day, I’ll make her regret this. She walks toward the door and stops. “Oh, and expect to have more presents dropping by later. I’ll tell everyone to use that special toilet on the first floor of the clinic. Bye!” With that, she closes the door. I just want this to end. I spend several more hours with my head lowered to avoid the incoming waste. It feels like it’s been more than the original nine or ten hours. No one else has come down other than Ada so long ago. The level of urine and feces has almost reached my knees and chest. I’ve grown so accustomed to the smell that it doesn’t make me gag anymore. When finally, more footsteps resound. The door opens. I look up. General Nero comes in. “I’m sorry, Kai. I completely forgot about you.” I don’t have the energy to respond anymore. The burning, pain, and itching is too much. Just let this end. He continues, “It’s already 7 PM so you won’t have the luxury of eating dinner.” I don’t care. I just want to get out of this room. Take a nice shower to clean this off my body. “I was hoping this punishment has served as a good lesson for you to always follow your orders to the best of your ability,” General Nero says as he frees my hands from the back of the pillar. My legs are really sore from being locked in practically the same position. I crawl out of the ditch filled with waste and onto the ramp. There are shit stains here,  but I don’t care. “But it seems you haven’t learned your lesson yet.” What the hell does he mean by that? Was it Ada? I have to clear this misunderstanding. “Sir—“ “Shut up. You’re not allowed to speak,” General Nero orders. I grimace and grit my teeth. “Turn around.” I do as he says and turn around. He stands behind the pillar with a smile. He points to the ditch and then says, “Drink it.” What? Did I hear that correctly? He’s joking, right? I mutter, “What—“ “Hey!” he screams. “I told you that you couldn’t speak, you fucking moron. Are you deaf?” My heart beats rapidly as he walks toward me with a frown and narrowed eyebrows. Is this the same General Nero that forgave me for letting Sofiel get away? This doesn’t feel real. I tremble. He grabs me by the back of my hair and drags me to the ditch. He shoves me into the brown, yellow, and discolored puddle head first. I close my eyes and hold my breath. He keeps applying pressure so that I can’t get out. Something hits my stomach, hard. The sudden impact makes me gasp for air unconsciously.  I swallow and breathe in the waste. General Nero brings me back up. The horrible taste invades my mouth. I vomit and cough simultaneously from the particles that got into my airways. I throw up the gulp that I just swallowed, but I continue to cough. I wish I had something to rinse my mouth because of all the nastiness that got into my mouth. “That’s for speaking when you weren’t supposed to. Now, take a sip and swallow it. You’re not allowed to throw it up for a whole minute,” General Nero says. Why is he doing this? I still don’t know. All I know is, if I don’t do as he says, worse things will happen to me. I continue to cough, but I’m scared to wait any longer. I scoop the disgusting brown liquid with my palms. I hesitate for a moment before sucking up all of it into my mouth. I hold my breath the entire time to not taste any of it. I pinch my nose and then swallow it. My body disagrees with it immediately despite that I haven’t really tasted it. I try not to think about the taste and continue to hold my breath while keeping my nose pinched. I can stay like this for a minute easily. I stop coughing too since I’m not breathing. The next minute feels like forever. “Good. You passed the one minute mark,” he says. I immediately gag and throw it up afterward. “Let me remind you that should you continue to do poorly on your missions and disregard your orders, this punishment could be given to the other members of your platoon.” The thought of this happening to Marin or Ruby would break me. I’ll never risk anything again if it meant risking punishments like these. He continues, “More orders will be in your mailbox tomorrow morning. You’re free to go for today. Oh, and don’t forget to put your clothes on. You can’t walk around looking like that. And one more thing…you’re not allowed to disclose your punishment to anyone, or else…” General Nero walks out the door. It’s finally over… I don’t want to stay here any longer than I have to. I reach down into the ditch for my clothes. I squeeze them to remove as much excess liquid as possible before wearing them again. I go back the way I came from with Captain Albius. I walk slowly because my legs are really sore from sitting in that position for the entire day. I ignore the stares from the guards and other soldiers as I make my way up to the second floor and to my room. I go to the bathroom immediately to take off all of these dirty clothes. I rinse my mouth thoroughly with the sink water before brushing my teeth multiple times. Afterward, I hop into the shower. I spend a good hour cleaning my body. I’m tempted to drink some water from the sink, but I know I shouldn’t because it’s magical water. One sip can’t hurt. Or a few. I take several gulps, but immediately spit out the remaining water from my mouth. It only made my stomach feel worse. I want to throw up again, but I stop myself. I carefully step around anywhere with poop particles on the ground. I go to my drawer and put on a fresh change of clothes.  A knock resounds on my door. “Kai? Are you back yet?” Marin asks. “Ye-yeah,” I answer, but my voice is a bit raspy. “What’s wrong? Can I come in?” I can’t have her come in now. She’ll see the shit-stained clothes I have in the bathroom. I have to keep everything a secret even from her. I don’t want to find out what’ll happen if other people find out about my punishment. “Nothing. Just tired. I would prefer you don’t stay over today.” “You’re lying about something again, aren’t you?” she asks. I forgot about it until now, but this morning she mentioned something about me lying to her when I never have. Although, I’m forced to actually lie to her now. “I’m not lying. When have I ever lied to you?” She answers several moments later, “You’ve never lied to me before…but you’ve hidden stuff from me. To all of us. About your Mana and magic. To me, that’s the same thing as lying.” Oh, so that’s what she meant. That’s a relief…but I still can’t let her in now. “I understand, Marin. You’ve gotta trust me on this one. I’ll tell you eventually, but I can’t right now.” “Okay…” she responds with a dejected voice. “Can you open the door so I can at least give you some food? Ruby and I hid some of our portions today at lunch and dinner because we noticed you weren’t there. I know your starving because you haven’t had anything to eat all day.” I bite my lip. While I’m being forced to lie to Marin, she and Ruby have been breaking rules to help me. The fact that I’m the one who put us in the situation in the first place hurts me. Even if I’m the one to bear all the pain, Marin and Ruby will take risks in order to support me. I don’t want to accept the food because she’d expect me to eat it immediately. My throat is still extremely sore from all the times I threw up. I’m not sure if I’d be able to eat it without raising suspicion from her. “I’m not hungry. Captain Albius took me to this place called the cooking station in the cafeteria. I ate the best meal ever since coming here to the Castle,” I say. “I’ll tell you about it some other time. Thanks for bringing me the food. I know you and Ruby always have my back. You should eat the food. You’re probably still hungry, right? The portions are smaller than normal.” “Yeah…okay, I will. I’ll see you tomorrow at breakfast. Good night, Kai.” “Yeah. Good night, Marin,” I say. I sigh as her footsteps fade away. I return to the bathroom. There’s no point trying to clean these clothes anymore. They’re useless. I’ll get new shoes too. I can’t exactly toss them out without people giving me weird looks again. I’ll burn them. There’s nothing that my Fire magic can’t burn. I point my right palm at the pile of dirty clothes on the floor. I bind Fire Affinity to my Mana. I activate it and release it straight out of my right palm. The poop-covered clothes and shoes burn into nothing almost instantly. I sigh. I’m really glad this is all over. I still feel a bit sick, but I just need to sleep it off. I tuck myself into bed and then fall asleep. … I wake up the next morning at the usual time. Feeling much more refreshed compared to yesterday. My stomach still hurts. On top of that, my body feels heavy and it’s burning up. A dull pain aches my head too. I get and then get dressed. I can’t be late for breakfast or Marin might ask me more questions later. First, I need to check the mail station for more orders. I head on over to the mail station on the third level. I unlock my mailbox with the key and find a new piece of paper inside. I take it and read it. You will serve as the day and night prison guard for two weeks. You are to only allow authorized personnel into the prison. The current guard on duty will explain how to complete your other duties. You are expected to be there at 7 AM today and stay until 7 PM. Sleep for a few hours before returning to your shift from midnight to 7 PM again. Food will be delivered to your post.   Signed by General Nero. Ugh. This means that today’s breakfast will be the only meal I’ll be able to enjoy in the cafeteria for the next two weeks. Of all tasks General Nero could’ve assigned me. Guard duty? That’s so boring. And it’s in the prison. I gag with memories of yesterday. I thought yesterday would be the last time I would have to bear with that smell... I hurry to the cafeteria to meet Marin and Ruby for breakfast before it’s too late. I wait in line to check-in to collect my meal ticket, eventually moving to the front of the line. I give one of the two men sitting behind the table my ID. “Hmm… Sigma 4. Third one today,” the man says and then rips one of the meal tickets in half. He hands it to me along with my ID. I take both and move on to the next line. Half a meal ticket? As if the amount of food for one food ticket wasn’t lacking enough. I can’t imagine what half a meal ticket would yield. It worries me since Marin mentioned of saving some food for me yesterday. How can you save anything when it’s so little? I’m starving, but I have to put up a front for them so they don’t starve themselves too. The line moves fast. I hand over my ripped meal ticket. It takes longer than the usual few seconds it takes to receive my food. Eventually, a man hands me a tray of food. Surprisingly, it has the usual piece of bread and hard-boiled egg. But there’s half as much mystery meat and vegetables. Still has the cup of water. Marin and Ruby are seated in our usual place. My head throbs and my vision blurs. Two sets of everything appear. I walk between them, unsure of which way is the right direction. I shut my eyes tightly before opening them again. No more double vision. Sweat covers my palms. “Hey,” I say while taking a seat across Marin and Ruby. “Hey,” they both say with smiles. They haven’t started eating their meals. I can’t look too eager either despite that my mouth is watering. I gulp. Just have to act normal. Normal. “Kai, ya can have my egg and meat. The ones from yesterday probably didn’t fill ya up much, right?” Ruby asks. I think to last night when Marin offered me some food. I look toward Marin who shakes her head slightly. Maybe she doesn’t want to tell Ruby that she had that food to herself instead of me. I answer, “No, it was enough to fill me up to fall asleep. I’ll be fine with this much today.” “’Kay, I understand. Glad I was able ta help ya. Let me know if ya want more.” “How’re you feeling, Kai? You don’t look too good. Your voice sounds better today,” Marin says. “I’m feeling great. Slept really good last night,” I say with a smile. “How’d yesterday go for you two…?” My question is met with silence. Then I remember what General Nero said to me. That I can’t disclose my punishment to anyone. What if it’s the same for these two? “It was fine,” Marin answers. “They’re having me help out with a lot of the physical labor in the Armory. It’s tiring, but nothing unbearable.” I smile. That’s a relief. I ask, “What about you, Ruby?” She’s frowning with her head lowered. She looks up and grins. “Really borin’! I hafta help organize papers in the Record Zone all day.” I thought it would be something awful, but that doesn’t sound too bad. It’s really good to know that they didn’t go through something like… I stop thinking. I don’t want to think about that here. It’ll be way too suspicious if I gag or do anything abnormal. It feels like the throbbing in my head is getting worse. I probably just need to eat something and it’ll go away. “…you, Kai?” Marin asks. Her voice echoes. I didn’t catch what she said exactly. Everything around me is echoing actually. “Sorry, what was that again?” I ask, playing it off. “I zoned out.” “What about you, Kai? What’s your punishment?” Marin asks and then starts eating. Ruby has already started eating too. It would be unusual if I didn’t start soon. Her question reminds me of yesterday. It makes the sour feelings in my stomach worse, but I ignore it. I think to the orders found in my mailbox today. “Nothing too terrible. Guard duty in the prison. The smell’s the worst part. They’re having me eat down there too so I won’t see either of you for a while at mealtime starting today.” I pierce the egg with my fork. I put the whole thing in my mouth. An extremely sour feeling permeates throughout my mouth, but I ignore it and keep chewing. I shut my eyes tightly while continuing to chew. My head continues to throb and burn up. I feel light-headed. I open my eyes. Marin and Ruby’s lips are moving, but I don’t hear anything. It’s too hard to swallow the egg in my mouth with that sour feeling in my mouth. I take a big gulp from the cup of water to force it down. I regret it the moment I do. I hunch forward grabbing my stomach with my hands. This feeling was just like yesterday. I can’t help but remember the smell, the feelings, and the taste. I vomit everything out. My body feels too heavy. I feel weak. I fall over and pass out. … I open my eyes, unsure of what just happened. Marin says, “Kai, you’re finally awake. How’re you feeling?” Marin’s sitting in a chair next to me. I’m apparently tucked inside a bed. I sit up, trying to remember what happened. Right. I was eating that egg and then… I felt really sick to my stomach. That pain in my head, my body burning up, voices echoing seems to have all vanished. I don’t feel sick either. I answer, “Great, actually. Where am I? What happened?” “You scared us when you suddenly threw up and passed out. Ruby ran to get help from the Clinic. You’ve been asleep for several hours now. The doctor said you had a sickness, but he helped your body take care of it with Healing magic. He said you would be fine in a few hours.” “I see. Where’s Ruby now?” I ask. “I’m not sure. Training, I think.” “Training?” I ask while knitting my eyebrows. “Shouldn’t she be in the Record Zone?” “Well, you were asleep so you didn’t know… But General Nero changed his decision an hour ago. We’re no longer blacklisted.” Changed his decision…? What? It doesn’t make any sense. Especially after the way he treated me yesterday… “Oh, Captain Albius wanted to speak with you after you wake up and feel better. He’s waiting in his office.” “Okay,” I say and stand up. My mind blank. “There’s more. General Nero apologizes for the misunderstanding and gave our entire platoon free passes to the bar, bathhouse, cooking station, and a lot of meal tickets as compensation. Isn’t that great?” “Yeah…” I answer. Unsure if I should be feeling glad or angry. It’s too much information to process. “What’s wrong, Kai? Aren’t you happy?” “I am…but I just don’t understand. Why’d they change their decision?” “Hmm… General Nero didn’t say. I’m sure that’s why Captain Albius wanted to see you.” “Maybe… I’m gonna find out. Thanks for staying by my side, Marin,” I say with a smile. “Yeah,” she answers with a smile too. “It’s almost lunch time, so don’t be late. Everyone promised to be there. So you can convince everyone to do those group training exercises you mentioned.” “Right, well, I’ll see you soon then,” I say before leaving. “Bye.” I find my way out of the Clinic and head immediately to Captain Albius’ office on the third level. I barge into his office without knocking and say, “You wanted to see me, Captain Albius?” He stands up from his chair, smiling. “It was about time you showed. How’re you feelin’?” I know I should be respectful, but I can’t help feel hot puffs of air escaping me. “Good now, no thanks to you.” “No need to hold any grudges against me… I was just doin’ my job. Because of our misunderstandin’, your platoon will receive some compensation. You’ll receive—“ “Yeah, whatever. Marin told me about them. But why? What changed your mind?” “Well, after examinin’ the value of the weapons you brought more closely, re-readin’ your report, and fact checkin’ at Beltan, we decided that you were tellin’ the truth about everythin’. You did the best you could given the circumstances. We apologize for the misunderstandin’.” Frowning, I walk closer to Captain Albius so that his face is inches away from mine. “You had me covered in shit and piss for an entire day inside a steaming, hot room. But it was all a misunderstanding? I told you I was telling the truth the entire time.” He answers calmly, “Yup… And to apologize, you’re receivin’ a fairly large compensation. Free passes to the bathhouse and bar don’t come cheap. Those are usually only given out to platoons who have had success on important tasks assigned to them.” “What about General Nero? He had me…” I say but don’t finish my sentence. “Where’s his apology?” “Where do you think these free passes are comin’ from? It isn’t on my budget. He asked me to apologize in his place. He’s busy right now,” Captain Albius informs and then puts a hand on my shoulder. He grips it tightly and brings his head closer. He quietly says, “You should be careful about what you say from now on. And be glad that your failure had a happy endin’ like this. Let yesterday serve as a warnin’ for the future. You did nothin’ wrong this time around…but just remember. Orders are everythin’.” He lets go of my shoulder and then says with a smile, “You’re free to go, Sergeant Kai.” I turn around and walk out of Captain Albius’ office. I hate him and General Nero for what they put me through, but I can’t do anything about it. I only can follow their orders. I’ll do what I have to in order to become a Lieutenant. Since there’s no punishment anymore, that means that my path to becoming a Lieutenant is on track. I’m also glad that Ruby and Marin don’t have to suffer anymore due to my mistake. My stomach growls. I’m starving. I head to the cafeteria to meet the others for lunch.

“How could you…” Ariane mutters and then bawls. This is really bad. She sluggishly walks toward Ragnar and then falls to her knees. “Ragnar…” “Ar-Ariane it-it’s not wha-what it looks like,” I say. My entire body’s stiff. “I know... I know it…looks like that I—“ “Killed Ragnar…? I trusted you. I want to trust you, but…” Ariane sniffles. “I heard it. You wanted Ragnar to pay for killing those two.” “Dear lord…” the chief says behind me. The chief walks in and glances at me. He closes his eyes and shakes his head. I know what he’s thinking. It’s not right. “N-no... I didn’t do it.” I say and shake my head. “I-I can explain.” “There is no need. You did not forgive Ragnar for taking the lives of those two men.” “No, yo-you don’t understand…” “I understand that you wanted to execute him yourself.” “No! I thought no there was someone else here with a white mask that I met in the past and I know it was him and—“ “Please, save the excuses. Is that not his blood on your weapons?” Blood drips from both of my weapons. Ragnar’s head is separated from his body. None of this makes any sense to me. But this is a truth I can’t deny. I killed Ragnar. I sheath both of my weapons. I walk toward Ariane and reach for her shoulder. “Ariane, I’m sorry.” Someone grabs my arm before it reaches her. It’s Ariane’s father. Her mother is here too. He says, “How could you do such a thing?” I don’t say anything and look away. No one here’s going to believe me with these circumstances. It doesn’t matter what I say. “Because of you, my daughter is in tears.” “I’m really sorry,” I say. “Save it,” he says and then lets go of my arm. “I’m thankful that you brought Ariane back, but what you just did is unforgivable. We’ll meet you back at our house when we’ve finished things here. Hand you the reward for bringing Ariane back so you can be on your way.” “Okay,” I answer. But there’s one thing that’s bothering me. I don’t think I should mention this, but this other part of me really wants to ask. The urge is too strong. The more money we bring back, the lesser punishment we’ll receive, after all.  “What about the partial reward for bringing Ragnar back?” Ariane’s parents glare at me. The chief turns around and asks, “You have the gall to ask for such a thing after what you did?” Stupid. I’m so stupid. I turn around and head out. Why’d I decide to ask that in this situation? Outside, everyone else that was at the chief’s place stares at me.  Kama and Vicki are standing farther away from me compared to Jetia and Marin. Jetia smiles and then says, “I was wrong about you, Kai. You played me. You played all of us. It was an ingenious plan because they may not have chosen to execute him if you chose to give him a punishment. Man, I really thought you were going to forgive him.” “It’s not what you think,” I say with a frown. “I did forgive him. This was all an accident.” “Right, you accidentally took out your swords and killed him. For once, you did something befitting of a leader. You killed him acting on the platoon’s best interests. Don’t be ashamed. Dano and Banni can rest in peace now.” It seems pointless to explain any further. I don’t want to discuss this anymore with other villagers around. Things look bad enough, but I need everyone to be up to speed first before explaining it to Ariane. “They want us to wait outside Ariane’s house until they take care of things here. We head there now. I’ll explain everything when we get there.” “Whatever you say, Kai. We’ll meet you and Marin there. We’re going to stop by a local diner first. We left the four we rescued there.” “Okay,” I answer. Jetia walks away with Kama and Vicki. I look toward Marin, finding it strange that she hasn’t said a word. She looks at me with the same look the chief and Ariane’s parents gave me. I automatically assumed that she would believe me without a second thought, but now I’m not so sure. Does she believe me? I’m sure she does. This is Marin I’m talking about. Why wouldn’t she? I refrain from asking and simply say, “Let’s go.” She doesn’t say anything but follows. I think nothing of it as she tends to be quiet around people she isn’t familiar with. With these villagers nearby, it isn’t anything out of the ordinary. My paranoia of her doubt still lurks the back of my mind. We leave the jailhouse and head over to Ariane’s house. Neither of us says anything along the way. Several of the villagers glare at us. I wonder if the news has spread already. We arrive at our transportation, finding that Ruby’s still fast asleep. We sit on the wagon. “What were you going to tell me earlier?” Marin asks. I did promise her that I would explain the stuff that happened with Ragnar back in the forest. Since she didn’t ask about what happened in the jailhouse, that means she believes me, right? Should I tell her about the Void magic or my Mana first? “Right, well. There are two things that—“ “Hey!” Derek exclaims. He runs up to us from Ariane’s house. “Big sis’!” Marin and I exchange glances briefly. I shrug. Derek’s grin drops into a frown when he reaches us. “Big sis’… You brought her back, right?” “Yeah,” I answer. “She’s okay, right?” I don’t respond immediately. She was completely fine when we brought her back, but things have gotten complicated. She’s fine, but she’s not fine. Her little brother’s probably thinking of her physical health. I don’t think he can understand why she would be hurting right now. I also don’t want to mention it because I’m the cause. “Yeah, she’s in good health.” Derek smiles. “That’s good! ‘Cause I was really worried! I miss her. Where’s she now?” The happy look he has right now. It fills me with guilt. I look away before answering, “She’s with your parents right now. They’ll be back soon.” “Hmm… Okay. I’ll wait here until she comes back.” I don’t want him to be here when the others come back and I have to explain what happened earlier. I suggest, “Why don’t you wait inside? You can surprise Ariane when she comes home.” “That’s a good idea! I’ll do that!” he exclaims and then runs inside. The wagon shakes slightly. Ruby yawns while sitting up. “Mmm… Kai?” “Did you have a good nap?” I ask. She stretches and then rubs her eyes. Suddenly, she lunges toward me and puts her hand on my face. It makes my heart race. She strokes my cheek with her fingers. “What happened? Are ya hurt?” she asks. She takes her hand off, showing blood on her fingertips; Ragnar’s blood. ”This much blood. Wasn’t here before.” I turn away and say, “It’s not mine. It was from an accident.” Ruby yawns. “’Kay, that’s good. When’re we leavin’?” It’s good that Ruby seems to take no interest in the accident. I don’t want to have to explain to her what happened. It might do something worse to her. “Soon. You can go back to sleep, if you want. Just waiting for everyone to get back.” “’Kay… I’m goin’ back ta sleep.” Ruby lays down on the wagon again. It worries me a little if she’s overworking herself, but it’s probably nothing. I look toward Marin, smile and then shrug. I whisper, “Tonight, okay?” “Fine,” she whispers back. The family of four are walking in the distance, but not toward us. Jetia and the others aren’t with them. “Those four…where’re they going? I’m gonna check it out. Wait here.” “Okay.” I hop off the wagon and jog toward them. I ask, “Where’re you guys going?” They stop walking and turn toward me. The two young girls hide quickly behind their parents. I cock an eyebrow. The man says, “We just want to go home.” They’re scared, but why? I think of the glares we received on our way here. What kind of news has been spreading? It’s been less than twenty minutes since Ariane found Ragnar in that state. I respond, “Right…but we promised that we would bring you to Drymo. We’re going to leave soon.” “We’re thankful that you saved us, but I think we’re fine from here. We will ask for a separate escort. We don’t want to trouble you too much.” I won’t accept this. If they aren’t with us, then we won’t get any credit for saving them. It will all be for naught. Then the punishment will come down harder. “That’ll take at least a day, maybe more. Come with us, I insist. We can get you home tonight.” “We’ll do as you say. Just don’t hurt us, please.” “I’m not going to hurt you… Just wait in the same wagon over there,” I say while pointing to the wagon behind Ruby and Marin. The man says nothing more and walks in that direction with his family. “I thought he was a good person…” one of the two young girls mutters. “Shh,” the woman whispers. “Be quiet.” I sigh. I want to clear up this misunderstanding as soon as possible. I don’t want everyone to think I’m some kind of monster. I rejoin with Marin at the wagon. “Where were they going?” Marin asks quietly. “They were trying to hitch a ride somewhere else. They…” I pause for a moment, not wanting to acknowledge to Marin how they were acting toward me. “…were scared of me.” “I’m not scared of you.” Marin puts her hands on top of mine. “You made a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes.” A mistake? No, it was an accident. The paranoia that Marin doesn’t trust me grows. The person I trust most in the world right now. I need her to believe me. “But it was an accident…not a mistake.” “Mistake, accident, same thing.” “It’s not the same thing!” I exclaim while throwing my arms in the air, removing her hands from mine. I didn’t mean to say that so loud, but it just happened. Ruby doesn’t flinch. Marin frowns. “Well, I won’t know if it was a mistake or an accident unless you tell me about it. I only know that you killed Ragnar…” I take a deep breath. “You’re right… I’m sorry. I’ll make sure to explain it all when Jetia and the others arrive.” The three of them are walking toward us now. I tap Marin’s shoulder and nudge my head in their direction. I want to meet them a bit away from the wagon so that Ruby doesn’t hear it in case she wakes up. We hop off the wagon and then meet them half-way. “We didn’t find those four anywhere. Looks like they’re back here,” Jetia says. “Yeah,” I reply. So it wasn’t Jetia who told them about what happened. “Well, now that we’re here alone, let me tell you what happened.” I explain to everyone what happened exactly when I went to the jailhouse. Everyone gives me weird looks and doesn’t say anything in response. I ask, “So? What do you guys think?” “Wow. So let me get this straight. So, you thought Ragnar was that guy with a white mask that killed your friends from the Academy, so you killed him. Afterward, you realized he wasn’t wearing a white mask, and it was just Ragnar.” It doesn’t sound the same when he repeats it, but it’s right. So I answer, “Yeah.” Jetia laughs. “Look, there was nothing wrong with yer decision to take out Ragnar. You did yer job as the leader, Kai. There’s no need to make up this crazy story that you can’t possibly think anyone would believe.” “I’m not making this up! It happened! It’s true!” I exclaim. I can’t believe this. Kama and Vicki not saying anything is one thing, but Marin too. Does this mean she really doesn’t believe me, or is she just hesitant on saying something? “You had questions you were going to ask Ragnar. That’s why you wanted to get him yerself, right? Tell us about those questions.” “Of course. I wanted to ask him…” I pause. I wanted to ask him about how he beat my Mana using only Rich Mana or worse. I can’t exactly tell everyone here about that. I quickly think of something else. “…how he was able to make Fire magic cold and stuff like that again. He wasn’t very clear the first time.” “Why’d you have to do it in secrecy? You told Marin that you wanted to go on your own when she offered.” I open my mouth to say something, but there’s nothing. I’m trapped. I can’t say anything in my defense. I simply answer, “You’re just gonna have to trust me on this.” “I trust yer decision to execute Ragnar. He had it coming. Don’t believe this crazy story of yers, though.” It doesn’t bother me a great deal that Jetia doesn’t believe me. I’m used to him constantly disagreeing, but Marin. I need her to believe me. To trust me. If I gather everyone’s opinion one by one, Marin would feel more comfortable sharing her thoughts. “What about you, Kama?” I ask. “Look, I’m also really sorry about earlier. You weren’t wrong.” He rolls his eyes and then says, “I don’t know, Kai. You probably thought killing Ragnar would make me feel better about you…but I don’t. Your story is too far-fetched even for you.” “Vicki?” “I think you regretted your decision to kill him…and now you’re making up this story,” she responds. My palms sweat. “Marin?” “Well…I…” she mutters while looking at the ground. Ariane’s walking quickly this way. I gulp. “Wait, hold that thought, Marin. Ariane’s back. I need to talk to her,” I say and then walk toward her. Her head is tilted down. “Hey, Ariane.” She walks past me without saying a word. I match her pace and walk by her side. “Listen, I need to talk to you about what happened.” She remains quiet. She’s headed to her house. I continue, “Long story short, when I got to the jailhouse, there was someone else there. It wasn’t Ragnar. He was the one who killed my friends during the attack. It sounded like him and he wore the same white mask. So, I killed him. But then I realized it was actually Ragnar. So it was an accident. Do you understand now?” Still, nothing. “I didn’t want to kill him. In fact, I wanted him to teach me about all the magic he learned how he do on his own. I wouldn’t want to kill him. You believe me, right? Say something.” We reach the front door of her house. She opens it. Derek’s standing in the middle, blocking her way in. He exclaims with a grin, “Big sis’! Welcome home!” Ariane doesn’t move or say anything for several seconds. “Sis’? What’s wrong with your eyes? They’re so red…” For some reason, those words remind me of the red eyes I encountered that day in the forest. The Anomaly. It had bright red eyes. I grab Ariane and then turn her body around to face me. The eyes aren’t the same. Her eyes are simply red from crying. An appearance I’m very familiar with. She shoves me away and then slams the door behind her. “Sis’? Say something!” I stand outside of her door for a while longer, eventually hearing another door slam. “Big sis’!” Derek yells. The banging of a door resounds. I should know what she’s feeling like. I experienced it myself. She’ll come to understand that I’m telling the truth when she calms down. I turn around to rejoin with the others. Looks like they’ve returned to the wagon. Marin with Ruby at the front. I walk over and sit next to Marin. I ask, “What were you gonna say earlier?” She’s quiet for several seconds. “I need more time to think about it, sorry.” Not the answer I was looking forward to, but it doesn’t mean that she doesn’t trust me. It’s a lot of information to take in. She knows me. She knows that I’m not the kind of person to do something like this. She’ll come to the right conclusion in the end. I wait in silence with Marin while waiting for the return of Ariane’s parents. I think about telling them the full story too, but I should probably refrain. They’re a stubborn bunch. It takes them around ten minutes to arrive. We hop off the wagon to greet her parents together. Ariane’s father asks, “Sergeant Kai, have you seen my daughter?” “Yeah, went into the house about ten minutes ago,” I inform. “See, you had nothing to worry about, dear,” Ariane’s father says. Ariane’s mother takes a deep breath and then says,  “Thank goodness. She said she was going to go back early to see Derek, but she seemed strange. It was Ragnar’s funeral that she left early.” “She realized he was gone and moved on. She’s a big girl now. Anyway, come inside, and we’ll hand you the reward so you can be on your way.” “Right,” I say and then follow him into the house. Derek’s laying down on the floor at the end of the hallway in front of a door. “Derek, what’re you doing? If you’re sleepy, sleep in your bed!” Ariane’s mother exclaims as she walks over to him. “Wait here, I’ll grab your reward,” Ariane’s father says as he walks into the adjacent room. “Big sis’… She came home and didn’t say anything to me. She went into her room and locked the door. Does she hate me now?” Derek asks and then cries. Ariane’s mother hugs Derek and says, “It’s okay, Derek. She doesn’t hate you. She’s had a rough day. Let me try talking to her.” She knocks on the door. “Ariane? Are you in there?” Ariane’s father comes back. He opens his palms and says, “Here, take it.” A gold coin is in his palms. I widen my eyes. “A gold coin? Are you sure?” “Yes, we’re really happy Ariane is back with us. Take it before I change my mind. I’m trying to keep composure. I still can’t forgive you for what you did.” I take it the coin from him. A gold coin is a very large amount for requests from the army. We’ve typically received no reward at all since they are all people in need who can’t afford the expensive services of Adventurers. “Honey, Ariane’s not answering and the door is locked,” Ariane’s mother informs. “She completely ignored Derek when she got home. I’m worried about her.” “I’m coming, dear,” Ariane’s father says. “Be on your way now that you’ve received your reward.” He walks over to the end of the hallway. Marin says, “We should go.” “Ariane?” Ariane’s father asks as he knocks on the door. “Unlock the door this instant. Don’t make me break it down, because I will.” A bad feeling lurks at the back of my mind. Something’s not right here. I feel partially responsible because I’m the one who killed Ragnar. The most important person to Ariane. The one she loves. I took it. Just like how that masked man took mine… But my case was an accident. I didn’t mean to. I really want her to know that. “Yeah…but I’m worried about Ariane. I want to make sure she’s okay,” I say. Ariane’s father rams the door with his shoulder. I walk down the hallway and say, “Sir, I can help you get into the room.” “Didn’t I tell you to leave? You’ve received your reward.” “I’m worried about Ariane too. She seemed off when she came home.” “Get out, we don’t need your help. If you actually cared about my daughter, you wouldn’t have killed Rag—“ The door busts open. Ariane’s father falls forward. Ariane’s mother shrieks. My heart races. “Big sis’!” Derek exclaims as he runs into the room. “Oh my god!” Ariane’s father screams. “Ariane!” “Derek, no!” Ariane’s mother yells and rushes into the room. I follow. No way… I can’t believe my eyes. Ariane’s lying flat on her back on top of her bed. Her sheets are completely drenched in blood. So much that it has started to drip onto the floor. She stabbed herself in the throat. I shake my head slowly. Ariane’s mother holds Derek tightly. “Mommy, what’s wrong with big sis’…?” Derek asks. His mother doesn’t answer. “Dear…she’s…gone…” Ariane’s father informs. Ariane’s mother cries. Derek follows shortly afterward. Ariane’s father stands up and turns to me with tears dripping down his face. His eyebrows are narrowed and he grimaces before exclaiming, “You!”   He rushes toward me and then shoves me into the wall in the hallway. “This was all because of you! You knew that Ariane couldn’t live without Ragnar, but you killed him anyway! Now, Ariane’s gone. It’s all your fault!” He opens my palm forcefully and rips the gold coin out.  “Get out of here!” He stops pushing me into the wall and drops to the ground in tears. Because of me…Ariane’s…dead…? I should’ve known she was acting strange when she got home… I should’ve known exactly how she was feeling. I could’ve stopped her before she took a knife to her throat. My mind goes completely blank. Someone pulls on my arm. Marin says, “Kai, we need to go.” “Yeah…” I answer weakly. We leave the house, shutting the door behind us. I still hear their cries. “Kai, I know you always blame yourself, but it’s not your fault.” “But it is, isn’t it…? I took away Ariane’s most important person…and she…” “You couldn’t have known that Ariane would do that. Like Jetia said, you did what you had to as the leader. It was only right that Ragnar had to die for killing Dano and Banni.” “Are you saying you don’t believe my story?” “I’m still deciding… I want to believe you. Those two things you were going to tell me earlier. Are they related to what you had to ask Ragnar by yourself?” “Yeah, it is.” “Then I’ll decide after you tell me about that, okay?” “Okay…” “I’ll take us back to Drymo, so you take it easy until then, okay?” I climb onto the wagon where Ruby’s still sleeping tight. The Artificial Magic Weapons we took earlier are all stored on this wagon. I rearrange them a little bit and then lay against the back of the wagon next to Ruby. Marin can take care of the rest. I look at Ruby. She’s sleeping so peacefully with a smile. I close my eyes and try to do the same. … Something tickles my nose. Marin says, “Kai, wake up.” I open my eyes immediately and scratch my nose. Marin’s holding an arrow with the back end pointed toward me. I yawn and ask, “What’re you doing…?” “Sorry, you wouldn’t wake up otherwise,” she says and then takes the arrow and tickles Ruby’s nose with the fletching. “Ruby, time to get up.” “Mmm…” Ruby groans. She yawns and rubs her eyes. “Are we home yet?” “Yeah, we’re back at the Castle,” Marin informs. We’re moving upward. Must be on the Elevator. A guard is with us. I’ve been out for a while. Not sure what’s happening now. “Jetia and the others went to rest. We’re on our way now to store the Artificial Magic Weapons we found in the armory.” “What happened to the four we rescued?” I ask. “I know you wanted them to stay until we got to the Castle…but they left before that.” “What?” If they left before that, we don’t have any proof we saved them. I mean, it’s great that we saved them, but we really need everything we can to reduce the punishment we’ll receive. They were also robbed of everything… We could’ve provided them with something. I thought Marin could take care of everything. The Elevator stops moving. “Jetia told me they insisted on leaving when we arrived in the Residential District. I didn’t know until we got to the Castle.” I bite my lip. Of course, it was Jetia. He wants nothing more than to see us receive the worst punishment possible. “Umm… Kai?” Finding her tone strange, I look up, Captain Albius is walking in our direction. Oh, shit… He smiles. “Sergeant Kai, how’d your missions go? I heard you brought back a load of supplies for us. It must’ve been a huge success! I want to hear all about it…” My palms sweat and I gulp. He picks up the hammer that tripped me earlier in the day. He presses the button which launches the hammer to the left, but he’s in complete control and balance. “Artificial Magic Weapons, very nice. You’re well on your way on becomin’ a Lieutenant.” He puts the weapon back on the wagon. He looks toward Marin and Ruby. “These two sweethearts can take these to the Armory by themselves, right?” Ruby looks away. I hope she doesn’t make a scene here, especially since how she tried to kill him the last time they met. But, she should remember that we have to respect our superiors. I need her to be compliant since Marin isn’t as comfortable. I hop off the wagon and ask, “You two can take care of the rest, right Ruby?” “Anythin’ fer ya, Kai!” Ruby exclaims. “Let’s go, Marin.” With that, Ruby takes the reins of the horses and leaves in the direction of the Armory. Why does she have to completely ignore Captain Albius in a time like this? “Those two are beautiful, aren’t they?” Captain Albius asks while watching them leave. It doesn’t seem like he’s insulted in any way but have no idea what he’s getting at. “Let’s go for a walk.” I follow him along the hallway perpendicular to where the girls were going. I think the best thing to do in this situation is to agree. “Yeah…” “The red long haired one is a little cold and aggressive.” “Sir, she didn’t mean to disrespect you in any way.” “Oh no, I’m not offended. I don’t dislike it when they’re a little feisty. It makes my job more interestin’, you know?” “Yeah…” “You’re a lucky man to be surrounded by these two beauties every day. You’ve known them for a while, right? Are you particularly close to either of them?” He can’t be possibly asking about that, right? Does he know about Marin and I? Or is he suspicious? I don’t know why he’s asking me this or how it’s related to anything. Captain Albius laughs and then says, “Not much of a conversationalist, are you? Well, tell me how you bested outlaws and saved lives today.” “Right…” I don’t know where to start. I should probably clear up the misunderstanding that the mission was a success. It was the complete opposite. I don’t want to keep him out of the loop for too long or it might seem like I’m trying to lie to him. I take a deep breath. “Actually, we weren’t very successful…” “Oh? That’s disappointin’.” “But it was completely out of our control! There were a lot of misunderstandings, and one thing happened after another. We did rescue a family of four from a bandit group and collected those weapons.” “That’s all you did? What about the four requests you took on?” “Tha-that is…well…it didn’t go as planned.” “So, you failed to complete all four requests?” “Well, we did complete one, but then something happened… Look, it’s really complicated, but I assure you that it wasn’t our fault. We found one bandit group which led to another—“ “It sounds like you have a lot to explain. Give me the full report tomorrow morning in my office. I’ll have to report this to General Nero too, but don’t worry. He’s a really understandin’ guy. You brought back a lot of valuable items and dependin’ on what happened, you won’t be penalized. There won’t be a punishment.” “Really?” That’s great to hear. General Nero was the one who easily forgave us for letting Sofiel go. If he’s involved, I’m not worried about anything. Maybe he’s the reason we didn’t receive anything bad after the disaster last week. But then again, those could be freebies because of our good performance early on. “That depends on your report and General Nero. That’s all I have for you. Keep up the good work, Sergeant Kai.” “Yes, sir!” I exclaim and then head for the Armory. Marin and Ruby are coming out with the wagon. It looks like they finished transporting everything. Marin asks, “How’d it go with Captain Albius?” “I’m not sure. I have to give him the full report tomorrow morning. He’s going to report it to General Nero too. It doesn’t sound like we’ll receive that bad of a punishment, but I’m not sure. We’ve been only getting bad results lately. I don’t want to be demoted because we’ll be farther away from reaching our goal.” “Didn’t we do good this time?” Ruby asks. Right. She doesn’t know because she hasn’t been paying attention to the mission details lately. “We took out the bad guys!” “Well, the mission wasn’t to take them out. We had to save certain people...and we didn’t succeed,” I inform. “It’s okay. We’ll do a better job next time! I’ll work extra hard fer ya and everythin’ will be okay!” Ruby exclaims with a grin. “How can you be so sure?” I ask. “I just know.” She’s definitely has been overworking herself with how often she’s been taking naps today. I can’t rely on Ruby to work even harder. She’s been putting in a lot of work, but everything lately has been my fault.  It won’t help us much more if Ruby puts in more effort than she has been. Marin’s right. I’ve been trying to do everything on my own. If we all work hard together, we can achieve anything. “You’re right.” Getting demoted is one thing, but I don’t want Ruby or Marin to suffer the consequences of my mistakes. “I’m just concerned about the punishment if there is one.” “You said Captain Albius will report it to General Nero, right?” Marin asks. “Yeah,” I respond. “He forgave us easily when we let Sofiel escape. I’m not worried.” “I guess. I’ve never heard of what punishments entail and I’m just worried.” “I’ll endure anythin’ fer ya, Kai!” Ruby exclaims. “I’m glad to hear that, Ruby. But if something’s bothering you, let me know immediately, okay?” “’Kay!” “Well, I can take the transportation back to the stables and then you two can head to bed,” I offer. “No, I can do that,” Ruby says. “I slept lots…and I’m not tired anymore!” “Okay, good night.” Ruby smiles and answers, “Good night, Kai and Marin.” “Good night,” Marin says. With that, she leads the wagon to the Elevator. I exchange a glance with Marin. I still owe her an explanation for earlier. We go our separate ways for now. I head back to my room. I take off all my armor and then take a shower. Afterward, I rest on my bed. I collect my thoughts on how to explain everything to Marin. Someone knocks on my door. I walk over to open it, expecting Marin. I invite her inside and then lock the door. She sits on my bed and says nothing else. She’s probably expecting me to go right into it. It’s going to be easier to show her and explain at the same time. “Okay, well… As you know, there are three grades of Mana,” I say. I open my palm and emit Scrap Mana. “Scrap Mana.” I do the same for the rest. “Unrefined Mana, and Rich Mana.” Marin gives me a look like she’s running out of patience. “So, on the first day of the Academy, these were the three I saw, but the one Emdos taught me how to control is neither of them.” I release my Mana through my palm. One that is a deeper blue than Rich Mana. Marin widens her eyes and exclaims, “Wow!” She stands up and moves closer to the hand emitting my Mana. “So that hole you saw in the rock before… I utilized Layered magic by using all four grades of Mana that I have, with this last one in the middle.  I was planning to surprise Ragnar with it since he was so strong. That’s when I saw Ariane and tried to warn Ragnar. He tackled it head-on and stopped my attack. I couldn’t believe how he managed to do that because Scrap Mana can’t beat Unrefined Mana, Unrefined Mana can’t beat Rich Mana so nothing can beat my Mana which is stronger than Rich Mana.” “I see, it all makes sense now. You wanted to ask Ragnar about how he stopped it with his magic, right?” “Yeah… He seems to know so many things we don’t. Like making a rock soft like paper and making fire cold. There must be a reason. So, there’s no way I would kill him like everyone thinks I did!” Marin frowns. “But…you did kill him, right?” “I…did…but it was an accident. You remember what I told you, right? I saw that masked man. The same white mask. His voice. Everything was the same. You believe me, right?” She doesn’t answer immediately. I told her everything she needs to know to understand I didn’t want to kill him. I concentrate deeply on her eyes. My heart pounds rapidly. She will believe me. I need her to. She will. She’s thinking about how to say it. “Of course I do!” she exclaims with a smile. “I know you wouldn’t lie about something like this.” I let out a breath of relief. I knew it. She believes me. I can’t believe how worried I was that she wouldn’t. She asks, “Were you worried I wouldn’t?” “A-a little bit,” I admit. “Tell me more about your Mana! There’s more, right? You said there were two things. Can Emdos use this too?” “One question at a time. I’ll get to everything,” I say. “Emdos doesn’t have this Mana, but he taught me how to manipulate Mana before I went to the Academy. I’ve told you this before, but you didn’t know about my Mana.” “That’s amazing, Kai… Rich Mana is already so hard to control, but you managed to control this before going to the Academy! Oh…” “What?” “I remember when Moria announced that you had E ranks for the three Mana qualities. You said you were going to show everyone your true power.” Flashbacks to my first day of the Academy. I immediately think back to that soup. Oh, god, no. It was the absolute worst thing I ever tasted. “But then, you didn’t.” “Oh, that… Yeah, I was planning on showing everyone my special Mana, but I felt something cold. Like something was telling me not to do it. I think it was Emdos…but I’m not sure. He told me to never show anyone my Mana or the book.” “Book?” “It’s gone now. The book had a note from my father and information about Void magic.” “What do you mean it’s gone? And what’s Void magic…?” “It’s easier to show you. I have to use my Mana with Void magic or else it doesn’t work,” I say while writing instructions and bonding my Void Affinity to my Mana. I instruct them to create the same purple portal as I always do. I release my Mana and then activate it. Two identical purple portals appear; one behind the other.  It extends from the floor to several inches higher than my head. The width is a bit wider than the frame of my body with my arms resting on my sides.“Try walking through the one in the front from the middle. Don’t let any part of your body leave the edge.” “Wha-what happens if I do? Is this going to hurt?” “Nothing happens, literally. Watch.” I stand in the middle between the two portals. I walk forward and lean forward so that only my head goes through. “Yo-your he-head!” I see the back of my body going through the portal in front. “If your body is within the boundary of the portal, you can go through to the other side. But, if you let any part of your body outside this boundary…” I extend my arm into the portal in front so that it comes from the back like my head. But then I stretch it to the left, eventually leaving the edge of the purple portal. My vision changes instantly. The wall in front of the first portal is now visible. I take a few steps back. “See? No pain and nothing happens if you leave the boundary. Stay in the boundary, you go to the other side.” “Ca-can I try…?” Marin asks. She still seems a little shaken. “Sure,” I answer. I move aside. She stands between the two portals and then walks forward. She keeps her arms close to her body as she slowly enters the purple portal in front. “I see my back!” Marin exclaims. She walks forward, eventually standing in the same position as she did before. She grins. She walks forward into the portal again, this time faster. Faster and faster. She’s practically running now. “Uh, I’d be careful if I were you,” I warn. “If any part of your body leaves the boundary—“ “I’ll hit the wall, I know!” Watching this makes me feel nervous. “This is fun!” She stops running. Now standing practically behind the first portal. She balances herself on one leg with the other one stretched behind her. She leans forward and reaches her leg with an arm. She’s already found an interaction I never thought of on my own. I think about deactivating the portals so she’ll lose her balance and fall. She doesn’t know that I can do that and I can pass it off as the Mana ran out of juice but I refrain. I ask, “Can I continue?” She lets go of herself and then moves out of the way. “Yeah.” “Well, these things are two-sided. You can do the same for the other side. I can decide which side goes to which side. Magic goes through too,” I inform. I know what she’s going to ask next with that smile of hers. “No.” She frowns. I continue, “Well, this is the magic that I learned using a Magic Scroll that was inside the book. I learned it during my second year, but I didn’t want to get too far ahead, so I didn’t read more. When we were moving to our new rooms after the tournament, Hiro was about to find it, so I had to take it with me in a backpack. I think I lost the book in those caves down there…” I try not to think about Hiro or any of the others. “I see… What’d the note from your father say?” “I don’t remember exactly. Something about me being the last hope. It didn’t make that much sense to me. I don’t know anything about him other than that he left this book for me…and I lost it. If only I had taken training more seriously. I might’ve been able to learn some really strong magic and prevented all this from happening.” “Stop blaming yourself for everything that’s happened, Kai. It’s not your fault. Things might’ve still happened the same way even if you did learn more from the book. So what if you lost it? We can always go back to get it. You’re sure that you lost it in that place, right?” “I think so…but are you sure you want to go back there?” I ask. With those blue blobs that kill things with a touch. We barely made it out alive. “The only entrance we know is buried under rubble and it’s dangerous inside.” “Moria and the other teachers will rebuild the living quarters eventually. The next time we go, we’ll be more prepared. Bring strong people with us so we don’t have to be scared. I’m saying the book isn’t gone forever.” “I guess you’re right,” I admit. Though I wouldn’t want to go back there regardless. “Does Emdos know anything about your father?” “He said he knew my father and that he passed away, but he wouldn’t tell me more than that. I would ask him if I see him again, but…” “It’s okay, Kai. You’ll meet him again, eventually. He wouldn’t leave forever without saying goodbye.” “Yeah, I know… By the way, did you know you could deactivate magic after activating it?” “Yeah, why?” “Oh… it’s nothing,” I say. Good thing I didn’t decide to play that prank on her. I suppose with Marin’s expertise in Runic and Earth magic combined with her curiosity, it isn’t too strange that she tested that already. Does Ruby know too? It doesn’t make sense that she would because deactivating Fire magic mid-flight or Wind magic serves no purpose. I’ll ask her tomorrow. “Anyway, I’ve been doing my own training with this, trying to find other uses for Void magic.” I send out a bit of my Mana to deactivate both of the purple portals. They disappear immediately. I write new instructions. Marin asks, “How long do these portals last when you don’t deactivate them?” “It depends on how much Mana I supply to them and the size of the portal. I think these would last several minutes.” “Can you create more than two pairs of entrances and exits?” “I think so, but I never tried.” “Have you tested the upper limits of how much Void magic you can use?” Must be talking about what’s the largest portal I can make. “I haven’t tried that. This stuff drains my Mana pretty fast, and I haven’t gotten that comfortable manipulating it yet. I think doing something like that would drain me and I would get nothing from it. I can’t see a situation where doing something like that would be useful.” “I see…” she says and nods her head. Looks like she’s in deep thought. “Continue.” “I found that you can create one-sided portals, but it’s really weird.” I activate my Mana, creating two portals in the same place as last time. Going through the front leads to the one in the back. This time, there’s nothing on the other side. “What’s different?” “Take a look at the front of the first portal and the back of the second one,” I say. She moves behind it, so I can’t see her, but she should be able to see me. “It’s completely blank and you can see through it like it’s not even there, but it is there from the other side.” “Wow… Can you see me?” “Nope. And you can see me, right?” “Yep.” “Yeah, so I think I could use this to secretly use Void magic so no one finds out, but people could be able to see me go from one place to the next which brings too much attention to me,” I say and then walk through the front of the portal. “Wait, Kai, do that again!” Marin exclaims suddenly. “What’s wrong?” “Walk through the portal again, slowly.” Unsure of what she’s planning, I do as she says. I slowly walk into the portal. “Stop!” I stop. I wonder what’s on her mind now. I see the back of my body as before. She hasn’t said anything in several seconds. “Marin?” “Kai…you disappeared from the portal in front. I only see your head in the portal behind you.” I widen my eyes. “What?” “See for yourself,” Marin says and then comes out from behind the first portal. “Stand behind there and watch me do the same thing.” “O-okay.” Still a bit shocked, I do as she says and stand behind the portal in front. “I’m going to put my hand through now.” “Okay,” I answer, not sure what to expect. Marin slowly extends her arm in front of her. I blink once and she was gone. What the hell happened? But her hand is on the other side, behind where she should be, but she isn’t. “Marin?” “I’m still here,” she responds. It sounds like she’s right in front of me. I walk out, finding that she really is there, but it’s strange. If I’m not looking from behind the portal, she’s completely visible. Looking at it from an angle, she’s half invisible, half not. “Looks like you’re only invisible if someone looks from the opposite side of the one sided purple portal. Can you try one thing for me?” I ask and then stand behind the purple portal again. “Sure, what is it?” “Can you try extending your other arm to your side but not past the boundary of the purple portal?” “Okay,” she says. Her arm is visible to me, so my theory is correct. “Thanks, Marin. You can rest now. I could see your arm.” “Really? That’s interesting.” “I know. I could do a lot with this. I’ll have to keep training.” Marin smiles. “Thanks for telling me your secret. It’s safe with me, I promise. I remember what happened to Ragnar’s parents and… I wouldn’t want the same thing to happen to you.” “Yeah, I know.” “Does Ruby know?” “No, and I wanna keep it that way.” “So I’m the only one who knows about it other than Emdos?” Marin asks and then smiles. “I feel special.” I smile back and respond, “Well, you are special to me…” We stare into each other’s eyes without saying a word for several seconds. Marin looks away and then says, “Well…since you shared one of your secrets with me, it’s only fair that I tell you some of mine too.” I send out some of my Mana to deactivate the one-sided portals. It disappears. I wonder what kind of secrets Marin has. It always seems like she follows rules and regulations. Maybe she broke a rule once here and there? Or maybe she put something in our food… I don’t let my intense curiosity show or else Marin might not be inclined to share everything.  “Sure, what is it?” “Starting from our…third year in the Academy… Sometimes I would go into your room when no one was home and lay on your bed…” Hmm…so that’s why my bed smelled strange from time to time. I smile. She did tell me she had a crush on me for a while, so that’s normal. I mean, I had an urge to lay on her bed too in those days because her scent would be strongest there. “…and smell it because it smelled like you… And it would make me feel really hot down there… and I would feel overwhelmed…” Marin’s face turns beet red. I have a feeling I know where this is going. I gulp. “So I touched myself until I felt…better?” Wow. Was that the strange smell…or was that Marin? I can’t remember. “How often did you…?” “Whenever I could,” she admits. Well, I was mostly at home during the fourth year, so there’s no way it could’ve been that often then. “Are you mad?” “No, not really. I just didn’t know you were that crazy about me for so long,” I say and then kiss her. “We both feel the same now, so…” “Yeah,” Marin says with a smile. She pulls me in closer to her. Just another night for us.

I toss the bloody sword aside and then fall backward. I lie on my back and sigh. A sharp pain shoots across my chest. I slide my fingers across the tear on my armor and grimace. My head spins at the same time. What do I do now…? I'm losing all my strength… Someone…help…   I pass out.   …   "…Kai…" someone says while my ears ring.   Someone's voice… Who is it? Something warm touches my face. I open my eyes slowly.   "Kai! Hold on! We're going to get help now!" Marin exclaims. She gets up and runs out.   We're…? Luna…is she okay…? I can't hold on… My eyes feel heavy. Luna follows after Marin before my eyes shut completely. I pass out.   …   Indistinguishable chatter resounds somewhere far. Luna!   I open my eyes quickly, finding a white ceiling in front of me. I shift my gaze around. My injuries are dressed in white bandages. Luna is sitting in a chair next to the bed. Her head is down. I sigh. She's just asleep.   The clothes she's wearing is unfamiliar to me and bloodstained. What're those clothes…? I've never seen her wear them before. And she wasn't injured… Did she get injured?!   I reach out my hand toward her, when suddenly, she looks up. She smiles and asks, "Oh, Kai! You're awake!"   "Ah…yeah," I respond with my hand frozen in place.   She cocks an eyebrow and asks, "What're you doing…?"   I draw my hand back and explain, "I was—"   "Oh, I see!" Luna exclaims with a smile and then giggles. She takes my hand and pulls it toward her. My hand rests on one of her breasts. "You want to continue where we left off, right?"   "Huh… No! I was just—"   Luna climbs on top of me. I gulp and blush. "You were just…what?"   She flicks her hair back, and my hand falls to the bed. My heart beats like a drum as my eyes linger on her curves. I bite my bottom lip repeatedly while I raise my trembling hands to touch her, but I stop and ask, "Luna, where'd you get those clothes?"   She sits upright, looks at herself, and then answers, "Oh these? Do you like them?"   She leans toward me, grins, and continues, "I got them from this lady next to me when I woke up."   A lady next to her…? But there were only… Luna's tongue invades my mouth. I resist my urges and push her back and then ask, "You took it…? From a…body…?"   "Huh? Yeah. She didn't need it anymore. She was dead. They don't really fit me, though."   My thoughts shut off, remembering what happened before I passed out. I grit my teeth. She hasn't changed from before… She's not herself!   The pressure around my waist loosens. Luna throws my belt across the room. "I understand, Kai. You're running out of patience, right?"   "No… Just stop it."   "You don't have to be so reserved with me, Kai," she says as my pants are pulled down. My thoughts and muscles freeze up.   "I don't want this…" My heart pounds progressively faster. I can't forget the events that happened earlier.   "Are you embarrassed?" she asks as one of her hands presses against my raging friend. "But I know what you want…"   "Just stop..." She doesn't listen and pulls down my underwear. I clench my fists, grit my teeth, and tighten the muscles around my entire body. "Stop!"   Luna lowers her head and opens her mouth.   "Stop it you dumb bitch!" I finally manage to move my body and reflexively knee her in the face off the bed. I pant. Still on the ground, Luna turns her head toward me.   "Kai…" she mutters and crawls back toward me. I gulp. I don't want to associate this fake Luna with her face anymore.   "Get out!" I scream and point to the exit. Luna looks at me with teary eyes for a moment before standing up and then running out the door. Tears run down my face with the back of my throat aching. I pull up my pants and lie back down. I recall the happy days just a few days ago. Everyone's smiling faces and this morning with Luna. Sitos…   Tears continue to flow down as I recall the nauseating sight of the moments before his death. Drugo…   I think back to the moment I walked into the Adventurer's Hub and stepped in a puddle of blood, Drugo's lifeless body next to it. Hiro…   I widen my eyes. That's right…! I made a promise to Hiro!   I quickly sit up, remembering Hiro's still stuck in our caravan. I need to hurry!   I wipe my tears on my arm, sniff my snot, and then stand up. I pick up my belt on the ground and then clip it on my pants. As I put on my boots, a sharp pain shoots across my chest. I crouch down and grimace. Blood seeps through some of the bandages on me.    "Kai!" Marin exclaims as she runs over to me. "What's wrong?"   I raise my head, revealing my bloodstained bandages. Marin crouches down and says, "Oh, no… Your injuries opened up again… Don't push yourself. You were lucky to be treated as soon as you did."   "What do you mean?"   "Well… Luna and I had to run around the entire city looking for help. No one would listen to me, and I didn't know what to do… That's when Luna came with a doctor with her. It's thanks to her that you're alive…"   I widen my eyes as Marin looks around the room. Luna…   "Where'd she go? She said she was going to stay with you…"   "I said something bad to her…" I say and then stand up. "I'm gonna go after her!"   Marin grabs my arm and says, "Wait, you need to rest…"   "There's no time!" I exclaim and break free from her grasp.   "Lively already?" a man standing next to the door asks.   "Doctor, quick! His wounds…!"   "So my quick treatment wasn't enough, eh?"   "So you’re the one who treated me… Thank you. If it wasn't for you, I might not be..."   The man smiles and answers, "Luna deserves those words more than I do. I was just doing my job…and it seems I didn't do a good one."   I ask, "Luna?"   "She's your friend, right?"   "Yeah…. She is… But still… Thanks for prioritizing me over everyone else. It must be chaotic out there for you."   He forces a laugh and then replies, "Really, it was nothing. I'm not doing charity work here. Her offer was the best one available at the time. That's all there is to it."   "I see. Well, I didn't bring my money with me…but if you fix me up again, I swear I'll bring it to you and pay for your services."   "That won't be necessary," the man says as he walks over to the bed. "I only stopped the bleeding before because I didn't receive the full payment. I'll close your wounds now that I've received it. Take off those bandages and lie down here."   I stand up and try to find how to unravel my bandages.   "I'll do that for you…" Marin says as she undoes my wrappings. I lie on the bed. The man puts his hands over my injuries. They glow a faint green as he glides his palms over my wounds. The pain emanating from my chest lessens.   "It's done," the man says as he removes his hands from my torso. A dark, red streak remains under the diagonal cut I sustained. "I've regenerated the outer skin layer, but your body still has to recover from the inside.”   The man stands up and walks toward the exit. “I’ve got to run some errands now. I recommend taking it easy for now. I’ll be back later to check up on you.”   His footsteps fade away in the distance. I sit up and throw my feet to the floor. I glance around the room, finding my armor and weapons in a corner. “Where’s my shirt?”   “The doctor had to remove it forcibly so…”   “Whatever,” I say and stand up. “I’m just gonna go without it.”   “Wait,” Marin says as she blocks my path. “Didn’t you hear what the doctor just said? You need to rest.”   “I told you, there’s no time. I have to find Luna,” I explain as I move her aside and walk toward the door.   “Wait! I’ll help you find her…just after I grab a shirt from your room… So just rest here until then.”   “Thanks, but I don’t have time…and I know where to find her,” I say and walk out, quickening my pace. I mumble, “It’s not like there’s anywhere else to go right now…”   I go down the stairs, finding that this isn’t the clinic but an ordinary inn. Outside, the indistinguishable chatter intensifies. A group of men is fixing a damaged building on the other side of the street, a man lending a shoulder to another walks past, with a lot of people running left and right. It’s getting dark, but visible smoke rises from multiple places in the distance. Not knowing where I am, I walk quickly in a random direction.   Luna… Was she that desperate to save me…? I think about what she’s been through and her recent actions. I bite my lip. I’m such an idiot… When she just wants to forget it all. And the best way to do that is…   I bite harder on my lip and quicken my pace, eventually arriving at the inn our team stayed at. I knit my eyebrows as the doctor who treated me is in sight; in front of the inn. He’s talking to another man. I can’t move any closer without getting noticed.   “That’s great to hear. Hold on, I forgot something in here. I’ll be right back,” the doctor says and then goes into the building. The other man stands in place. I follow after the doctor.   “Kai!” Hina exclaims. I turn around, finding her walking toward me. “I knew it was you. What’re you…”   Her eyes point down, lingering on my chest. “What happened?”   I sigh and then respond, “A lot… More than you know…”   “Well, good to see you still alive. What about that loud monkey and the others?” I frown and shake my head. Her eyes widen. “What happened?”   “Hiro…” I pause for a moment, my eyes getting teary. “A monster got him before the attack.” I pause again while thinking about the circumstances around Drugo’s and Sitos’ deaths. I clench my fists and teeth and snarl. “Drugo and Sitos died from a skirmish with the attackers.”   Her eyes widen. I look down on my chest and continue, “This…was also during that time…”   “No way… You lost three?”   “Yeah.”   “Sorry for your losses… Those three weren’t weak by any means...despite what I said about the monkey before. The enemies were just too strong. What about the other two?”   “They’re…fine. Yeah… We pro-protected them…” I say and then clench my fists harder. I relax and ask, “What about your team?”   “We’re all fine except for two with minor injuries. I’m buyin’ some supplies from the Trade District to change darling’s bandages.”   “You done?” a man asks behind me. I widen my eyes and turn my head around. The doctor comes out with a small pouch in his hands. It looks loaded.   “Yeah, let’s go,” the doctor says. I immediately dash toward the alleyway close by and then stand close to the wall of the inn. Hina walks in front of my view.   “What’re you doin’…?“   I whisper, “Don’t move.”   Hina cocks an eyebrow. She doesn’t move or say anything. Behind her, the two men walk off. I sigh. Hina turns her head around briefly. “Why’re you tryin’ to hide?”   “One of the two men that just walked by was the doctor that healed me. He told me to stay put and rest, but I didn’t.”   “Why wouldn’t you? That wound doesn’t look like a joke…”   “Well, I said something bad to Luna… I couldn’t wait to apologize, so here I am.”   “Well, what’re you still doin’ here?! Go apologize!” Hina exclaims and points to the inn entrance. I hurry to the entrance. “Cherish her, especially after what you guys have been through.”   I look behind me, finding that Hina is gone already. I sigh and go inside. She’s right… I need to cherish her… We still have each other.   I smile and walk up the stairs slowly. First, I’ll apologize for yelling and hitting her…then I’ll declare that I love her and that I’ll make her forget everything bad that happened…   The image of her bashing Sitos’ head appears in my mind. I shake my head. She wasn’t in the right state of mind. She was attacked and…yeah she wasn’t thinking. It wasn’t her fault. Why would it be? It was that masked guy’s fault…yeah. Luna’s still Luna. She’s trying so hard to forget and move on… I need to stop thinking about this too.   I reach the top of the stairs. My heart beats faster and my palms sweat. I grin while thinking about our special morning. My lower half is already excited. I stand in front of her door. I take a deep breath and raise my right knuckle to the door. I don’t knock as I realize the door is not closed all the way. Heavy breathing and creaking resound beyond the door.   This sound… Luna…with herself…? I realize there are two pitches of heavy breathing and stop smiling.   I don’t want to consider the most likely explanation. While holding my breath, I reach for the door knob slowly and peek inside. I widen my eyes. Luna is naked bouncing up and down on top of an older man I don’t know. My member goes limp.   My lips shake as memories of Luna’s innocent smile, laughter, and cute, mischievous behavior flood into my mind. The expressions of her I’ve never seen until this morning. All of it shatters in the scene unfolding in front of me. Both of their faces contort in bliss. My mind is blank. I let go of the doorknob and quietly walk to my room next door.   I open and then close the door behind me. I walk to the edge of my bed and fall face first. The doubts, second thoughts, and fears resurface from the depths of my mind. That’s when reality hits me. Luna’s gone. The tears flow out of my eyes with snot following out of my nose. Even while in my room, I still hear the creaking of the bed and muffled sounds. I can’t get the images out of my mind. With every sound, I only remember what I saw moments ago. Despite that Luna is no longer the same; her appearance is completely the same.   I don’t know how long I spend face down on my bed crying, but it feels like my head might explode if I stay any longer. I wipe my tears and snot on my sheets before forcing myself to stand up. I try to hold myself back from sobbing any more than I have, but my face twitches uncontrollably. I can’t believe they’re still going. I rush out of my room and down the stairs, never looking back. When I’m finally outside, the gentle breeze reminds me that I forgot to put on a shirt.   I grit my teeth and stand in place for a moment. I shake my head and walk as fast as I can away from the inn. The creaking and heavy breathing still echoes in my mind as if I’m right next to it. I smack the bottom of my palm on my forehead trying to forget and to think of something else. After several smacks, I remember something important. A promise I made earlier today. I widen my eyes and then run to the Adventurer’s District.   Everything here is as I remember it. The area is completely deserted. I find a large charred pile of wood in front of the Adventurer’s Hub where I last saw the caravan. Hiro…   I kneel down to the pile and begin picking up the pieces and moving them aside. I force a smile.   Hiro, you’ll be home soon. Don’t worry. Drugo and Sitos… More tears drip down my face. They’re gonna be there too, so you won’t get lonely.   After I remove several pieces of debris, one of his blackened legs is visible. I quicken my pace as my memories of him play out. "That's Hiro the Great to ya…   "Remember that one time? I chased ya with a carrot in my hand, and ya ran around forever!" I uncover the other leg.   “With him at his best, it's a guaranteed win!” I uncover his body.   "I don't wanna! Lemme go…! What're ya doin'?! No! It hurts!" I uncover an arm.   "What're ya worried 'bout? It's only an E ranked monster. Hiro the Great wins against Albino Flying Squirrel!" I uncover the other arm and then sigh. I reach for the last few pieces, when suddenly, someone grabs my shoulder. I turn around instantly with my heart beating fast.   “Kai.” Marin is standing behind me. “Are you okay?”   “Huh...? Yeah…”   “You weren’t responding… So I thought something was wrong… What’re you doing?” I turn back around, remembering what I was doing.   “I promised him I would get him home.”   “Hiro’s not in any hurry… He knows you will get him home, but he wouldn’t want you hurting yourself over him. It’s getting late… Please rest… Hiro will still be waiting for you tomorrow.” I uncover all the wood piling on top of his body.   “There… You’re not suffocating anymore,” I say with a smile.   “Were you able to make up with Luna?”   “Luna…?” My limbs freeze in place. The noises they were making echo in my mind. I squeeze my eyes shut and wrap my palms around my head. “Noo!”   A light weight rests on my back. “Kai, what’s wrong?”   “Make it stop! I don’t wanna hear it!”   Suddenly, a sweet aroma wafts through the air. A gradually tightening force surrounds my body. “It’s okay, Kai.”   I open my eyes, finding myself in Marin’s embrace. My eyes are on the verge of exploding into tears again. I wrap my arms around her and rest my chin on the back of her shoulder. I can’t keep it composed anymore. I bawl my eyes out.   After some time has passed, I calm down, still in the same position. I let my arms down with my mind completely blank. Marin lets go of me too, her face inches away from mine. Our eyes meet, but she turns away and then stands up. She offers me a hand and smiles. “Come on, Kai. Let’s go back.”   It’s dusktime. I grab her hand and stand up. I walk in the direction my arm is being pulled toward, my mind zoning out.   The next thing I know, I’m standing in a room. Where am I…?   I look around, finding that it’s the room I woke up in not too long ago. I knit my eyebrows. That’s right… I was bringing Hiro back and…   My eyes water up a little as I mutter, “Luna…”   The door closes behind me. I turn around, when suddenly, Marin throws her arms around me while shoving her lips over mine. Our tongues wrestle for several seconds before she pulls back. She blushes and points her eyes away.   My body takes over. I embrace her back and meet her lips again. Our clothes fly off soon enough. I push her down on the bed, my inner beast taking over.

Nearly the entire area around Leila is on fire. The giant flower is gone. A few guards are entangled by vines coming out of the pollinated flowers near them. Balls of fire appear in the air and descend toward Leila. Marin shoots arrows toward Leila. Leila takes a seed from one of her back pouches with her right hand and then throws it in front of her.   "Sprout!" Vines extend outward from the seed. Some of them dig into the ground. It creates a rough wall in front of her. She points her left palm toward the incoming balls of fire and shouts, "Water ball! Water ball! Water ball! Water ball!"   The balls of water collide with the balls of fire. Steam rises from the center of each collision. Marin's arrows penetrate the front of the vine wall. I shout, "Leila!"   The balls of fire disappear as parts of Leila's Water magic keep flying straight. Leila glances at me and yells, "I'm fine here! I'll catch up later!"   I grit my teeth while staring at her. I click my tongue and then run toward Byzia.   "Kai, wait!" Marin exclaims as she chases after me. An arrow flies toward me. I draw a sword and then deflect it.   One of the guards exclaims, "Lieutenant Marin, we'll come with you!"   "No, Sergeant Jetia needs your assistance. He's probably still alive in the woods somewhere."   "But—"   "That's an order."   "You heard her! Let's go!"   "Celerity!" Marin shouts. The frequency of her footsteps increases.   "Haste!" I shout. Power surges through my legs. What's she planning? Does she think she can take me out by herself…? We've almost reached the woods.   I dodge three arrows by moving to the side. They pierce three different trees up ahead. "Zephyr!"   Wind blows against me from the arrows in the trees. It slows my advance forward. I click my tongue. She’s learned a few new tricks of her own… Can I not avoid using more of my Mana?   I unsheathe my other sword and then turn around. Marin's aiming three arrows at me. I ground my weight behind me as I put my blades in front of me. I prepare instructions for my magic. She shoots the arrows. I knit my eyebrows as they miss me completely and hit the ground around me. My eyes widen.   "Wind Trap!"  Wind blows on me from every angle. I stab one of my swords into the ground as it feels like I'm lifted up into the air. I squint my eyes, leaving only a small opening of sight.  Marin unleashes a wave of dirt from her palm.  It obscures my vision around me, and the wind blows it into my eyes. I close my eyes and hold my breath.   I adjust the instructions for my magic and then release my Raw Mana through the opening above me.  I grit my teeth as an arrow pierces me between my arm guards. Where's she gonna shoot from next…?   I imagine what I look like inside my mind. There's an opening on my left side. I wave my sword on my left. I knit my eyebrows as my blade collides with air.  Just a moment longer…   "Open!" I shout, take my sword out of the ground, and then jump up with all my strength. I crash into the ground at the edge of the woods. I open my eyes as I begin to stand up, looking behind my shoulder. Marin's nowhere to be found.   "I knew you were going to do that," Marin says, apparently on my right behind a tree. She approaches me slowly with three arrows pulled back on her bow. I gulp as I stand up completely. She smiles. "You know…someone succeeded General Nero.   I smile and then say, "Oh, someone finally got rid of that scumbag?  What happened to him?"   "He was found dead on the floor in his room. Almost all the bones in his body were broken."   "There must've been a huge commotion when he was found."   "Yeah…there was an uproar for a while since there were no traces of anyone entering or leaving his room. A huge investigation was conducted, but in the end, no one was punished because no one knows how General Nero died."   "He wasn't attacked by a blunt weapon?"   "That's what they thought, but no possible murder weapon could be found. If you ask me…it looked like he was dropped from a tall height, but there's no hole in the ceiling."   I stop smiling. "Well, it doesn’t matter how he died or who killed him. You're probably better off without him."   "That's true. Living conditions have greatly improved. Why don't you come back?"   "That's great to hear, but I'll decline. I can't accomplish my goals confined to the army." I sheathe my swords and then inch closer to Marin. I pull out the arrow in my arm.   "Don't move! Stop!" she exclaims, her eyes quivering. She slowly takes a few steps back. Her back is against the trunk of a tree. I stop in front of her. Her weapon is pointed toward my face.   "I figured out why you ordered those guards to help Jetia instead of pursuing me," I say with a smile. "You hesitated on an opening just now too."   "I've strengthened my resolve since you left," she says, her arms shaking. A drop of sweat drips down from her face. I slowly reach for the arrows on her weapon. "I'll re-really do i-it…"   I snatch her arrows and then drop them to the ground. Her lips quiver. I sigh and pull the bow from her hands. There's no resistance. I drop it to the ground. "Funny you should say that. I've strengthened my resolve too."   I grab her chin, pushing her against the tree behind her and then point the arrow in my hand toward her neck. Her eyes are trembling as she asks, "Yo-you wo-wouldn't hurt me…would you…?"   I smile and then say, "I won't hesitate if it's necessary to carry out my goals."   "Kai…you've changed…" she says quietly with tears flowing out of her eyes. The tip of the arrow barely pierces her neck. A drop of blood trickles down. I grit my teeth and then let her go. Her legs give out as she slides her back down the tree. She wraps her arms around her knees with her head down and continues to cry, occasionally sniffing up snot.   I drop the arrow in my hand and then run toward Byzia. I frown. Maybe that was a little too harsh… Well, at least now she won't be entangled in this mess.   I slow my pace to a walk as I walk into the city and then run again. I burst into 'Bolt's Inn,' sprinting up the stairs. I turn the knob to our room, apparently unlocked. I open it. As expected… No one's here.   I close the door and then head out. I make my way toward the castle. There are a lot of people gathered in the city square outside the castle. I raise my eyebrows. That's right… They're expecting Reid—no, Osmir to give them the rundown on how he's redistributing the wealth. I don't wanna attract any attention here…but how did Xedeus…   I raise my eyebrows. The secret passage! That's a long detour. I can catch up.   I walk to a street adjacent to the castle. There are still people wandering about here, but not as much. The outer wall of the castle is 20 feet high. How should I clear this wall without being seen…?   I look over to my right. I could climb to the roof of those buildings and then connect a portal between there and the castle... No, people will see me climbing it. I guess I'll have to use that. Thirty seconds' more than enough.   I walk up to the wall and then count my steps all the way to the side of a building across the street. I turn back around. I rest my back against the wall of a building, facing the wall. A few people glance over to me, but their eyes don't linger for long. I break down some Raw Mana into Rich Mana, immediately using some to augment my legs. Afterward, I prepare instructions for my Raw Mana. I wait for the moment no one is looking at me.   I release my Raw Mana and then immediately activate it. I wrap two one-sided portals around my body. My entire vision is the familiar purple haze. I run forward while counting my steps. I slow my pace as I approach the wall. I put my hand out, touching the wall. I jump up and then climb over the wall. I land on the other side. I know people will see me from the front of the gate if my mantle disappears now.   I prepare more instructions for my Raw Mana and then release it. It immediately activates. I extend my left arm toward my left. The purple haze around my body fades into nothing.  The familiar portals are on my left and right. My arm is inside the portal on the left. It appears out of the portal on the right. I find the closest window on the second floor of the castle. I prepare my magic and then release it, subsequently activating it. A purple portal appears between the two by my sides and inside the castle. I extend my right arm into the portal in front of me before taking my left arm out of the other portal. I walk forward and then appear in the castle.   "Close!" I exclaim. All four of my portals fade away. I look around. This hallway's familiar… The library's close!   I find the library and then gulp. I take out both of my weapons and slowly walk into the room. It's too quiet… Maybe he hasn't arrived yet?   I widen my eyes and stop walking. Irene's on the floor in front of the vault. Irene! That means Xedeus' already here… This is clearly a trap.   I look around. There's no one around. I check through all of the columns of shelves. There's nothing. I knit my eyebrows. Did Xedeus already obtain what was inside the vault…?   I relax my guard and then run toward Irene. Something pushes me from behind. I fall forward, widening my eyes. My weapons drop to the floor next to me. I can't move. A cold shiver goes down my spine. This is…!   A slow clap resounds, steadily moving closer to me. A man in a hooded white uniform appears from somewhere. I have no idea where he came from. He's wearing a Cascabel mask. I grit my teeth and then shout, "Xedeus!”   "Well done, Kai. Well done," Xedeus says. "You arrived a few minutes earlier than planned. Did you enjoy the little game I prepared for you?"   I cock an eyebrow and then ask, "Game? What game?"   He laughs and then responds, "I knew you would help Irene in the middle of your mission because you've grown weak. You were the same three years ago."   "Weak?! I've become much stronger since those days!"   "Then why didn't you kill Reid? The Kai from a year ago wouldn't have hesitated," Xedeus says. I open my mouth but don't say anything. "I'm really disappointed in you, Kai… I had hopes for you. I spent all this time preparing this game for you…to help you realize your true self. This is how you repay me?"   I grit my teeth and force my fingers into a clench, but my fingers don't move. The tension remains in my hands. "Do you think I'll ever be grateful after what you did?!   He doesn't answer for several seconds. He tilts his head sideways and asks, "What're you talking about?"   "Don't play dumb, you fuck! You killed them!"   "Hmm… I'm afraid I don't know who you're referring to. I don't keep track of who I have or haven't killed." My chest feels like it's about to burst from anger. Hot puffs of air escape me as I stare at the man in front of me. "I like those eyes."   "Sitos… Drugo…"   I squeeze my eyes shut, pausing for a few seconds. I continue, "Luna… Those are the names of my friends you've killed. You'll regret it if you forget their names again."   "Sitos, Sitos… Ah, yes… I remember him," he answers and then laughs. "I still have no idea what you're talking about. Who…killed who?"   "You mother fu—"   "You should get your memory checked out before you attack me with slander."   "Liar! You know it was your fault! It was your fault they died!"   "I only gave them a little push," he explains and then laughs. "I helped them realize their true selves."   I grit my teeth as I think about Sitos and his final moments. I squeeze my eyes shut, thinking about Luna. My eyes burn up as I remember her smiles and the morning of the incident. Tears pour out of my eyes. "Bring her back…"   "What was that?"   "Bring her back…! Bring her back!"   "You're talking about your—"   "Bring her back! Bring—"   "Bring her back, bring her back!" Xedeus exclaims and then laughs loudly. "You're persistent. It's annoying. Since you're so adamant on the fantasy that I killed her… I'll grant you your wish."   I still can't move my limbs. My fingers move a little. Damn it! I've come all this way…and I still don't know what he's doing.   "Kai!" Leila exclaims. I open my eyes, calming down a little. "Where're you?"   "Leila! Don't come over here! It's a trap!" I shout. Her footsteps resound louder.   "Kai!" Leila shouts from behind me. Xedeus moves away, probably from her line of sight.   "Idiot! I told you, don't come any closer! Stop!" Her footsteps resound closer and closer. She falls next to me. I sigh. "I told you it was a trap… Are you deaf?"   She cocks an eyebrow and asks, "What're you talking about? You're the one who told me to come over!"   "What do you mean I told you to come over? I told you the exact opposite of that! Don't blame me for walking right into the trap."   "This is the thing about you, Kai. I—" Xedeus' footsteps resound as he walks toward the vault.   "Another actor has arrived. Welcome, Leila," Xedeus says. "You played your role well in the script I laid out for you, unlike Kai."   "Xedeus…" Leila mutters. "What're you talking about?"   "Use your head. The mission, the information you received, your deductions, your movements… All of it…was just as I calculated," Xedeus informs. My eyes widen.   That possibility lurked at the back of my mind…but I refuse to believe it. It can't be true. It's a lie. The past year flashes through my mind. I raise my eyebrows and then say, "That mission eight months ago… You let Dae discover the cargo on purpose…?   Xedeus claps and answers, "Correct. You're finally getting it."   I frown and shut my eyes. It's hopeless… We're completely in the palm of his hand.   "Kai, what's with that look? Have you forgotten what we did?" Leila asks.   That's right… I can't let myself get caught up in his pace. I gulp and then exclaim, "That's right! You predicted everything? That's one hell of a bluff. You didn't even figure out that we're the ones who shut down your slave trafficking operation."   "What?!" Xedeus exclaims with widened eyes. "You two were the ones responsible…"   I yell, "Yeah it was us! I savored that moment you threw a fit of rage."   "Impossible…" he mutters and then laughs loudly. I knit my eyebrows. "Is that how you wanted me to react? Did you really think that I wouldn't know about what you were doing behind my back? Of course I knew."   "Liar! If you knew, then why didn't you do anything—"   "It didn't matter to me… Whether you destroyed that operation or left it alone, it didn't interfere with my plans."   "What're you talking about?! That operation was the main source of income for—" Irene moves slightly. She makes a small noise. My eyes widen. "Irene!"   "Oh? It looks like our princess finally woke up. It's time to continue our game," Xedeus says as he walks toward Irene.   "Get away from her!" I yell. He grabs her hair and then pulls up, forcing her to stand up. She screams. I grit my teeth. I prepare instructions for my magic. "Stop!"   He faces her toward the vault and says, "Open it. You remembered now, haven't you?"   "N-no… I wo-won't open it…" Irene says quietly. Xedeus turns her around and then punches her with a hook. Another scream resounds as she falls.   "Irene!" Leila and I simultaneously exclaim.   "Open it!" Xedeus shouts as he picks her back up.   "I won't open it…no matter what. No matter how much you beat me up…or even kill me."   What the hell's she saying?! Damn! I still can't move.   "We'll see about that," Xedeus says as he holds her by the hair. He punches her repeatedly with his other hand. Each impact resounds clearly.   "You fucker! Stop!" I exclaim.   "Is she really that important to you?" Xedeus asks as he continues to pummel her. "This is what I don't understand. How can one random girl affect you so much?"   I grind my teeth. He lets Irene go, and she drops to the floor. She whimpers and cries. "You’re a stubborn girl. We'll see how determined you really are."   He laughs and then turns around, walking toward Leila. I raise my eyebrows.   He's trying to keep Irene alive… This is my chance! Luckily, he doesn't know about Void magic. I adjust the final touches to my magic and then release it. A ball of fire appears above Xedeus that drops down. It's positioned a little bit on his left side. He looks up and then jumps to the side on his right. I widen my eyes and shout, "Open!"   Four one-sided portals appear. Xedeus goes through the portal in his path and then falls from the air directly above the fireball. The ball of fire enters a portal above the floor and then appears through the last portal in a perpendicular direction as the one Xedeus falls from. My magic will collide with him in a moment.   Xedeus moves his legs and then launches himself out of harm's way.  He lands on his feet. My magic eventually collides with the wall ahead of it, bursting into flames. My eyes tremble. No way… How'd he react to that? I can't win…   He draws his sword and says, "Hmm… Not bad, but not good enough."   He walks closer to Leila. Irene suddenly shouts, "Stop!"   Irene slowly stands up, her face bloodied. I exclaim, "Irene! Don't push yourself!"   "I'll open the vault for you…so don't hurt Leila or Kai…" she says. Xedeus turns around and walks toward her.   "Excellent. Open it, now." Irene puts one of her palms against the transparent circle at the center of the vault. A few seconds later, the front of the vault moves down into the floor. He pushes Irene down and goes inside.   "Hey, Leila… Did you figure it out yet?" I ask.   "No… This is the first time I've encountered something like this. Wind magic must be a component in his trick."   "We'll have another—"   "Elf! Where're ya hidin'?!" Ruby exclaims nearby. I widen my eyes.   "Damn, that bitch's persistent. I thought I lost her," Leila says.   "How'd you get into the castle without being seen?"   "I took the secret tunnel. I covered my tracks too."   My heart beats faster. "This is bad. This is very bad…"   Her footsteps resound progressively louder. "Elf! I found ya! Die!"   Ruby launches a large ball of fire from her palm. A similarly sized ball of water appears in front of its path near Leila, standing still. Their magic collides, and steam rises from the center. Several seconds later, the fireball fades away. Xedeus walks out of the vault holding a book in one hand and his sword in the other. He looks toward Ruby and says, "It seems our final actor has arrived."   I raise my eyebrows. No…   Ruby stares at him. She suddenly bursts into flames. Fire covers her entire body, but she doesn't seem to be in pain. She glowers and screams, "It's you!"   "Ruby, run!" I yell.   "Everything's yer fault!" Ruby runs toward Xedeus. "I'll kill ya ‘n’ take Kai back!"   Xedeus laughs and stands still. He says, "Kai, I finally understand…"   Several balls of fire appear at various angles. They all fly toward Xedeus, who's standing still. A loud sound resounds one after another. The balls of fire instantly fade away with every bang. "Your attachment to that girl, Irene."   "Fire tornado!" Ruby exclaims and then a tornado comprised of flames appears between her and Xedeus. Some of the wind and heat reach me from this distance.  The tornado moves toward Xedeus. Suddenly, the tornado shrinks in size, the flames dying too. It fades away in seconds. Xedeus continues, "You really are cruel."   He's right… I bite my lip as he slowly walks toward Ruby.   "Minefield! Inferno! Firestorm!" Over a dozen small balls of fire appear between Ruby and Xedeus. A blanket of fire covers the ceiling and rains down flames.  Flames erupt all over the ground. Xedeus continues his slow pace, swerving around the small balls of fire in front of him. The flames dropping from above fade away before hitting him. "Explode!"   The small balls of fire explode, releasing a gust of wind and flames outward. Xedeus is at the center of it all. "Flame pillar! Fire explosion!"   I widen my eyes as a large amount of flames erupt in the area where I last saw Xedeus. Flames cover everywhere from the ground up to the ceiling in a large area. Leila has a shield of water covering us. "Furnace! Burnin' prison! Fire explosion! Fire explosion! Fire explosion! Flame pillar!"   Flames erupt constantly. I have no idea what's going on. I think about Xedeus' words and bite my lip hard enough for it to bleed. Damn it… What have I been doing these past three years…? To end up here again… Powerless.   "Meteor!" A large spherical flaming object appears behind Ruby's active magic. It descends into the cluster of flames. The flames covering Ruby fade away as she falls on her bottom. My eyes quiver. I gulp as the remains of Ruby's magic clears up.   Xedeus appears at the center, seemingly unharmed. The book is still in his hand and the sword in the other. He laughs loudly. A gust of wind blows Ruby down on her back. He walks toward her. No…no…no!   "Watch closely, Kai. It's time to end this game," he says. My body is more responsive now, but I still can't get up. I clench my fists and grit my teeth tightly. Tears flow out of my eyes before I know it. It's too late to assist her with magic at this distance. I squeeze my eyes shut.   No…it can't end like this. Before I could apologize… Before I gathered the courage to... My memories of her flash rapidly inside my head. I open my eyes, Xedeus now standing over her. His blade is pointed toward her neck. She isn't moving. I widen my eyes as he lifts his arms up. My heart pounds rapidly. He thrusts his arm down, and I scream, "Luna!"

“How’s everyone, Pearl?” I ask, putting an arm around her.   “Still a little shaken up. Can’t blame them,” she answers and hugs me from the side, shaking. She asks in a whisper, “What’d the ministers want?”   Conveniently, she doesn’t have to fake something to close the distance between us. I whisper, “They wanna know why the Xog hate us. We help them in exchange for exclusive information from the Inteiru Expota and more.”   “Did you agree? After General Nero’s orders… We won’t have an excuse if he catches us again.”   “Of course. Technically, we don’t have to give them anything, but they’ll give us their side of the bargain. We only have to give them an impression of trying to find stuff. I didn’t mention our side project.”   “That doesn’t seem right after they saved us…”   “One of the dumbest ways to get caught would be to walk right into their hands…claws, rather. I know it’s not right, but self-preservation’s more important. And our main goal…which we have no leads on.”   “At least we—“   “What’re you lovebirds over there whispering about?” Jetia asks with a smirk.   “Nothing important,” I respond. “Just waiting for your slow asses to get dressed so that we can escort the ministers back to the Windmill Inn.”   “That’s funny coming from you, showing up whenever you feel like it. What’d General Nero want?”   “New orders. We’re to stay at the Windmill Inn and leave under no circumstance until the Inteiru Expota tomorrow.”   “Was that before or after those monsters showed up? Captain Albius surely contacted him before, right?.”   Stop talking and shut up. That’s what I want to tell him, but I can’t. He only speaks up to screw with me. To make me lose my credibility. Him, the goons, and the other people out of the loop know nothing of our main priority. For all they know, we left to find Captain Albius to update him that the ministers wanted to explore a bit.   Should I lie about finding Captain Albius and fabricate something he supposedly said? Either scenario is a loss because Jetia won’t stop poking around. He’s going to try to verify what I tell him and if something doesn’t match up, he’s going to confront me later and make my life difficult. The least he could do is at least keep it private. But he’s bringing this up in front of everyone. It forces me to act accordingly.   I should be straight with them. At least partially. It’s the safest because the ministers might ask about that too. “It was after. We didn’t find Captain Albius, so we tried to get back to the group, but couldn’t find you guys.”   “So, you were on a leisure date with yer girlfriend while we’re doing our jobs. And you dared to walk up to us and say to hurry our asses. Can you give us at least a few minutes of slack, especially after an encounter with those monsters?”   Don’t get angry. That’s what he’s trying to do, for me to lose my shit and blow up. He knows exactly how to do it. It’s frustrating because if he could put that effort into training, he might be stronger, but instead, here we are. I can’t wait too long to answer and risk someone else butting in like Hina. It’ll reflect badly on me as the leader. I don’t want to look bad in front of Hina’s platoon either. I’ll have to phrase my answer as if I’m talking to the goons.   “You’re right. I’m sorry for being insensitive. If it makes you feel any better, those guys scared me too. Take a few more minutes if you need to. As much as I wanna relax here a while longer, we were ordered to return to the inn. We’ll have the remaining part of the day to rest. Join us when you’re ready,” I say and then turn around. Hina and I return to the ministers, Marin, and Ruby.   “What’s the holdup?” one of the ministers asks.   “They’re resting for a few more minutes. They were a bit shaken up from the encounter with the Xog,” I inform.   “That’s understandable. They did good defending us. They’re good men.”   “Defending?” I ask.   “Yes. Those Xog were targeting everyone, and they happened upon us. When it was our turn to comply with their orders, Sergeant Hina’s and your men volunteered themselves instead.”   I guess I’ll have to give Jetia some credit. He and the goons were useful for once.   One of them turns to Marin and says, “That’s when we asked this young lady to contact the authorities. You saved us. What’s your name?”   “Corporal Marin, sir,” she replies.   “Thank you, Corporal Marin. You’re in our debt.”   “No problem,” she responds and looks away.   “And then you arrived.”   “Right…” I interject. That’s when Ruby wanted to blow them up. Marin must’ve told her not to do anything rash. Explains why she wanted to act after I arrived asking about monsters.   On the one hand, Ruby’s stubbornness is just like hers in the past. Not yielding to Bazaleon despite his ferocity to protect me. Otherwise, there’s something fundamentally different about her. She talks differently, but there’s something more than that. It reminds me of the time after the tournament, where she killed that bandit without a second thought. I shouldn’t have passed it off as nothing at the time and pryed further. It’s too late for that now.   She’s standing there next to Marin, smiling. Not knowing that what she wanted to do would’ve created a catastrophe. But, she’s not completely crazy contrary to what everyone thinks. She still listens to my orders and things that I say, so that leaves room for hope. Maybe I can fix her and bring Luna back. All that talk with Hina about good monsters and those that can make decisions.   What if the only thing that’s changed with her is how she makes her choices? She’s confused, that’s all. I could teach her what choices to make in a bunch of scenarios, rewiring her brain closer to how she used to be — reassembling her brain, basically. Putting the pieces back into their relative positions and then she might be able to fix herself. I’ll worry about how to do that after this mission.   The others rejoin us soon enough, and then we head back to the Windmill Inn.   The ministers retire in their rooms. I’m hoping they stay there for the rest of the night. We’re in the Human district, so this place should have food available unlike the Icy Tavern. I’m not sure how Aisha’s team are dealing with their situation. The two novices of their platoon could be tasked with feeding the ministers.   Now, the only other problem is somehow ditching the ones not involved in the mission. Since Hina filled in her entire team, it would only be giving Jetia and the goons in my platoon the slip. I mean, we don’t need all sixteen of us standing in the hallway outside the minister’s room.   Luke suggests that everyone goes down to get some grub. More specifically, the novices. I follow his lead and encourage Jetia and the goons to do the same, praising the good work that he did earlier much to his surprise. He gives me a suspicious look but joins everyone downstairs. There’s no reason for him to refuse considering that he probably hasn’t eaten anything since arriving.   We move a bit away from the rooms in which the ministers are staying. Wouldn’t want them to overhear us talking. Hina and I fill in everyone on what they missed out on, leaving out the part where Pem bared her chest. Would send the wrong message to a few people here. I also mention the last bit the ministers want us to uncover about the Xog.   Luke gives us a summary of their side of things. Two things stuck out to them. The first is that they felt like the Elves were staring down them at all times at the Elven district specifically. None of them were cooperative with any conversations with the ministers when confronted. With my experience with the Dwarves in mind, this behavior doesn’t set off any alarms in my head. It seems like there’s a general dislike toward Humans from all the races. I have doubts about how this coexistence thing is going to play out.   The second thing they heard was something of an auction here and there that starts tomorrow. It can’t be a coincidence with the Inteiru Expota beginning the same day. There were plenty of people talking about it but no one knew anything about it when the ministers asked the same people. They think it’s a black market type of auction. Given our experiences, we deduce that it’s going to take place in the underground city. Add that to our laundry list of things to do. We’re relying on Floyd to give us some answers.   “So, Kai and Hina should go ahead of us to meet Aisha’s team at the Icy Tavern while the rest of us get passes from the Dwarven district,” Luke says.   “Hold on,” I say. A part of me doesn’t want Marin or Ruby to get involved. The process is painful, and we don’t need so many people there. “Maybe a few of us should stay here. We don’t wanna leave our defenses here too lax. My men will get too suspicious. They aren’t gonna be on board with what we’re doing.”   “That sounds like a you problem. We told everyone in our platoon, and the novices were understanding. They won’t do anything to blow our cover.”   I sigh. I have no idea how I’ll ever convince Jetia to go along with our shenanigans. No, I do. Paying for more seminars for him and the goons. Thanks to the last promise I made to him, we’re completely broke. We won’t be able to fund ourselves any new lessons for a while after a new deal. I answer, “Fine. I’ll talk to them. It might be easier to convince them if we leave Marin and Ruby behind to leave this place with some form of defense.”   “No, I wanna come too!” Ruby exclaims with a pout. “Marin too, right?”   “Yeah…”   “We don’t need thirteen of us down there. That’s overkill,” I say.   “Fine, ya stay with us too.”   “No, I need to be down there. Floyd knows me.”   “He knows Hina too. Leave ‘er ta do it.”   “And I need to be with her. It might be dangerous.”   “Aw, Darling! I’m glad you’re worried about me,” Hina says and then hugs me, bringing her head closer to the side of mine. She whispers, “Kai, shut up.”   Luke glares at me as she lets me go. The meaning of Hina’s words hits me. If I were worried about Hina’s safety, I would be suggesting to leave her behind. Not Ruby and Marin. I screwed up.   “They should come along with us,” Luke says before I can come up with an excuse. “We’re going to need all the help we can get for the auction tomorrow.”   That’s assuming the auction is really in the underground city. I can’t risk saying anything more, though. It would bring too much suspicion that I prioritize Ruby’s safety over Hina’s. I’ll leave it alone. I say, “Yeah, you’re right. I wasn’t thinking about that. Just be on your best behavior, Ruby.”   “I won’t let ya down.”   “Let me talk to Jetia, and we can leave,” I say and walk toward the stairs down.   “That won’t be necessary,” Jetia says and steps into view from the stairs. “I knew you were planning something, as usual. The answer’s no. I know how this all ends.”   “Come on, don’t be like that,” I reply, unsure of how much he heard from our discussion. “Let’s go for a walk.”   I don’t want the others to hear me bribing my own men to comply with my orders. He follows me quietly outside. A little bit off to the side as to not get in anyone’s way if they wanted to go inside the building.   “Alright. So what do you want?” I ask, having a good guess. “Pooling our funds into providing more magic training for you guys should be good, right?”   “You’ll need to do better than that,” he says with a smirk. “I know all about yer little relationship with Marin.”   Ugh. He brings that up now? I was wondering why he hasn’t already.   “I’ll make you do that for us even without agreeing to yer reckless plan. Or else I’ll spill the beans to everyone. What’ll everyone think of you when they find out yer two-timing Marin and Hina.”   If he really wants to screw me over, he would’ve told everyone already. Instead, he’s bringing it up now. What’s his game? It seems he doesn’t know the full truth about Hina and me. I ask, “So, what do you want?”   “I don’t want anything. Continue with yer plan, and I’ll rat you out to Captain Albius and General Nero. It’ll exclude us from the harsh punishment you’ll receive, and I’ll tell everyone about Marin. If you don’t fund our training, I’ll tell everyone too.”   Tch. He can’t be serious. I don’t know what he’s planning, but this has to be a bluff. What’s he trying to gain? If he truly didn’t want anything, he wouldn’t go through this trouble of threatening me. He’s always trying to do things for those useless goons. If he keeps pushing like this, he’ll end up with nothing. He’s annoying, but he’s never gone through with directly screwing me over. Just always trying to make me look bad.   I thought I would be rid of Jetia’s face forever after the Ragnar incident. I was sure that he would leave the platoon, especially because Kama and Vicki left. He could’ve easily been reassigned somewhere else or went back to The Reserve. Instead, he chose to stay with us.   Wait...it all makes sense with one assumption. His behavior. Jetia thinks he’s won with his smile and arms crossed, waiting for me to agree to his demands. Reflecting back, he usually cooperates when something involves everyone’s safety. I’ve always thought it was because of the other novices, but maybe I was wrong.   I should be more aware of these things, considering what happened with Sitos… I can’t believe it took me all this time to realize what Jetia’s intentions are. That’s why he didn’t say anything about Marin and me. He doesn’t want to hurt her. And the situation now. I suppose that staying cramped up in this inn is the safest, which could be his way of ensuring her safety. A part of me is glad that he’s looking out for her, but I don’t need him to do that. I’ve got that covered.   “Nah,” I interject. “I’m gonna continue with the plan regardless of what you do. If you screw us over in any way, I won’t fund those seminars for you guys.”   He lets out a brief laugh and then asks, “Didn’t you hear what I said? I’ll tell Captain Albius and—“   “Yeah, whatever. And I’ll tell Marin that you’re trying to put everything in jeopardy because you like her.”   His smile quickly disappears from his face, and he turns pale, his eyes widening. That confirms everything. I smirk, finally finding his weakness. He won’t screw with me again or his secret’s out. I should be careful, though. If I push him too far, I’ll lose my only leverage over him if he self destructs. I’ll give him an offer he can’t refuse.   “Look. I’ll continue to fund your guys’ magic education and stay quiet about your secret, but only if you help cover for us while we’re gone. Figure out what you’re gonna say to Captain Albius or General Nero if they come sniffing around.”   “Fine. I’ll help you, even though you have more to lose than me. This doesn’t make you any less of a hypocrite, either. You care about Marin’s and Ruby’s safety, but yer the one putting them in the most danger every time. It’s on you if anything happens to them.”   “I know that.”   “Do you, really?” he asks and then walks back inside.   Of course, I know. They’ve agreed to go along with my plans. When I think about it, they don’t really need my protection. Ruby’s Fire magic is powerful. And we, well. Marin went to the Academy with me. Ruby graduated from the Academy a year ahead of us too. We know how to protect ourselves.   I go back inside, too, regrouping with the others upstairs. I tell them that it’s all good with my platoon, so we can proceed with the plan.   We depart in two separate groups, as discussed before. Hina and I depart for the Icy Tavern.   They give us an understandably annoyed welcome back. We kept them waiting again, but not quite as long as the first time. Once again, we give them the latest update while waiting for the others for their passes.   Eventually, the others arrive, and then we lead the group to the underground city. We go through the dark steps down. Ada illuminates the way with Light magic.   Apparently, one other thing the others learned about the ‘pass’ is that you’re supposed to reveal it in front of the door. Explains our hostile welcome the first time around. Though, I don’t know how they see us through these solid walls. Another magic item, perhaps?   The doors open. The few Dwarves ahead verify that we have the passes before letting us through without much of a fuss.   Despite that we’re here for the Casino, we decide to split up into different groups.   Me, Hina, Marin, Ruby, Aisha, and Ada will be the ones to go to the Casino while the others will explore the surrounding area for any other information.   We ask around for the location of the Casino. The first two Dwarves we ask don’t want anything to do with us. A third Dwarf points us in the right direction.    We go inside what should be the Casino.    “Humans, welcome!” a receptionist exclaims behind the short counter the second we walk in. This is the first time I’ve seen a Dwarf so welcoming. It’s a little suspicious. Security is heavier here with six armed Dwarves scattered around this small room. They don’t look as friendly. “Wha’ dae ya have ter wager?”   I’m not sure what he means by that. Might be faster to get to the point. It seems unlikely that he’ll know about Floyd unless they require names from everyone that visits here. Since he’s one of the few Humans I’ve seen around, he might be recognizable. I inform, ‘We’re here to see Floyd. Do you know him?”   “Oh, so ye be haur te see de boss. Wha’ business dae ya have wiff him?”   He’s the boss…? That’s a little weird. Surprising because I thought they wouldn’t like being under a Human’s authority of all people. “He told us to find him here.”   “Did he nigh? Wha’  be yer name?”   “Kai.”   He bends down out of our view and whispers something inaudible. Several seconds later, he stands up and says, “He shou’ be art haur soon.”   He must’ve used that long-distance communication tool. Nothing else would make sense. He might be nice enough to tell us what’s that about. I should ask. “How’d you talk to Floyd from there?”   “Oi’m afraid Ay canna tell ya dat.”   Whatever. At least he confirmed that it’s a communication device. He didn’t deny speaking into something. We can always ask Floyd for clarification. I’m sure he can answer all of our questions now that we know he’s somewhat of an important figure down here. Like he said, it’s rare to see Humans in this place. He’ll share what he knows. He informed us about the Achilles Sundance Circuit and a bit of Abjuration magic. Did he graduate from the Academy? I didn’t get any vibes that he was a fighter of any kind the first time we met.   Floyd walks out from the connecting room a few minutes later. He smiles and then says, “Kai, Hina, I’m glad you were able to sort out your issues. Come on in.”   We follow him inside. The other room is much more spacious and has various different tables scattered across. The populated tables have at least two people there with almost no empty ones.   “Business is booming right now,” Floyd says.   “What’s this place?” I ask. It’s hard to tell what these people are doing standing around.   “It’s a gambling hub,” Floyd responds. “One on one battles after each side agrees on the stakes. There’s at least one witness to ensure sportsmanship and fairness.”   That explains why the receptionist asked about what we had to wager. If you have no money, this place serves no purpose. I assume that they wouldn’t be allowed entry. This place reminds me of the scams in Drymo that are designed to profit the seller. But it’s not quite the same here. He said business is booming, but how does he benefit?   “We charge a service fee from both participants depending on the wager and game for hosting third party duels.”   Oh, I see. He always has an answer. It makes me hopeful that he knows what we’re looking for.   “We’ll be right in here,” he says and stands next to a distinctively different table. There isn’t another one like this nearby. It has some sort of wooden pole protruding upward at both ends of the table. “I know you have questions. That’s why you came, right?”   “Yeah. You know everything,” I say.   “I just know what you want to know.”   “That makes this easy then. First, I’m curious. How’d you communicate with the Dwarf at the entrance? Some sort of magic item?”   “I’m going to stop you there. I have to make one thing clear. I didn’t suggest you come here so that I could answer all of your questions for free.”   I frown. It’s never straight forward.   “Forget this place. We’ve got other places,” Ada says. No, we don’t. “This was a waste of time.”   “I highly doubt you’ll find the answers you’re looking for anywhere else. I could still answer your questions at no cost to you. You’ll only have to risk something of equal value.”   He wants us to play one of these games with him. Us, who have no clue what that entails versus him, a veteran. Maybe even the creator. Couldn’t hurt to find out what he wants. I ask, “Which is?”   “That depends on what you want to know. Think hard on what you want answered most. Go on.”   I turn to everyone and interject, “Well. Should we put it to a vote?”   If we had to pick one, we don’t need to know anything irrelevant, like how they communicate long-distance. Although, that would be helpful to have amongst ourselves.    “Let’s go over our options first,” Aisha suggests. “Is there anything more important than finding leads on the snake earring group?”   “No, but even he’s not gonna know anything about that,” I say.   “Actually, I do know a few things about them,” Floyd says. “You’re going to have to make a bet worth at least twenty gold coins for it.”   Numerous of us gasp. Ada says, “Twenty gold coins? You’re insane.”   “Yeah, we don’t have nearly that much anyway. Between all of us, we might have a few gold coins at best, and that’s being generous,” I inform.   “I’d say I’m running a bargain at that price. It’s risky for me to tell you the details,” Floyd says and then smiles. “The nice thing about the Casino is that you have more than money to wager. You’ve brought gems with you.”   Gems…? Oh.   Ada takes out her daggers and says, “How about, tell us what you know, and we don’t kill you.”   “Harm me, and you won’t get out of here alive. You know that, so why don’t we put the knives away?”   “Tch,” Ada interjects and sheathes her weapons.   “It’s a possibility and some not as obscene as you think. Depending on your magic potential, there would be clients willing to pay a fortune to create a baby. Otherwise, you’re left with perverts wanting to lay their hands on some young women, especially virgins. Some even enjoy men. Kai, if you’d like to indulge--”   “Enough,” I say. I have no problem betting Aisha or Ada, but they’re not going to agree to it no matter the price. There’s no way in hell I’m going to wager the other three. After that Porters incident, I’m not going to subject myself to that possibility either. It disturbs me thinking about it. “None of us are gonna agree to bet our bodies on the line. What’re the other options?”   Floyd shrugs and then says, “Well, if you had equipment of higher quality, that would be on the table. Otherwise, there’s an entire black market for organs and body parts.”   “No.”   “You could bet your life.”   “My life? So, you’re gonna kill me if I do that and lose?”   “No, that wouldn’t be worth anything to me. For you, I’d probably sell you as a labor slave. Perhaps harvest your organs and turn you into meat later. For the other five, it would mean being sold into sexual slavery. This would be set at a value of an excess of twenty gold coins. Unless you’ve got other questions you want to add to the list, you’re better off with the first option I mentioned where it would be as many times as you wish.”   “Move onto the next option,” I say.   “How about promised future services?”   I glare at him.   “There are non-sexual ones, mind you. The possibilities vary from what you’re open to. You could enter as a contestant in the coliseum.”   “What’s that?” I ask. That sounds intriguing. If it means dueling other people, I wouldn’t mind that. I’d do it without anyone forcing me.   “A place where you’d fight to the death with other contestants. Two fights minimum before a fighter can back out. You’d win rewards, but the biggest thing is that the audience makes bets on who the winners are with no limit on how much you can bet. You see where I’m going with this. I’d bet my money on you to win. Well, I’m not going to do that unless I’m confident in your abilities. I’d give you a twenty gold coins value if you’re interested.”   Twenty gold coins…? That’s exactly how much he’s asking for. Hmm…   “Don’t do it, Darling,” Hina says. “It’s too dangerous. It’s not worth it.”   She’s right. I don’t know who I would end up fighting against. Other people would know the risks going in, so probably only the confident ones would enter. I answer, “Nah.”   “Smart choice. You’d be better off betting your life. You wouldn’t last a round.”   He says that so convincingly. It makes me want to prove him wrong...but I shouldn’t.    “How about a promise to pay you gold coins in the future?” Aisha asks. “I may not look it, but I’m from a wealthy family in Drosera.”   “Interesting offer, but I’ll need my full payment by the end of the Inteiru Expota. I already know of your affiliation with the Drosera army. You wouldn’t be able to return to Syrina easily to pay your dues.”   “I’ll write a letter of introduction for you to my family in Drymo. We have an underground Aerkin arena under our mansion and sponsor most of the Achilles Sundance Circuit events.”   “That’s an interesting proposal. Are they here for the Inteiru Expota?”   “No, I--”   “Then I’m not interested. If they’re not here for the biggest Achilles Sundance Circuit events only once every three years, they’re not that influential in the scene. No offense, but the scene down there is archaic.”   “Psst,” Hina interjects and then turns around. She signals us to huddle close together. We do. She continues in a whisper, “One of us should do a body wager. More if needed.”   “Are you crazy?” I whisper.   “It’s not what you think. These are all services promised in the future. If we end up losin’, we won’t come back. No harm done, right?”   “That’s not a good idea,” Aisha whispers. “If it’s a comparable community to the Achilles Sundance Circuit, they’ll hunt you down.”   I’d poke fun at Hina for breaking her moral code here, but that’s not appropriate with Aisha and Ada present. I recall something from the Academy. I whisper, “Why don’t you, Ada, and the other girls on your team consider betting your bodies? You used them to persuade sponsors to pay you more during the tournament, didn’t you? What happened to your charm?”   Ada glares at me and grunts.    Aisha knits her eyebrows and then whispers, “No, that might be a viable option.”   “Are you serious, Aisha?” Ada whispers. “I’m not doing that.”   “Yes, but it’s something milder. What if it’s only looking? Or first base and second base? Don’t do anything you’re not comfortable with. It won’t be worth as much, but we have numbers to make up for it. Six of us counting Marin and Ruby.”   “No, no, no. Leave them out of this,” I whisper quickly. There’s no doubt that Ruby would agree to it, but there’s no way that Luna would in this situation. I’m trying to piece her back together, not scatter her.   “Okay, four of us.”   “Fine… I’ll do it if you convince Melody and Doris.”   I hold in a snort. Can’t imagine Ada going along with this. She’s too hostile and unladylike. There’s no way she’s going to exchange spit with old men and let them grope her. I can’t believe Aisha’s willing to go through that. It goes to show that they’re quite serious about completing their goals. I shouldn’t laugh.   “Are you sure you want to go through with this?” Hina whispers. “We could ask somethin’ that requires less money first. We don’t know what kind of game he’s goin’ to have us play yet.”   “That’s true. Shall we ask about the auction first?” Aisha whispers. “Objections?”   A moment of silence. Our only other option is to ask about the Xog, but that’s obviously going to be set at a higher value than the auction.   We break the huddle and face Floyd.   I ask, “Do you know anything about an auction starting tomorrow?”   “I do. A bet worth two gold coins will suffice for that.”   “Okay, give us a moment to see if we have that much between all of us,” I say.   “There’s no need for that,” Aisha says. “There are two of us here and two other girls who would be willing to strip and entertain at the very least. I’m willing to go as far as second base. How much would that put at value?”   “Aisha, aren’t you going to confirm with Melody and Doris first?” Ada asks.   “I know they’ll play along. It’s not a big deal, you know we’ve messed around with the guys before. It’s only you who hasn’t.”   “I don’t want to make things weird between us,” Ada says and blushes.   “My advice, don’t wager anything you aren’t willing to act on if it comes down to it,” Floyd warns. “Are you sure?”   “Yes.”   “Very well. The exact value of what you’re offering depends on the length of service, how far you’re willing to go, how many clients you take on, and your bust. Remember that you’ll have to submit appropriate payment should you lose before you leave the city. How about we leave the juicy details for later? I’m sure you’d appreciate some privacy.”   “No, we’ll settle that now. I’m not comfortable letting you decide our value after the fact,” Aisha says.   “Sure. Right this way,” Floyd says and walks off.    Aisha and Ada follow him some distance away from us.    “Can you believe her?” Hina asks. “I can’t believe she’s serious about this. That’s not how someone raised in the Royal District should act, doin’ things like this on a whim. She should be more modest. Or else her parents will be troubled if people know how promiscuous she’s been. Then they wouldn’t be able to marry her off for political gain.”   “Didn’t you hear her earlier? It sounds like everyone except Ada has already slept with each other casually. It’s probably too late for her. Besides, if her parents wanted to marry her off, they wouldn’t have agreed to let her become an adventurer or join the army.”   Arranged marriage, huh. That’s what happened to Sitos. I didn’t know back then, but he was under a lot of family pressure I didn’t know about. I’ll never understand what he went through. I think Luna was his only reason to not get engaged, and then he finally resigned to the pressure after losing our duel. I continue, “Or maybe, Aisha’s doing this all to have an excuse to not be married off to a stranger.”   “Hookin’ up with people you know is one thing, but this is with total strangers with an exchange of goods involved. It’s prostitution and there’s a lot of bad stigma around it. She could be disowned if her family finds out.”   “She’s not exactly selling her body in the traditional sense, though. As she said, it’s only up to second base. If she was still a virgin, she’d still be one afterward.”   “That’s basically the same thing. People pay her to kiss and touch her. Could you still say a girl’s innocent if hundreds of different guys have seen her naked, made out with her, fiddled with her breasts like a toy, and heard her moans?” Hina asks and then blushes. “I don’t know if you know this, but it can be really stimulatin’ when we’re touched up there…”   I gulp, thinking back to all those times I squeezed her nubs a few weeks prior. I can’t let myself get too excited. I try to clear my mind.   “So...even without touchin’ down there, a woman can...you know.”   Well, I can’t argue back now. She’s proved her point. I say, “Okay, you got me there. But, you’re the one who suggested the whole body selling thing in the first place.”   “I didn’t mean for her to take it seriously. Only as--”   “A trick?” I ask. “You’re fine with being disingenuous here but not with the minister’s favor?”   “Have you heard the words comin’ from his mouth? He’s a criminal. He’s also the one who turned us in, remember?”   “He’s also the one who introduced you to Aerkins and the good monsters you’re obsessed about.”   “Whatever,” she interjects and turns her head away. “So, Marin, Ruby, how were your experiences with gettin’ the pass? Did it hurt?”   Tsk tsk. Changing the subject when she’s cornered as usual.   “It wasn’t too bad,” Marin responds.   “It didn’t hurt,” Ruby answers.   Oh, no. Hina smiles. I already know what she’s thinking.   “Oh, really?” Hina asks and wraps an arm around my neck. “Did you know this guy screamed when he got his pass? Bazaleon called him a yellow-belly too.”   She laughs, but Marin and Ruby don’t join. Heh, your plan backfired.   “If yer gonna be mean ta Kai, give ‘im ta me instead,” Ruby says with a frown.   “I’m kiddin’, jeez. If you want me to be nice, wait until bedtime,” she says and then winks.   Ruby’s face contorts into that of anger while Marin looks uncomfortable. Ugh. Hina, why do you put me in these situations?   “Hey, Ruby, don’t take her seriously,” I say. This could be a good chance to condition her on how she should act. I’m not sure what’s appropriate in this case. What would she say? The situation has never come up, and we wouldn’t be here if she was still here...   “I know,” Ruby says before I can think of a follow-up. “Just annoys me a little when she keeps sayin’ that when all of us know it’s not true ‘n’ it’s not funny.”   “She’s just jealous, right Darling?” Hina asks and then kisses my cheek. I frown. She just keeps pushing and doesn’t know when to stop.   “She doesn’t let ya do anythin’, right? That’s not fair when yer the one helpin’ ‘er.”   “Wait, you want me to do stuff with her?” I ask, unable to believe what I’m hearing. I thought Ruby would hate the idea of me touching any other girl but her.   “I want ta make sure yer needs are taken care of. I know yer a guy with those kinda thoughts. You’ve had ta put up with Hina teasin’ ya without any outlet. Ya don’t have any feelin’s fer ‘er, so it’s ‘kay with me since we’re takin’ a break. I’m not gonna be selfish ‘bout that. My heart will always lie with ya.”   Taking a break? Is that how she sees us? That’s not exactly accurate… We were never together. I was only ever with Luna, who’s now shattered into pieces and twisted into someone else who can only be called Ruby. She has a bit of a one-sided crush on me. Or maybe she’s speaking as one of the pieces that could be called Luna?    All of us are speechless. I look toward Marin for ideas, but she lightly shakes her head. Look at the mess you’ve created, Hina!   Ruby walks toward us and then leans her head closer to Hina’s side. Quietly, she says, “I don’t care if ya act, but ya better lay there ‘n’ take it, or yer gonna have problems with me.”   First, she almost kills Hina because she thought we were together, and now this. Well, I guess she only cared because she thought we had feelings for each other. She doesn’t care if there’s no love involved, only lust. She treated Hina like a piece of meat.   I can’t tell her to calm down or anything, either. I know she’s not going to listen to me this time. I mean, she still only has me in her mind. Talking back to her in this situation would only make her more aggressive in corrective action. If she can’t get me to shag Hina, she might take more desperate measures like reveal that the whole thing’s a sham. I can’t have that. I had the back and forth permissions between Hina and Marin for the same issue, though Hina decided against it in the end. I’m surprised Ruby hasn’t offered herself as a potential solution to this problem.   “They’re coming back,” Marin warns.    Ruby glares at Hina one last time before making a small sound and then returning to Marin’s side.   One possibility lingers in the back of my mind. That time I found...Ruby with that man at the inn. She’s fine with me having a physical relationship with someone else, but what about her? Has she been casually hooking up with someone? I don’t know if that’s why she hasn’t tried to hook up with me. I need to ask her and find out what’s going on, but at the same time, I don’t want to plant that thought in her head, or I’ll have bigger problems.   I can’t help but think back to Hina’s mention of my abnormal progression up the ranks. Ruby acted strange in the past, but that’s because she’s training hard for my sake and the food makes her feel bad. She’s been fine these last few weeks. I’ll have all of this cleared up when I confront her. She wouldn’t lie to me.

After another long ride, we arrive back at Drymo. From the looks of it, it’s past dinner time but not quite the usual bedtime. I’ve slept a lot during the ride, so I’ll be awake all night.   Our transport comes to a stop outside the stables by the Castle. I couldn’t be any more glad to be finally done.   “Those of you not going to the Clinic can leave here,” one of Captain Albius’ men says from the front of the wagon.   That’s right. There’s still a bit more to go since we’re going to be taking the back entrance to the Clinic. Ada and I should be the only ones injured here, but I’m sure her platoon will be staying too. That means, only Jetia and the two goons will be leaving. They should be glad that our group was pretty competent. They didn’t have to risk their lives much at all thanks to Ruby and the archers. Not even a scratch on them.   “You going to be busy with Hina tonight?” Jetia asks with a smirk. This bastard. He knows that it’s all an act.   “Of course,” I answer, forcing a smile. I can’t really answer any other way. “If she’s in the mood.”   “Kai, you lady killer,” Laud says.   “I hope Ruby doesn’t get too jealous. I’d hate if she lashed out at you or Hina again,” Garen says.   “As our leader, I hope you stay responsible for yer actions and don’t get us caught in the crossfire,” Jetia says and hops off the wagon and walks away. The two goons follow. Jetia continues,  “I’ll let Hina know how you fought valiantly during the battle.”   The wagon continues moving.   “So, how’d you manage to calm Ruby down during that day?” Aisha asks. I slowly turn my head toward her.  “She seemed a bit upset about the whole thing, given your…history.”   “You were there?” I ask.   “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. Most of us from the Academy were there…but we didn’t want to get involved.”   What do I tell her? I can’t tell her the facts because no one can know the truth about the relationship between Hina and me. Not even her platoon knows. Would anyone ever believe that Ruby would simply calm down? I gulp.   “You and Hina always struck me as an unlikely couple. Hina’s more of a hard worker with a sense of justice. You’re nothing like that. It’s all a lie, isn’t it? That’s the only way I see how you calmed Ruby down.”   Shit. Sweat slowly creeps out my skin, everywhere. I try not to have any sort of reaction toward her words while keeping my head locked in place. I can’t hesitate to answer any longer. I crack a smile and reply, “I see how a lot of people like you would make have that misunderstanding, but first of all, I work plenty of hard. I simply like people to think that I don’t try. Why do you think I took naps all the time? I was training when everyone was sleeping at night.”   What the hell am I saying? No one’s buying this. But with three pairs of eyes on me, I can’t stop now. I continue, “Hina caught me in the act one day, and we instantly connected.  Sorry, I’m not as talented as you thought I was. As for Ruby, I told her that my blossoming with Hina wasn’t a sudden thing. It wasn’t manipulation or anything like what she thought. I also lied and told her that Hina didn’t mean anything to me and that I might pursue her instead in the future. What can I say? I’m a lady killer like Laud said.”   “I...see…” Aisha replies with little energy. Not sure if she bought it. There’s no winning scenario here. People are going to have a false negative view about me if she did. “Your secret’s safe with us. We’re not going to meddle in your business.  You are quite the lady killer, though. You managed to destroy Ada’s stubbornness and change her too. I’d approve of you two.”   I force a laugh. It’s the sound of my reputation dying. “You can’t be serious. I only have eyes for Hina.”   “Of course. I’m joking.”   The thought of Ada and me together as a couple sickens me regardless. Ada wouldn’t be pleased to hear that either if she was awake. Now might be a good time to bring up what is coming next. Though, I don’t know if Ada wants to involve the two novices with the investigation. With one of them here, maybe I shouldn’t bring it up. I’ll let her handle it. Hopefully soon because the Inteiru Expota is right around the corner.   We eventually reach the back entrance of the Castle and then pass through the nearby entrance to the Clinic. Aisha’s team carries Ada off the wagon and follows a man who presumably directs them to an empty room. I follow another man to the second floor. I’ve never seen the Clinic this populated before. We were probably the last ones to arrive from our respective Rising Champions battle, but it makes sense because the travel time is the longest. It’s still surprising to see so many with injuries, considering that we only had a few at best.   I arrive in an empty room. Apparently, there’s a waiting time before a doctor will come to see me. Since I’ll probably be here a while, it’s time to relax. I take off my armor and boots before stretching my body across the bed with my back resting on the frame. This is bliss compared to a hard rickity wagon. I close my eyes, practically melting into the bed while filtering all the noise.   “Kai?” Ruby asks.   I open my eyes. Ruby and Marin are next to me.  I say, “Oh, hey.”   Ruby looks toward my bloody arm and asks, “How’re ya feelin’?”   “I’m fine. It’s not that bad.”   She grabs my hands and kneels, resting her head on top of them. “I was really scared, ya know. That ya weren’t gonna come back.”   She’s overreacting as usual. I let out a chuckle and then say, “Seriously, this is nothing. I’ve endured worse. There’s nothing to worry about.”   “No!” she screams tearfully. Her fluids wet my hands. “I’m talkin’ ‘bout when ya were in the forest without us.”   Oh, when I was split from everyone for a while. “But I wasn’t alone. I was with Ada.”   “Yeah…but… Captain Albius was actin’ like ya were already gone. He said ya were probably already dead from monsters.”   “Really?” I ask, looking toward Marin. She nods her head. Jetia did say something like that too. I guess he wasn’t lying.   “Yeah… So I’m really glad yer okay now,” Ruby says and then sniffs.   So, she was worried about me whole-heartedly… It’s because I’m still too weak. I need to get stronger for the sake of Ruby and Marin. I don’t want to see Ruby or Marin sad. Seeing her crying like this reminds me of her. “Look, I’m fine now, so you don’t have to cry anymore.”   “I’m sorry. I’ll try ta stop cryin’ if it’s botherin’ ya,” she says while wiping her face with her sleeve.   “Uh, no. It’s not bothering me. You don’t have to force yourself.”   “No, I’m fine now,” she says with a smile. Her gaze penetrates me. Some water rushes into the back of my eyes, but I hold them back and look away. I always doubt myself during times like these that I made the wrong choice back then to cast her out, but it’s all a trick. It’s only her shell. I have to remember that.   “Hey, Darling,” Hina says. She appears from the hallway. “Heard you were back.”   “Hey Hi-Pearl,” I respond, correcting myself as Luke comes in the room too. Why is he here? This just complicates things.   “Pearl?” Ruby asks and turns around.   “That would be me,” Hina answers as she walks closer. Marin steps aside to make room for her. Hina climbs onto the bed on the side with my good arm. She moves her head closer to mine.   Is she crazy? This is a little bit too bold with Ruby in the room. Even though I told her that it’s all a lie anyway. But a kiss is a kiss. Now that she’s set this in motion, I can only follow. I lean in a bit, and we exchange a quick kiss on the lips. Ruby frowns and stares at us. I have no idea what she’s thinking right now. I need her to behave, or a lot of things will go to shit.   Just like how Aisha has been doubtful of us, maybe Hina is feeling pressure from other sources too. I put my arm around her.   “How’re you feelin’?” Hina asks. “Heard you fought valiantly.”   Damn Jetia. Always trying to screw me over. “Yeah, well. It was a hard-fought battle for a lot of reasons. This is my only injury.”   I move my left arm in view for everyone to see. It might be safe to divulge who I met during the battle with the people in this room, and it seems like a good time.   “Hina, I’m sorry…” Ruby suddenly says. “Fer attackin’ ya in the cafeteria that one day.”   “Apology accepted. As long as we have the mutual understandin’ that Kai isn’t yours. He’s mine,” Hina declares.   My palms sweat. God, it never ends.   “I understand,” Ruby says with a grin. “I hope ya take good care of ‘im.”   I need to change the subject before any more tension builds up. I say, “So, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you guys… I met one of the masked men during the Rising Champions battle. The hard-fought battle? Yeah, it was with him.”   “How’d that happen?” Hina asks with a concerned expression. Ruby and Marin look at me with worry too. But it’s good that Ruby is holding back, especially, to not get touchy with me again.   I fill everyone in on the important details minus my true magic capabilities and summarize the stuff we learned from Viessa for Ruby and Luke.   “So, we’re probably gonna meet with Ada’s team sometime tomorrow to discuss our plan,” I inform.   “What do you think, Luke? Are you in?” Hina asks.   “Of course,” Luke answers.   “Do you think you can fill in Simon and Dennis?” Hina asks.   “I can do that. I’ll go now before the night’s over,” he says and then leaves.   I sigh.   “Ya can let go of ‘er now, Kai,” Ruby says with a pout.   Right, there’s no reason to pretend with everyone in this room knowing the truth. I take my arm off Hina. Ruby switches her glare to Hina.   “I need to stay here for safe measure, in case someone else walks in,” Hina replies and then smiles. “Are you gettin’ jealous?”   I nudge Hina in the side with my elbow. She’s messing with Ruby too much. Who knows how she’ll react?   “Hmph!” Ruby interjects and turns away. She’s taking this a lot better than I thought.   “Still, I can’t believe you survived a head-on fight with one of the masked men,” Hina says. “And he let you two live afterward. There must’ve been another way to implicate Xantho if he wanted to do that.”   “Was he that guy that went boom! On that girl that one day?” Ruby asks.   “Yeah,” I respond. “We’ll never know what they’re really thinking until we capture them and ask them ourselves. I think that’s the goal at the Inteiru Expota. If they’re really gonna show up. We’re gonna find a way to capture one of them and find out what they know.”   “How do you plan on findin’ them? Are you goin’ to look for that lake? We don’t have any other clues where they might be,” Hina says.   “I don’t know, but they have to be keeping tabs on everyone who’re meeting at the Inteiru Expota right? They’d have to be in the city somewhere. We’d split up and look for suspicious people. Tail them and see where they go.”   “That’s not very safe to do alone, and it would be too obvious as a group. Not to mention, they’re givin’ us all these clues that they’re goin’ to appear. You’d think they’d cover their tracks because they’re expectin’ us.”   “You don’t know how that masked man fought was, but I was there. Ada could relate too. He seemed to like games. He chose to play along and give us a chance. Maybe, they’re all like that. They’re giving us these clues on purpose to mess around and have some fun.”   “That seems far-fetched. Meticulously plannin’ out an attack while purposely leavin’ holes around for it to fall apart. I think that man you fought was actin’ alone. Not a part of the group’s interest. I mean, you met him before at the Underground area after the attack right? He stuck around when all their other members left. He’s the only one treadin’ on the edge.”   “He wasn’t the only there, I know it. It might not be a part of their group operation as you said, but I can’t believe there’s only one person wanting to satisfy their own motives. What do you guys think?” I ask, tilting my head in Ruby’s and Marin’s directions.   “I’m on yer side!”   “I don’t know since I wasn’t there…but I’ll trust your judgment, Kai.”   “See? Three against one,” I say.   Hina sighs. “Right… We need more than a single plan that’s bound to fall apart.”   “We’ll think of more plans tomorrow in detail with everyone present. Someone has to have a good idea. Worst case, we’ll think of something once we’re there. It’ll work out,” I say.   “That blind confidence of yours is somethin’,” she says.  Captain Albius walks in. Hina lunges her entire body toward me and exclaims, “I’ve missed you so much!”   I don’t know anymore if Captain Albius believes our ruse but better safe than sorry. I put my arm around Hina again after her outburst.  “I’ve missed you too.”   I direct my attention to Captain Albius and say, “Hey, Captain Albius.”   “Hey, Sergeant Kai, how’re you feelin’?” Captain Albius asks. “I see you’re very popular with the ladies.”   I laugh and reply, “Not too bad. Still waiting for the doctor to show up.”   “They’re prioritizin’ Ada since her injuries were worse. Someone should be comin’ for you soon. Anyway, I have some news I wanted to bring you. I just got back from talkin’ to General Nero.”   “What kind of news?” I ask.   “All good news. First, General Nero was impressed by your performance in the Rising Champions. Your coordination with Corporal Ada to ward off an attack by one of the masked men was great, but he especially respects you for movin’ past the bad blood between you and Corporal Ada. It’s certainly fascinatin’ to him when Corporal Ada, who despised you greatly, vouchin’ that you saved her life and creditin’ you with good.”    “That’s my Darling!”   Captain Albius smiles before continuing, “The information you brought regardin’ the attackers on our city was good too. If you complete your upcomin’ task, there’s no doubt he’ll promote you to Lieutenant by the end of it. You’ll be the youngest man to have achieved Lieutenant in our entire history. Congratulations.”   I gawk, taking a few seconds to let that absorb before answering, “Seriously? Wow… Thanks.”   “Which brings me to the last piece of good news, General Nero respects your relationship with Sergeant Hina, and he’s groupin’ you two together for the upcomin’ mission. To be more accurate, Sigma 4 and Sigma 8 will be completin’ that mission together. It starts in two days in the morning. You’ll escort a few ministers from Drymo to Syrina where the Inteiru Expota starts in four days. You’re responsible for their safety for the entire event, three days and travel to and from Syrina. Full details available tomorrow.”   “Well, that’s all I got for you. If you need something, let me know,” he says and then walks away.   There's that piece that Jetia and Ruby told me. Did Captain Albius really intend on abandoning us? It’s all a misunderstanding, but I'll clear it up.   “Wait,” I say. He stops and turns around. “I heard you were hesitating on accepting Xantho’s deal on taking out the Keor for the victory. You were going under the assumption that Ada and I were both already dead.”   “Yeah, ya were gonna leave ‘im! Don’t lie ‘bout it!”   He’s expressionless and doesn’t say anything. Was everything true? He’s caught red-handed, so he doesn’t have anything to say back. But then, he bursts out laughing. “Yeah, my actin’ skills are pretty awesome. It was a loyalty test. I never planned on abandonin’ you in there. Why would I ditch someone I had high hopes for? Of course, Corporal Ruby and Corporal Marin backed you up. There wasn’t anyone else, but that’s okay, you excelled everywhere else. Sigma 3 passed it with flyin’ colors.”   I laugh and then reply, “I knew it was something else. It didn’t feel right otherwise.”   Speaking of Sigma 3, did they get selected for the upcoming mission? If they didn’t, there’s not much of a point to meet up with them to plan tomorrow. But, the whole point of the investigation and plan was to put our reputations on the line to become a Lieutenant quicker. If I’m already guaranteed the role, the risk isn’t worth it anymore. I could call in another favor from Captain Albius to help us out to reduce it, but the result could be so bad that I don’t end up as Lieutenant.   “Well, then. I’ll be on my way,” Captain Albius says and then leaves.   “Jeez… I seriously can’t believe you’re bein’ promoted to Lieutenant already,” Hina says. “Somethin’ isn’t right.”   “Is it so hard to believe? I’ve been following my orders and have had good results recently. You could learn from us,” I say with a smug.   “That’s exactly the problem. How many people here do you think follows their orders? Practically everyone. What makes you so different? If a few good results were all that’s needed to advance, there’d be a lot more promotions. On top of that, you’ll have achieved it in what…eight months?”   “It’s ‘cause Kai’s the best! Yer just jealous. Don’t wanna admit that he’s more successful than ya,” Ruby says.   “Je-jealous? Of course not. I wouldn’t be jealous over my boyfriend,” Hina says and squeezes my arm tightly. Ruby frowns and glares. Hina lets go of me and says, “I’m kiddin’, okay? It’s just that I’ve been talkin’ to actual Lieutenants. I know exactly how much work, success, and luck it takes to become one. It has taken them anywhere between two and ten years from our rank. One person, in particular, I talked to took over a decade.”   “What about that one Lieutenant who we saw on our first day…? The one with orange hair and similar hairstyle as you, pigtails,” I say. “She seemed pretty young.”   “I haven’t talked to Lieutenant Elinnore, so I don’t know, but other people talk about her. I’ve heard…rumors.”   “Rumors? Like what?” I ask.   Hina looks at Marin and then Ruby before responding, “Nevermind. It’s only rumors. I don’t know if it's true.”   “Come on, now you’ve got me curious. What rumors?” I ask again.   Hina sighs. “That she slept her way up the ladder. The words slut and whore were used. And she isn’t the only one. All the women at Lieutenant rank or higher have rumors floatin’ around, so I think it’s all garbage.”   “I see, so why were you hesitating on telling us?”   “Didn’t want to scare Ruby or Marin on what might be comin’. There’s no precedent for someone as young as you becomin’ Lieutenant. In record time too. People will be jealous, and rumors will start, seein’ how two young women are right under your command.”   “People are dumb. Us ex-adventurers are just superior to these masses of mindless guards. And General Nero got into his position within a year or two of us enlisting, right? Maybe he’s more progressive and wants to change how things are done, so how promotions are decided changed too.”   “You’re right. I’m sure the ones who spread the rumors about Lieutenant Elinnore and the other women are men who were rejected by them. They’re bitter and jealous about it. You know, I think the real reason why you start seein’ more women in the higher ranks compared to the lower ranks is because we’re more dedicated than men.”   “Wait, is that true?” I ask. I know that the army comprises of mostly men. Most women I’ve seen are ones from the Academy or new recruits on the same day we joined. Then there are the non-combatants, but not a whole not of women otherwise. “You’re saying that out of all the women and men here, the percentage of women in the higher ranks is higher than men, right?”   “Oh…yeah. It’s because we’re willin’ to sacrifice things, unlike men. Right?” Hina asks and looks toward Ruby. She gives her a dirty look. Probably misunderstanding again. Either that or she doesn’t like any statements that put me in a bad light. Hina looks toward Marin, but she stays silent. She’s been quiet this whole time, but this is a bit of a tricky situation. We don’t want to give Ruby any clues on who’s actually with who here.   “Well,” I interject. “I don’t know about that one. Are you trying to imply that you work harder than me?”   “No, I’m talkin’ about sacrifice and men in general. For example, when we have children, we’re always the ones who put everythin’ aside to raise the child while men leave us to do their own thing.”   “That’s got nothing to do with anything in the army, but I’ll bite. I grew up without my real parents; I only had Emdos. Marin’s parents were both adventurers, and neither of them gave it up. Ada’s real parents both abandoned them. Drugo and Hiro were orphans, and then there’s…” I stop, not wanting to bring up her name. Ruby looks away. “Jetia. He sacrificed his Academy education to take of his mother and still sends her money.”   “That’s only a few cases. I’m talkin’ about the general population. Could you say the same for all the mindless guards around here?”   “Hmm. Probably not,” I reply. She got me at mindless guards. Not a lot of people around here have a backbone. “You’re probably right.”   “And just so we’re clear, my father ran off when I was young, leavin’ my mother alone. I experienced it first-hand.”   “Oh, so you’re dragging personal feelings into this, after all,” I say with a smile.   “That doesn’t change anythin’…anyway, it’s only a possibility I thought up. We’re gettin’ too sidetracked here. When’re we meetin’ tomorrow?”   “Oh, umm… I don’t know.”   Hina smiles and cocks an eyebrow. “Wait, you’re not havin’ second thoughts about this, are you? Because you’re gettin’ promoted?”   I sigh. “A little bit. I mean, when I’m Lieutenant, I’ll freely be able to investigate. If things don’t go well during this time, General Nero might change his mind about promoting me to Lieutenant, right?”   “What happened to that blind confidence of yours? ‘It’ll work out,’ you said.”   “That was before I knew I would be promoted to Lieutenant anyway. You were skeptical before, but now you’re suddenly on-board with the plan? Do you want us to fail, so my promotion’s gone?”   “I didn’t say I didn’t want to go through with the investigation. I said I wasn’t completely on-board with the plan you proposed. This is what I was talkin’ about before. You don’t want to take one for the team and sacrifice your promotion.”   “Come on, that’s not fair. You wouldn’t either if you knew you’d get a promotion.”   “No, I’d do it. Think about it. When you’re conductin’ your own investigation, you’ll only have your platoon. You won’t have my platoon or Sigma 3 to support you. You want to mess around with them with only Ruby and Marin as your reliable backup? And you won’t know where to find them. This time around, we know they’re goin’ to show up at the Inteiru Expota, and as you said, they’ve laid out clues for us to follow.”   She makes a good point. I can’t forget about the reason why I’m striving to become a Lieutenant. “Okay, fine. I might still go through with the plan. I’m gonna have to call in another favor from Captain Albius to see if he can assist us in any way. With the mission, it doesn’t sound like we can leave the ministers alone at any time, but maybe there’s a way. Hopefully, Ada’s team was selected for the mission too.”   “How does meetin’ at lunch or after lunch sound?” Hina asks.   “That’s fine,” I respond. Though we could meet as early as the morning. Since we had plenty of rest over our ride back, we don’t need any rest. It probably wouldn’t be good to be meeting the entire time, though. I don’t want gossip about us to circulate to General Nero. He’d be able to piece one thing with another and figure out that we’re planning something. He’s the last person I want to find out about what we’re doing.   I’ll have up until lunch tomorrow to meet with Ada and call in the favor with Captain Albius.   A doctor arrives a few minutes later to treat my injuries. Unfortunately, I split up with Ruby and Marin to accompany Hina to her room when it’s time to leave. We put on another act in case anyone is listening to keep up our charade. With nothing else to do, I force myself to sleep, waking up every hour of the night until morning.   We temporarily separate as I return to my room in the morning to take a well-deserved shower. Later, we meet up to check the mail station. I filter out the trash I always get from Beltan, to find the details of the mission in detail Captain Albius spoke of yesterday. We go to the cafeteria for breakfast, where I find the chance to meet up with Ada.   She filled in her entire team on what’s going on, but the four novices are fine with being left out of the plan. That means that there would be thirteen of us, assuming that Hina and Luke convince the other two Academy folk to join. I let her know that we’d be meeting around lunchtime. Perfect, since that’s when Ruby has agreed to always show up for lunch. Otherwise, who knows what she’s doing right now.   And so, the day passes. It’s finally the morning we leave for Syrina. The three ministers we’re escorting have a fancy convoy while we’re in the back of a wagon again. Despite that we’re responsible for the safety of them during the ride, we’re traveling as a kingdom, so there’s not much danger. Half of us lead the convoy while the other half follow it, sandwiching them in the middle.   The ride is long and boring. I’ve been having a lot of that recently. It takes eight hours to reach the border up north. For some reason, our pace slows down dramatically for our travel in Neomeris. Something to do with safety precautions, but you’d think it would be more dangerous traveling slower, but I don’t make the decisions. The eight of us take turns staying awake to keep watch.   The transportations take several stops throughout the ride because of monster attacks at the front, but we don’t get any action back here.   Just like that, Syrina is in our sights the next morning. Since we’re on higher ground, it’s a sight to behold. The city is immensely massive. Since I’ve never been to any other city outside of Drymo, I don’t know what the standard is. Maybe Drymo is a small city. But I can’t imagine anything being as large as Syrina. But it makes sense, if all the races coexist here, there has to be enough room to accommodate for an extra headcount.   It doesn’t take much longer to reach the city. I thought I would see Elves, Dwarves, and Xog walking everywhere mixed with Humans, but there are only Humans right now. We were told we would be entering from the Human entrance, so there wouldn’t be many of the other races loitering around the edge of this part of the city.   The convoys in front of us split off from the group. We go our separate ways since each set of ministers goes to a different inn. If all the ministers to the same inn, the masked men could use large-scale magic to easily take them all out even if we’re there to protect them. They’d be less likely to employ this tactic if they were split up.   Captain Albius said that the best time to investigate would be today since the ministers would be staying at their inns the entire time and then the periods they’re at the grand meeting since we won’t be attending the actual event.   We reach our destination; The Windmill Inn. I stretch and say, “Finally.”   “Darling, were you that sick of keepin’ me warm durin’ the ride?” Hina asks. Luke, Simon, and Dennis stare at us.   With them present the entire time, tensions were a bit high since Ruby was with us too. I might’ve preferred a more relaxing atmosphere and had our platoons sit separately from Sigma 8. But since the higher-ups thought they were doing good with pairing our platoons together, they wanted us to ride intermingled too. I made the mistake of acting relieved when I shouldn’t do that considering my relationship with Hina.   I laugh once and respond, “Of course not, Pearl. I just hate sitting still for so long. You know that.”   She laughs and then answers, “I know, Darling. Just teasin’.”   We both smile.   “We should bring the ministers inside before you two get too flirty,” Luke says.   “Right,” I say. The group in front meets us as we open the doors to the convoy.  “Gentleman, we’ve arrived at The Windmill Inn, where you’ll be staying until the Inteiru Expota tomorrow.”   “Hell, no,” one of them says.   “Excuse me?” I ask.   “You heard me. We refuse to stay confined to an inn for an entire day. We want to explore the city and witness the current state of interracial relationships.”   “Our orders from General Nero is that you’ll be staying—“   “Fuck General Nero,” another one of them says, “He’s been trying to sabotage our policy changes for over a year. He’s trying to shove us inside an inn, so we don’t have any time to prepare for the Inteiru Expota.”   Is this a test? I don’t know if General Nero or Captain Albius is watching from somewhere. A test of loyalty like from the Rising Champions battle. If that’s true, our plan to meet up later today with Ada’s group might not be possible either way. Captain Albius didn’t say anything about that, so that doesn’t sound right.  “Sir, I need you to—“   “Of course, we’d be happy to accompany you around the city,” Hina interrupts. “Where would you like to go?”   “What’re you doing?” I ask in a whisper next to Hina’s ear. “What about our plans to meet up with Ada?”   She whispers back in my ear, “Improvise. A few of us can split off from the group for a bit to send the message to Ada.”   “You two go,” Luke whispers. “We got this.”   “Take us around the entire city. For starters, how about the Elven District?” one of the ministers says.   “Of course, our men and women will escort you there. If you don’t mind, Sergeant Kai and I will need to let Captain Albius know of the new agenda for today,” Hina informs.   “Wait, I wanna go too,” Ruby says.   “No, you stay here, Ruby. Make sure that you protect these men from any harm, got it?”   “’Kay…I got it.”   “Do what you must,” one of the ministers says.   “We’ll be meetin’ up with you in the Elven District later. Is there a place you know of that would be suitable?” Hina asks.   “This is our first time here, so we don’t know anything.”   “Okay, so—“   “Look, we know you’ve got orders to follow, but we won’t report you if you don’t want to come with us around the city,” one of the ministers interrupts. “There’s sixteen of you. That’s a bit overkill when nothing’s going to happen.”   “It’s for your safety, sir. A precaution in case someone attacks you,” I warn. My promotion is resting on the lives of these three men. “The masked men could strike again.”   “Is that what General Nero told you? The attack on Drymo was tragic, but that’s because our defenses were low due to a variety of reasons. It would be extremely difficult for that same group to attack this city when the military forces of every kingdom on Eiruta is present. There’s no way they would attack. And there’s no way we would be singled out by them,” one of the men says.   “And no one from the other races would dare strike us. It would cause an international outrage. Fourteen of you is enough for our escort. Why don’t you two lovebirds have some fun? Explore the city.”   Hina and I exchange glances. I’m a bit skeptical about leaving them to their own devices, but it’s only for today, and they made good points. The only real danger is if something big happened, and that’s unlikely. Or Ruby goes out of control at the wrong place, but I’ve made things clear to her yesterday not to kill anyone unless Marin says so.   “Very well, thank you,” Hina says and grabs my hand. Jetia narrows his eyes on me. He knows that we’re planning something. “Let’s go, Kai.”   I follow with not much else choice at this point. Hina made all the decisions already. I sigh. My fingers are crossed for nothing bad to happen. I think about that time I spent in the shit hole. General Nero can never find out that we’re breaking orders. That means that no one can see us split off alone.   “What’re you so worried about? Your fingers are sweatin’.”   “It’s nothing. Just nervous that something would happen. Or someone will see us and word spreads to General Nero.”   “It’s not like anyone is spyin’ on us. There’s no way General Nero would ever know. He’s too busy with the Inteiru Expota.”   “Yeah, but you never know.”   “Wait, hold on a second,” Hina says and suddenly turns around. I have no choice but to follow since our hands are locked.   “Where’re you going?” I ask. She’s walking toward a young boy and girl skipping in the opposite direction.   “I gotta bust my nuts at home, I gotta bust my nuts at home,” the young boy says.   What the hell’s he saying? That’s not weird at all. The boy can’t be any older than seven years old.   “Hey!” Hina yells and grabs the boy’s shoulder.   “Wha!” the boy exclaims and turns around. “Who’re you?”   “That doesn’t matter. You were sayin’ somethin’ really inappropriate for your age. Where are your parents?” Hina asks.   “Inappropriate? What’s inappropriate?” the boy asks. He looks at us innocently. It doesn’t seem like he’s aware of the lewdness of his words. “I gotta bust my nuts at home?”   “Yes, that. Stop sayin’ that. I don’t know how your mother raised you, but you shouldn’t be doin’ that at that age anyway! I’ll need to have a word with your parents.”   I sigh. Hina can’t let go of a random kid saying an inappropriate phrase. It reminds me of the time she reprimanded me for not telling some kids to stop playing with weapons back in Aramore. Her weird sense of justice can’t stop her from meddling.   “What does that mean? Do you know, miss?”   “Huh?” Hina interjects. I knit my eyebrows too. Then, I notice that the boy’s holding onto a piece of paper.   “Can I see that piece of paper?” I ask.   “Sure! But you have to give it back to me, okay? Mom’s gonna be mad otherwise.”   I’m not sure what he means by that, but I take the piece of paper, holding it in front of me so that Hina can read it too.   Urges   I gotta bust my nuts at home. It-has-to-be-at-home syndrome. Peeling an orange easy, Cracking a nut crappy, It’s just the wrong month and biome. Nacsu   What the hell? I read it several more times to make sure I didn’t miss anything.   “Ohh..” Hina interjects. “This whole thing’s a joke. It’s not talkin’ about nuts. It’s talkin’ about the nuts with a shell. Since it’s the winter, you don’t normally find oranges to peel, so you’re left with nuts to crack open.”   “Oh, I interject and laugh a few times, but it’s not that funny.   “What’s funny?” the boy asks. He’s too young to understand. I give the piece of paper back to him.   “Don’t worry about it. Why’d you say your mom was gonna be mad?”   “She said that we have to go to the book store to bring back something to read. We didn’t want to bring back a long book, so we found this instead. Do you think mom will laugh too?”   “No, I—“   “Of course. She’s gonna love it,” I cut Hina off. We don’t have time to tag along with them to grab proper reading material.   “Thanks, mister!” the boy says and then smiles. He runs off with the girl.   “Come on, let’s go. Let it go and leave him to be scolded by his mother. Or she’ll get a kick out of it and laugh it off,” I say. “He didn’t mean what he said the first time, so it’s fine.”   “Fine…” Hina concedes.   Since we lost the coin toss yesterday, we continue along to meet Ada’s group outside the Icy Tavern, where they were instructed to bring their group of ministers.  

We reach the base of the mound, but it’s too quiet. It should be quite noisy if everyone’s fighting off a monster attack considering that a roar came from this direction two minutes ago. But the only thing we hear are the sounds of our feet hitting the ground. It gives me a bad feeling as we climb the hill.   At the top, we freeze, as my fears become a reality. No one standing to be seen. Only a large group of tigers numbering at least a dozen feasting on bodies lying on the ground. One tiger stands out from the rest; it’s the only one with red fur with yellow and orange stripes. The remaining tigers have orange fur and black stripes. It only takes a moment for the monsters to realize that we’re here. They stop eating and turn their head our way. They stare at us with blood dripping from their muzzle.   “Run, run!” I exclaim and quickly do a 180-degree turn back to where we came. Anyone they’re gorging on right now is definitely dead. Nothing we can do for whoever was unfortunate enough to be caught. Not even if it was Marin or Ruby, but there’s no way they’re dead. Captain Albius must’ve evacuated everyone.   “They’re catching up!” Ada yells from right behind me. “Turn right!”   I do as she says. We need to get out of this overgrown forest as soon as possible. At this rate, those tigers are going to catch up to us in no time. It’s too hard to run at full speed on this terrain. And both of us are injured. I could use Enhancement to run faster, but I would end up leaving Ada behind.   Suddenly, the ground in front of us rises. It blocks our way forward. The fuck?   I stop running right before crashing into it. No time to process what just happened. We’ll have to go around it. That’s what I thought, but the ground around it rose up too. I widen my eyes. It’s the monsters. They can cast Intermediate Evocation magic. We need to turn around before we’re trapped. “Go back!”   I turn around, but it’s too late. The ground rises with no other way out other than above. But that’ll be a dead end too because they could always make it higher. It would take a while to climb too and wouldn’t work since they’re nearby. This is bad.   There’s only one way out of this. I need to focus.   “Wha-what do we do?” Ada asks, shivering. She widens her eyes and jerks her head toward a monster roar. “What do we do?!”   “You’re seriously asking me?” I ask, surprised how she’s depending on me to get us out of this. I’m working on something to get us both out, but she doesn’t know that.   “O-of course! Who else would I be asking, you idiot?”   “Well considering what you did to me in the past, I think I’ll just leave you here. No one’s watching anyway.”   “Wha-what?! No! Please, I’m sorry. Don’t leave me.”   I smile and turn my back on her. This is too good. I stay silent.   “Look, I know I treated you like shit, and it’s all my fault. I was skeptical whether you were a part of them or not but I convinced myself that you were. That it had to be the truth. I couldn’t just take it back when I pushed it that far.” Loud rustling noises nearby. The monsters are here. “Please!”   Wow. I didn’t expect a full-on confession from her. Here I thought that she wholeheartedly believed that I was one of the masked men. When really, she was only half sure and never verified it. That’s really scummy. A part of me wants to leave her here, but I won’t. It’s not like I get anything out of it. I could use this to climb up the ladder quicker.   “Shut up and grab hold of my back, tightly,” I instruct. She says nothing and wraps her arms around my chest plate. The monsters growl. We’re lucky the tigers gathered around us haven’t pounced on us yet, but it would be stupid to risk waiting any longer.   My magic activates, finally reaching their destinations. A portal appears in front of me wide and tall enough so that neither of us would be in any danger of breaking the boundary rule.   I run through, appearing in the air far above us, beyond the smaller trees that covered the area around us, though nowhere near reaching the top of the gigantic trees. Luckily, the monsters can’t see us from up here because the crown of the trees blocks the view. We quickly fall into an upright position. Ada screams.   I point to the direction we ran in before the ground rose and yell, “Hurry, use Wind magic to get us out of this place!”   Our bodies jerk toward the complete opposite direction than I indicated along with our body orientation. We’re now gliding through the air head first and face down in our point of heading. I warn, “You’re going the wrong way!”   “I can’t change directions now!”   I wasted too much time teasing her that I didn’t leave any time to fill her in on my plan to escape. It would be too hard to change directions now taking account into the monsters catching up too. At this point, she’d better do a good job of committing to this heading. Land first and take care of everything else later. I don’t like the idea that my life is in Ada’s hands, so I’ll prepare something just in case. I tilt my head up, looking ahead.   “Front, in front! Watch where you’re going!” I exclaim, too late to prepare any counter-measure. We’re headed right into the edge of the trunk of an overgrown tree. Edge or not, that’s going to be enough to stop our full momentum. She turns our course slightly, narrowingly avoiding crashing.   I don’t think I’ll be able to do much with my magic. I can’t see what’s under the crown of the trees below us to know where a portal would put us. It could be deadly if a tree or rock were directly in front of the portal. The best I could do is activate the exit portal above ground somewhere before activating one in front of our heading. It would put us closer to where we started. If the monsters are following us, they could catch us. That’s dangerous because I don’t know how much Mana Ada has left, and it’s not like I have an infinite supply either. If we’re both left with no Mana, we wouldn’t be able to survive this place after landing.   Our distance from the ground shortens rapidly. It would be nice to land in an area clear of these annoying smaller trees. I’m assuming that the wood in this forest isn’t brittle, so it’s not going to be pretty if we brush along the crown at this speed.   “How’re you planning to land?!” Ada asks.   “That’s your job! Hopefully by redirecting some of the force below us to fall slower!”   Our bodies thrust upward, now going a bit diagonal, but slowing down to only vertical movement. I hope she understands that we’re trying to go down, not up. The climb upward halts, and we drop down. Every few moments, a burst of air launches us up slightly, probably to stop us from falling too fast down. Her control sucks.   I can’t complain too much, though. She’s keeping both of us alive. Should I burn the top of the trees below us? No, because that might attract monsters. I hope we land safely.   I didn’t see this before, but there’s a place nearby without any trees. I point and ask, “Hey, can you land over there?”   “I’ll try.”   She flies us over in spurts diagonally upward toward the open area. She could be more efficient, but it’s working. She switches back to the vertical descent when we pass the trees. Finally, we reach the ground, with the grass reaching as high as my chest.   Ada lets go of me and drops to the ground. she mutters, “We’re alive…”   I sigh and sit down too. “Yeah…”   This open area is much nicer. Though, it’s like we’re ants in a regular forest considering the presence of these extremely thick and tall trees. There’s a large amount of space between each of them with hills everywhere. If those tigers track us here, they will able to track us in the air. So in that sense, it was nicer where we were.   “Your plan... You were planning all along to use me in your escape but didn’t say anything...”   Oops. She figured it out. This is the part she’ll take back everything she said and blame me.   “I deserve it...thanks for not abandoning me. I’ll do anything to make it right.”   It’s too bad I can’t see what kind of expressions she’s making with this grass in the way. I smile and ask, “Oh, anything?”   “No-not anything.”   “But an eye for an eye. It’s the only way it’s fair. You saw and assaulted my bare body, soo...you know.”   “You sick—I mean...” she mutters and then sighs.   Speaking of ants…if the trees in this place are so much bigger, does that mean the monsters here are huge too? Those tigers were menacing, but only because there were so many. They didn’t scale up to the size of these trees.   I thought a part of an overgrown tree moved in the distance before, but now I’m sure it did. Currently, it’s moving in a different spot on the same tree. Several spots, actually, like a thick line wrapped the tree. Oh, no…   I stand up immediately, realizing the impending danger. The grass blocked my view before, but now I notice that the monster is close to the base of the tree. I don’t see the head or tail.   I’d rather be in the mini forest compared to out here. I say, “Get up, now.”   “Wha-what? You want that now?”   “I’m not screwing around. Get back into the forest, now,” I warn while walking backward, inching closer to the forest.   “I didn’t agree to it yet,” Ada says, still not standing up and having her misunderstandings as usual. To begin with, I wasn’t serious about that.   “Get up, unless you wanna end up eaten whole by a snake.”   She jumps up to her feet and runs over to me. We hurry into the edge of the forest and then hide behind a tree.   “Where’s the snake?” she asks.   I inch my head out. I point to the tree that I saw it on. “It’s that one. It’s hard to see since it’s camouflaged, but it’s moving.”   “I don’t see anything.”   “What?” I check for myself once more. She’s right. There’s nothing there unless it’s not moving and blended in really well. I don’t think things are going to work out that conveniently for us. The other outcome is more likely. “Shit. It’s already moved off the tree. Let’s move.”   “Aren’t you being too paranoid? It didn’t see us.”   “Maybe, but I don’t wanna take any chances.”   “It’s not headed our way. The grass is completely still.”   She’s right. It’s easy to see the grass around the base of the tree because we’re at a lower elevation compared to it. There’s no movement around the tree whatsoever, although, it might have some way of moving through the grass without disturbing it. Or it could be going around the grass entirely.   “Either way, I don’t wanna stay in an area where monsters are a hundred times their normal size. If that snake was that big, we’re screwed if something with better eyesight sees us. I definitely don’t wanna wait around for monsters to come around and eat us. We’re both bleeding, so…”   Ada gulps and answers, “Ye-yeah…you’re right.”   We head in the direction we flew from at a slow pace, paying close attention to our surroundings, when my stomach growls.   “Hungry?” Ada asks.   “Yeah but I’ll deal with it,” I say. She should be hungry too. We ate at the same time over six hours ago. “We don’t have time to look for food.”   “It’s everywhere. We don’t need to look,” Ada says with open stretched out arms.   Is she referring to the mushrooms and berries around here? “We don’t know which ones are poisonous. It’s too risky.”   “I know all about them. My parents ran a restaurant, and they taught me all about the edible goodies,” Ada says as she crouches next to a tree. She cuts some hairy thing from the bark. Now she’s on the ground on all four, plucking some oddly-shaped mushrooms. She hands me everything and says, “Look for these. They’re all edible non-poisonous mushrooms. Make sure the color matches exactly for the ones I got from the ground.”   It’s hard to believe this white hairy thing from the tree is a mushroom let alone edible. It literally looks like hundreds of white strands of hair hanging from a pole hidden in the center. I didn’t want to waste time like this looking for mushrooms, but a few more minutes can’t hurt. I split up from Ada to look the hairy thing on trees because it looks the most interesting. The other ones give me bad memories of my 5th year. I don’t want to wander too far, though.   I circle each tree individually. It takes a few to find my first one. I use one of my swords to scrape it off the tree. These things aren’t on every tree, but it looks like they’re common enough to gather in a short amount of time. It’s a bit annoying to drop everything on the ground to cut the next one I find, pick everything back up, and restart the process. I head back to my starting point with plenty of these hairy mushrooms in my arms.   “Ada, I got a bunch of the hairy ones,” I say. Dead silence. Not sure if she heard me, but I don’t want to yell. It could alert predators. “Ada?”   Nothing other than a few small noises in the distance. Did she wander off somewhere else? Or did she get caught by a monster?   I drop all the mushrooms and unsheathe both of my blades. I search the vicinity of the last place I saw her. I move through the area with light steps, turning slowly around the large scattered boulders.   If it were a monster, she would have screamed unless something got her in an instant. And she wouldn’t dare try to split up from me. She knows that she needs me to survive. She’s not stupid enough to wander off either.   Her legs are sticking out from behind a bush. She’s on the ground. “Ada?”   No response. I gulp and slowly walk toward her, not knowing whether she’s dead or alive, my heartbeat racing.   I don’t know why I’m concerned about her safety to this extent. I wanted nothing more than for her to suffer for what she did to me. But it increases my chances of survival if I keep her with me.   I find her intact in one piece with no signs of battle or monsters nearby. I sigh. But there’s still the problem with Ada. Did she accidentally eat something poisonous? There’s not much I can do for her if that’s the case.   I kneel next to her head. Her breathing is heavy, and sweat drips from her face. I put my palm over her forehead. She’s burning up. Her left arm catches my attention. The wound she suffered is turning slightly yellow on some parts of her raw skin. I don’t think a wound would be infected this quick, but that guy might have done something else to her too.   Do I wait here for her to recover or bring her with me? We’re out in the open here, so it would be risky to stay. But it would also be risky to carry her and continue onward. If I ran into any trouble, she’s toast. I wouldn’t be able to protect us both. I need to find a place where it’s safe to recover. Nowhere is completely safe, but there has to be a place.   In a tree could work, though getting her up there would be difficult, but doable. I climb the thickest nearby tree and then stand on top the branch closest to the ground. It’s thick enough for my purposes. I release a short stream of Fire magic made from Unrefined Mana from my left palm. I guide the flames to the trunk of the tree.   I’m not trying to burst the tree into flames, instead, only to weaken the wood. It doesn’t burn at first because of the presence of Mana inside the tree. It’s only a matter of time before it can’t protect itself from my magic.   Hopefully, the wood on these trees isn’t too hard to break. I only have Iron swords with me because of the basic equipment requirement of the Rising Champions.   Finally, a small piece of the tree burns and smoke rises from it. I use my sword with my free hand to scrape off the smoking pieces from the trunk. It doesn’t take much force to separate it from the rest of the tree, which is a relief. I repeat the process of burning and scraping the tree, eventually carving out a hollow shell of the tree enough to rest Ada inside. Now all there is to do is bring her up.   I jump off the tree and slam my blade into the tree tip first, pushing it until my hilt touches the wood. It’s comfortably high enough for me to jump to it easily while carrying Ada. I’ll put the second one off to the right and equidistant between the first and the branch with the burrow.  Now, I’ll be able to climb up the tree with no hands.   I sweep my hands from under Ada to pick her up. The mushrooms she collected are piled under her. I go over to the two steps I created and then go from one foothold to the next. Finally, reaching the branch, I rest her back inside the opening I made while balancing my weight. Her legs hang off the edge because the tree isn’t thick enough to hide her entire body. This won’t protect her completely, especially if monsters here uses magic.   While I’m waiting, I’ll cook those mushrooms. I’ll toss them in a pile and use some Fire magic. I go back to gather the hairy mushrooms I dropped and add them to the heap Ada collected. Things won’t turn well if I use Fire magic on the clump of mushrooms. It’ll end up too burnt that way. But it’s not like I have any cooking supplies either. And it would be too much of a hassle to set one up. I don’t want to set the environment on fire if possible because monsters might smell the smoke. It was already risky to burn a part of the tree, but that was only a little bit at a time.   So I’ll have to cook over mid-air, which means I’ll have to skewer the mushrooms with something. My swords and Ada’s daggers are probably too thick for the job. However, I could use those twigs on the branch. Those should be thin enough for the job.   I take my weapons back from the tree and then put them back into my sheaths. I climb the tree and use one sword to cut off I the most straight-looking twigs from the branch. I jump down to the ground where they fell, remove the leaves, and then skewer all the mushrooms on them. I bring them up on the branch with me.   I sit on the branch next to Ada with my legs hanging in front. I bond my Scrap Mana to Fire Affinity to create a small flat surface of fire with the heat pointing up. I split the twigs among both of my hands and hang it a few inches away from the fire. It won’t be evenly cooked this way since I’m holding a clump of twigs in each hand. The ones near the top won’t be cooked well. I don’t have the patience to do this one by one.   I opt to create more flat surfaces of Fire, all pointing toward the skewers. I form a box of fire, leaving the front and back empty because I don’t want to burn the twig. Since I’m unsure how long I need to cook for, I’ll leave it like this for a while. The rumbling in the distance worries me, but it’s all good here, so far.   “Ugh…” Ada moans.   “Don’t try to move yet. You’re weak.”   “Where am I?”   “I made a hole in a tree. ”   “I see. Sorry for the trouble…  Look. I really don’t want to owe you anything, so I’ll swallow my pride just this once. I’ll let you do whatever sick thing you want me to do as payback, and I won’t tell anyone about it.”   “Forget it. I wasn't serious about that,” I say. General Nero is the real person to blame here. He’s the one who triggered everything. “Instead, you can tell me what General Nero told you that day.”   “That…” she pauses.   Speaking of which, General Nero told me to keep my mouth shut regarding the punishment. He must have done the same with Ada…and Captain Albius. I don’t know how he intends to make sure no one knows, but it’s best not to let something slip. Even now, someone could be listening. Highly doubtful, but there could be a way for him to know whether any of us ratted.   “Nevermind. He probably told you to not speak about it or else. The restaurant your parents run. Convince them to give me a free pass for a lifetime. You can do that much, right?”   “I…can’t,” she answers after several seconds. The tone of her voice has a tinge of sadness. Then I make the connection. It all makes sense now. Her blind anger toward me and why she’s in the army instead of continuing to help her parent’s business. Everyone’s in it for revenge, after all. Maybe I can use her help with the upcoming Inteiru Expota.   “Sorry, I should’ve known that you lost them, all things considered. Everyone from the Academy who joined has the same motive.”   “It’s fine. So, sorry. I won’t be able to do that for you either.”   “There’s something else you can help me with, but you have to promise me that you’ll stay calm no matter what I tell you,” I say. Ada furrows her eyebrows and nods her head. “First, you should know that the man we fought earlier…was one of the masked men.”   “What?!”  Ada exclaims and leans forward. She clutches her left arm and lets out a cry of pain.   “Quiet. I told you to stay calm. And your body isn’t in the best shape right now. You didn’t feel it earlier because of an adrenaline rush,” I say. Although I could say the same for myself, my left forearm is throbbing with pain. I won’t be able to fight with full strength. It’s also a gamble whether or not my weapons will hold up against monsters in this forest.   “I can’t sit let this bother me after what you’ve told me. How’d you find out?”   “It was his—“   Loud rumblings in the distance. Louder than before. The vibrations shake the branch a few times before going. No signs of any monsters nearby, though. I continue, “It was his parting words. I’ve met him before, twice.”   “Twice?”   “Yeah. The first time was at the beginning of the attack. The second time was in the Underground area of the Academy. That time we went to look for survivors during our enlistment into the army. He left with the same parting word. He called us, ‘suckers.’”   “If he was one of them…do you think there were others?”   “I’m not sure. That’s why it was good that I didn’t chase after him. Hopefully, he was the only one. Otherwise…”   “No, Aisha wouldn’t be dying to the likes of them. We all survived together the first time. Captain Albius is there too.”   “You’re right. Even if there were more of them, I don’t think they would’ve finished anyone off. After all, we’re alive.”   “I’ll make him regret it for not killing me when he had the chance,” Ada says and sits up completely. She scoots next to me.   “You’re fine already? What about your fever?”   “I’ll power through. Are those done yet?”   “I’m not sure,” I respond. They’ve been roasting for a while, so probably. I send out some more Scrap Mana to deactivate my Fire magic. The mushrooms’ color has browned and blackened on the surface. Hopefully, not too burnt. I hand the twigs in my right hand over to Ada.   “Thanks,” she says and then separates one twig from the rest. She blows on them. “So, what did you need help with?”   I give her a quick summary of what we learned from Viessa while we eat the food.   “I haven’t updated Hina, but I’m sure after running into one of the masked men today,” I say. “We’ll do our own investigation during the Inteiru Expota. General Nero knows everything I told you, but he wouldn’t approve an individual investigation. Make sure to keep the inner circle on who knows small.”   “I got it. I need a favor,” she says and looks at her left shoulder. The yellow parts of her injury are darkening and spreading to other parts of her skin. ”He did something to me. I feel really weak. This might be the cause.”   I have a bad feeling about where she’s going with this. She continues, “I need you to burn it.”   I shake my head and reply, “No way. You’ll pass out. I don’t think that’ll fix your issue either. You need to see a doctor.”   “I’m not going to pass out. You’ve given me a lead on those masked men. Now that I know, I won’t let myself kick the bucket here. I’ll be more useful to you if I can hold my own. It’s worth a shot.”   “You’re serious about this?” I ask one last time.   “Yeah, do it,” she answers with a nod.   “Alright. We’ll do it on the ground,” I say and hop off the branch. If she’s going through with this, she won’t be able to keep herself from flopping around. It might be hard for her to jump down from the branch in her state. “Hey—“   She jumped before I could interject. Her legs buckle after touching the ground, and she lands on her butt. “Damn it…”   I was going to offer her some help, but she went off and jumped. She’s definitely the reckless type. I toss all the leftover twigs from the mushrooms except one. I hand her one and say, “You’ll want to bite into this.”   She takes it and then bites into it with her teeth. She rotates her body until her left shoulder is in front of me.   “I shouldn’t have to say this, but I will just in case. You’ll need to keep your voice down and keep your arm steady for me.”   She silently nods. I inspect her arm to check the extent of the damage. Luckily for her, the injury is only located on one side. I won’t have to cover the entire circumference of her arm. The man already cut off her sleeve from the shoulder, so it saves me the trouble.   It’s best that I minimize the time I cover her in Fire. Which means I’ll use Unrefined Mana or Rich Mana to power my magic and hit the entire injury at once. The downside is I’ll torch her healthy skin too, but that’s probably more preferable compared to extending the operation time. Since I’m trying to burn the surface of her skin, a more powerful flame would be better.   I grab hold of her left forearm tightly. I’m stronger than her, so she won’t be able to jolt her arm away when the fire shows up. I bond Rich Mana with my Fire Affinity and instruct them to form a thin band of fire right on top of her wound. It’s set to deactivation in a second. I hold her arm steady in this position since the Mana will appear at the exact assigned location.   “I’m gonna do the whole thing at once. It’s ready to go. Are you ready?” I ask. She gulps and silently nods.   I send a bit of Scrap Mana to the location to activate the magic. Ada squeezes her eyes shut as my fire appears on top of her injury. Surprisingly, she doesn’t try to move away from the fire, and I don’t exert much force trying to keep her arm still. It’s over in a second. She didn’t scream or so much let out a sound. What strong willpower.   I let go of her arm. Her skin has a mixture of white, red, and brown splotches with none of the yellow spots left. She rolls onto her back and grimaces with an open mouth but still stays quiet.   I consider burning my wounds shut on my left arm because my head feels a bit light from the blood loss, but I’d be risking my ability to use my left arm properly in a fight, so probably not the best idea.   Ada spits out the twig and slowly stands up while saying, “I-I’m re-ready.”   Tears and sweat drip from her face as she struggles to keep her balance. “You don’t look ready to me.”   “I-I’m fine. I feel better already.”   We’re both on a time limit. Best to get moving. “Right…well. Let’s go.”   We go back to our previous heading. We come across a few different creatures, but they don’t want to fight. A fat, orange bird with an enormous, wide beak sitting on a tree, a snake, and other small animals like squirrels and rabbits were some that we came across.   I knew it wasn’t going to be easy all the way through. I’m ready for something to go wrong.   And then, something huge lunges at me. I block immediately with both of my swords crossed purely by reflex. A giant snake. It closes its mouth and sinks its fangs into my blades while pushing me backward, putting my back against a tree. Ada screams.   I move Scrap Mana into my arms and legs and then exclaim, “Strength! Haste! A little help here!”   “You-you’re not going to believe this,” she says, standing still. I push with all my strength. A green substance leaks from the snake’s mouth. Simply taking a whiff of it burns the inside of my nose. Something sizzles from the ground while crackling sounds resound inside its mouth. Surprisingly, I’m slowly pushing it back.   “Quick, use Wind magic to knock it away before my swords break!” I yell.   Ada points both of her palms toward the side of the snake’s head. The moment a draft of air blows against my skin, I push forward with a burst of power using only my arms and then jump back, surrendering both of my weapons. The snake is blown away but not before spewing blood all over me.   I shut my eyes because some of the blood went into my eyes. But I saw it before that happened. The only thing left of the snake was its head. That must be why I was able to push it back so easily. I wipe the blood from my eyes with my sleeve.   “Are you okay?” Ada asks.   “Yeah, but what the hell? I ask, turning my head toward the brown snake, flopping on the ground. The hilts of both of my swords are next to it.   “I told you that you weren’t going to believe it.”   “That snake… I think it was the same one that I saw.”   “What happened to it?”   “I don’t know…” I mutter. I walk over to where it initially lunged at me. “It came from over here, so that might give us some answers.”   Behind the bush lies the rest of the snake’s body. I widen my eyes. Something decapitated it with a clean straight vertical cut. Blood continues to spew out of it, forming a larger pool of blood. The snake died recently. I can’t even begin to imagine what kind of monster killed it. We barely missed whatever ended the snake.   “Let’s get out of here,” I say. The thing might come back at any moment to feed on the snake.   “Ri-right. Wait,” she says. She holds her chain daggers in front of her. “Take these. I can’t fully use my left arm right now, so these are useless, and you don’t have a weapon. I still have one other dagger left.”   “Sure,” I respond and take them. I’ve never used these before, but it’s better than nothing. They’re much lighter than my usual weapons and made of Iron too, so won’t be that helpful against monsters like the snake.   We walk around the severed snake head and continue in the same direction, eventually reaching the mound we fought on.   I hope those tigers have moved on to new prey and have left the area by now. Just in case, we sneak up the hill slowly, putting our bodies against the ground nearing the top. We peak out with only our head to minimize detection. We’re on the side with grass still standing, so we have to stand up to see anything. The coast is clear.   Most of the mound has burned up due to Ruby’s magic, so it’s easy to spot the bodies. We jog over there as it might give us some clues about who fell to the monsters.   Something is not right. While it’s not surprising that they’ve eaten everything from skin to flesh from head to toe, but even some of the bones and armor broke into pieces with some missing. Their stomachs must be pretty strong to be able to digest metal and bones. They didn’t bother eating the weapon leftovers, though.   Judging by the number of weapons left on the ground, I’d say around twenty people died, unless I missed some hidden in the grass somewhere. Since there were sixteen people on each team, that means at least four died from our side? With a few of these bows left on the ground, it doesn’t make me feel any less uneasy.   I crouch down next to one of the bows left over. I think Marin’s bow is a bit longer than these. Or were they shorter? I don’t know anymore. For all I know, these bones could be all that’s left of her. Marin’s lifeless head appears in place of the skull on this body. Is it happening again?   “What are you doing, gawking over there? That’s not your friend,” Ada says.   “How’re you sure?” I ask, my heart racing.   “I’m not, but those bones look a little too big for her. When I helped with my parents’ shop, I saw a lot of different carcasses. One thing they had in common was that females usually had smaller bones than males.  The bone size around here all look identical, so they have to be all male.”   I look around to compare the relative size of the bones. It’s hard to find a fair comparison since each body seems to be missing a different bone. But she’s right that these all look similar. Nothing stands out.   I don’t know if the group Xantho sent comprised of all males, but there’s also Captain Albius’ team and the other overseer platoon. That’s twenty-four more people right there. I completely overlooked it. What am I worried about? The majority of the people gathered were men, so it makes sense.   A tiger roar resounds nearby.  It’s close!   I stand up immediately, recognizing it. It’s definitely the tiger from before. I prepare instructions for my Void magic to avoid the worst case scenario monsters surround us again.   The tiger with red fur with yellow and orange stripes leaps on the mound from lower ground and then charges at us. There are no other tigers nearby. Do we make a run for it like before? I don’t think these chain daggers are going to cut it.   No, wait… It’s injured. At least ten arrows are sticking out of the body. The tiger roars again as sparks of electricity erupt from within out of nowhere. It must have carried some charge with it, though I didn’t see any Lightning magic shoot out from anywhere. The monster drops to the ground, twitching.   “It’s Melody!” Ada exclaims.   “It’s down!” someone yells from the edge of the mound.   Captain Albius appears, running faster than he did during our first duel despite holding onto his massive hammer. He jumps into the air with his arms stretched back as far as possible, swinging the hammer down toward the tiger’s head upon landing. Blood explodes from the tiger’s head where he had struck. It splatters everywhere nearby. The force of the blow was so powerful it created a dent in the ground and a loud boom that was a mixture of hitting the ground and smashing the skull of the tiger.   He looks up and says, “Oh, Sergeant Kai and Corporal Ada? You’re alive.”   “Ye-yeah,” I answer. This is the first time I’ve seen Captain Albius in action other than our duel. I have a feeling that wasn’t his full strength. Seeing how the threat is gone, I cancel the instructions I wrote for my magic.   He stands up and stores the hammer on his back. A crowd of people emerges one by one from the bottom of the mound. I have questions for him, but I want to make sure Marin and Ruby are fine first. I gulp as Ada’s entire team are in sight first before anyone from my team.   “Ada!” Aisha exclaims. “We were so worried!”   Still, no one from my platoon arrives. My heart sinks. But just because they haven’t appeared with Aisha’s team, it doesn’t mean that they’re dead…right?   “He-hey Captain Albius… Whe-where’s my team…?” I ask trembling.   “Oh… They sacrificed themselves,” he says.   I hold in my breath and mutter, “What?”   I know I heard him correctly, but I can’t believe it. He laughs. Does he not care about the lives of Marin and Ruby? I started to trust him recently, but maybe that was a mistake.   “Relax, Kai.  You’re misunderstandin’. All I meant was that they sacrificed all of their Mana to weaken the Keor. They should be restin’ outside the Panoramic Grove now with my platoon,” Captain Albius informs.   “Oh…” I interject, ending it with a long sigh.   “You did well to survive. What happened?”   “That’s what we should be asking you,” I say. “I thought you were watching over us from somewhere. We fought this crazy guy that broke all the rules…but that’s not important now. I found out he was one of the masked men.”   Captain Albius expression darkens and asks, “You’re sure?”   “Yeah. We barely escaped with our lives.”   “It’s true,” Ada says, walking toward us. Her team right behind her. “If it weren’t for Kai, I would’ve been done for.”   “That’s why it’s really important to know where the group from Xantho are. More of them could be from the white mask group,” I say.   “You don’t have to worry about that. All the participants from their side were killed, leavin’ only a few from the overseer group alive. They’re outside with everyone else.”   “Then, let’s hurry back!” I exclaim. If they’re with the masked men, there’s no time to waste.   “There’s no need to be hasty. My men are no pushovers, and you’re actin’ as if the masked men are from the Xantho military. It won’t look good for us if you go out there and accuse them. Do you have any proof that he was in their group?”   “Well, he was hiding in the ground when we went to check for any survivors after Ruby’s attack. Didn’t their entire team do that?”   “Yeah, but that’s not any proof. Did you kill him?”   “No,” I answer. This isn’t good. He’s going to ask how we thwarted him off. I used Void magic, but I can’t tell him any of that. Ada also knows, but she knows not to spill the beans. We’ll have to get our stories straight if he asks.   “There’s nothing we can do. You don’t know this yet, but we haven’t officially informed any other kingdom about the attack on Drymo. That’s one thing on the agenda for the Inteiru Expota. It’s good enough that you survived and brought this information to us. General Nero will be pleased. You did well.”   “Thank you, sir. What happened to the battle?”   “It was cancelled due to the incomin’ monster attack, but their overseer said they would admit defeat if we took out the Keor. We’re takin’ home a win.”   “Ugh…” Ada moans and collapses face first on the ground.   “Ada!” her team exclaims, gathering around her.   I almost forgot about her injury. I inform, “She needs a doctor’s attention immediately. The man we fought skinned her alive and did something to her. She collapsed earlier with a fever too with her injury discolored yellow, until she told me to burn it off with my magic. I knew it wasn’t gonna work, but she insisted.”   “We’ll head back to Drymo immediately,” Captain Albius says and walks off. “Someone carry her.”   Deniz takes her, and the rest of us follow Captain Albius out of this forest.   The initial breeze of cold air feels good. Marin is resting on one of the wagons as far as I can see with Ruby asleep on her lap. Captain Albius was a bit sarcastic with the sacrifice part. Marin and Ruby are the only two that can use magic other than myself on the team. Ruby should’ve burned most of her Mana in the initial attack, but I don’t know how large her Mana pool is. Marin seems fine since she’s awake.   I’m going to miss this place only because it was warm. It nearly made me forget that we’re in the middle of dead winter.   “We’re leavin’ immediately! Hand out the rations,” Captain Albius says as he walks his platoon. Marin and I exchange waves as I follow Captain Albius. He continues to the other five men left from Xantho’s group. I pay close attention to their leader.   “Is it done?” the man asks.   “Yes,” Captain Albius answers.   “Good work on disposing of an A-ranked monster, though I’m not sure how fair it is for you to participate as well. I didn’t say you couldn’t, so as agreed, we’ll report the battle as our loss,” the man answers. I’ll remember his face. It doesn’t look like he has any injuries. Did he leave his men to die? I look away at the moment our eyes meet.   “It was nothin’,” Captain Albius says. “I only finished it off. The participants weakened it to the point that allowed me to finish it. We’ll take our leave.”   I follow Captain Albius back to our transportation. He turns toward me and says, “Sergeant Kai, we’ll have another discussion when we’re back, but really well done today. You must have worked well with Ada to survive an encounter with one of the masked men. There’s no doubt that you’ll be one of the chosen platoons to escort the ministers and the king to the upcomin’ Inteiru Expota.”   “Thank you, sir,” I respond. Marin’s wagon is already full, so I guess we’re going back to Drosera with the same seating as before. Jetia, Garen, and Laud have already switched places with members of Sigma 3.   I climb onto my assigned wagon. I’m the last one to arrive.   “Our great leader’s alive, hooray,” Jetia says with no enthusiasm. “We all thought some monsters took you out in the back. If it weren’t for Marin and Ruby vouching for you and Sigma 3 vouching for Ada, Captain Albius wouldn’t have accepted Xantho’s replacement offer for selecting the winner.”   “There’s no way that’s true. Captain Albius values me. So take that into account of why he decided to do that,” I say.   “Whatever. I’m just letting you know what I saw. Don’t forget about yer promise.”   “Yeah, yeah. We’ll do it when we’re back,” I answer. It’s a bit of a stretch to play along considering Captain Albius took care of most of the training for the battle. Still, I made the promise. I also don’t want him to piss him off too much because he knows the truth between my relationship with Marin.   A member from Captain Albius’ team hands some food for us for the journey back to Drymo. It includes a portion for Ada too even though she’s not conscious. I miss those mushrooms already. It was far tastier than these hard pieces of dried meat and bread. Our transports embark back to Drymo.   “Kai, I want to thank you sincerely for saving Ada’s life,” Aisha says. “So, thank you.”   “Thank you,” the two other archers from Sigma 3 say with their heads lowered.   Aisha continues, “But I also want to apologize…for how Ada has treated you in the past.”   “It’s whatever. I needed her help to survive too. She apologized to me whole-heartedly for how she treated me, and I can understand her circumstances. The masked men got her parents.”   “Yes, but I doubt she shared with you the entire perspective. I think you have the right to know. Now’s a good time since Ada’s unconscious.”   So it’s something she doesn’t want Ada to know that she told me. Is it because it would bring too many sad memories? I don’t have anything better to do right now. I take a bite into the dried meat and say, “Okay, let’s hear it.”   “All of us knew that you weren’t truly one of the masked men or held any responsibility for the attack, but we didn’t discourage her with her reasoning.”   Seriously? Today is full of surprises. I never thought to blame any of the other members on her team for her behavior, but now I’m starting to think differently. So they’re all scummy. They essentially encouraged her to treat me that way, only caring for her feelings and not mine. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth despite that I’ve moved on from it.   “It was easier to blame someone for her parents’ death than no one at all. To be more accurate, it was her adoptive parents’ death.”   “So they weren’t even her real parents?”   “Yes, but it was just as impactful as real parents would be. Or even more considering the circumstances.”   “I get that. I can relate because I never knew my real parents either,” I say. Emdos isn’t my birth father, but he served the same role. Where did you go, Emdos?   “Sure, but she did know her real parents. They abandoned her because she was a bit of a problem child. She grew up hyperactive for her age and had a penchant for sharp knives. She broke everything and misbehaved. So, her parents abandoned her at a young age of five. But that wasn’t the end of it. She went through many adoptions, but it all ended the same. Until  one family accepted her for who she was.”   “The ones who ran a restaurant?”   “Yes. We spent our downtime during our 5th year gathering materials for them because we knew how much they meant to Ada. We always took the time to collect meat, extract crystals from monsters, gather plants, and anything else we could find. She wanted to help out in any way she could to make them proud. It’s really unfortunate how it ended.”   “Okay, I get the whole picture now, but why’d she have to blame me? I ask. It all is the same if she takes me out of the equation. “Blame the masked men. Hate them. That’s what I did. And that’s what drives me forward.”   “It was easier for her to blame someone physically near her. We don’t know anything about the attackers, after all. It’s easier to hate a person rather than an unknown group. She made herself think that you were one of them, and the hate helped her steer away from blaming herself and helped her move on. You were her goal. Thanks for listening. And thank you again for taking the high road, saving her life,” Aisha says.   “No problem,” I answer. I don’t want to bring up the stuff about the snake earring group now with Jetia and the two goons listening, though I might have to eventually.   The last part of Aisha’s story reminds of that man’s words. “The secret is rage… Let it consume you and you will become much stronger.”   I shake my head. I don’t want to think that much about it. I’m just glad everything worked out in the end today. The only time we truly came out on top with no losses to my knowledge. I finish the rations and take a nap.

Our match ends a little before 11:00 AM. The referees inform us that the details about the next game will be determined once the other teams have finished their matches tomorrow. We spend the remainder of the current day resting.   By next midday, we learn that we are fighting team seventeen in the second round of the tournament. All of the teams participating in the second round meet right outside the dormitory with Moria present. After drawing lots, it is determined that our first game will take place in the Forest. Moria instructs us to meet in this exact location at 8:00 AM tomorrow. I continue about my day while completing my standard training regimen.  Finally, the next day arrives.   Our team stands still, facing the other team in front of us. I knit my eyebrows as I focus my attention on the two dual-wielding identical large shields. One of them has a pair of large, circular shields with a diameter of about two feet while the other one has a pair of tall, elliptical-shaped shields that measure about 1.5 by four feet.  I recognize the boy wielding a two-handed axe beside them; the guy who pushed me off the platform with his Wind magic during the preliminaries. The two standing to the right of him are the only two girls on their team. The one who is unarmed, I assume is their Mage, while the other girl appears to be using a spear measuring around seven feet.   That guy will be using a spear like this too… This will be good practice. The last member of their team wields a bow. Not too much time passes before the referees arrive.   "The game you will play this time is called 'Convoy Escort.' The rules are simple. There is an offensive and defensive role. The defensive role involves leading this convoy over here to the finish line or as far as possible," a referee explains as he points to two convoys by the entrance to the Forest. There are two horses attached to each of them.   "The team in charge of offense may enter the Forest ten minutes earlier than the defensive team to devise a plan. The goal is to either damage the dummy located inside the convoy or immobilize the convoy to the point that it can't be moved anymore. If the time passes 30 minutes from the start of the game, then that will also mark the end for the defensive team. When any of these three conditions is met, the distance from the finish line will be marked by us, and then teams will switch roles. Are there any preferences on who wants to escort the convoy first?" His question is met with several seconds of silence.   "Alright, then Team three, you guys will be on the defensive team. Team seventeen, you may enter the Forest now." The Wind user from before turns his head to me and smiles before he and his group go into the Forest.   "Your ten minutes starts now.  You may want to get into your positions now. I assume at least one of you knows your way around a horse?" Everyone except Hiro and Drugo is nodding their heads. I haven't had any experience, but I've seen other people do it. I assume it's the same for everyone else. "Good. I'll let you know when you can begin."   We head to the convoy in question and then discuss our formation. We decide to put the girls on the roof with Sitos in charge of the reins. Drugo stands in front next to the horses while Hiro and I are diagonally behind the vehicle on different sides. The referee says, "You may begin."   Sitos snaps the reins that cause the horses to start running. They're moving faster than the speed we had previously planned.   "Ah!" Marin interjects as she flails her arms around while tipping backward. Luna, who is behind her appears to be in a similar situation. The horses stop. Marin manages to retain her balance. Luna lets out a soft scream as she falls backward. I immediately drop my weapons. I run over while holding my arms out, catching her. Our eyes meet.   "I heard Luna scream, is she okay?!" Sitos asks as he runs toward us along with Drugo.   I look away from Luna and say, "Uh, yeah… She's fine,"   I let her down, blushing lightly. My heartbeat is racing. Luna exclaims, "I'm fine thanks to Kai!"   "I see… Sorry about that. It was my fault; I used too much force," Sitos apologizes. "I will be more careful next time. I will help you up there again."   "No, I don't trust you anymore," Luna answers, crossing her arms and looking away with a frown. Sitos opens his mouth but doesn't say a word.   "Come on, Lunaster. This is no time to be acting petty," Drugo says.   "He's right, Luna. We need to get going, or we're gonna give the other team more preparation time," I say.     "I guess you're right…" Luna responds with a conceding voice as she turns toward Sitos.   "Great, come over here, and I will give you a boo—"   "I want Kai to do it."   "Why do I have to…" Luna stares at me with a pout. I sigh and then say, "Fine…"   I walk over to the front of the vehicle. Luna follows me and interjects, "Yay!"   Sitos frowns with slightly parted lips. He's gritting his teeth. What's with him? He doesn't have to be so upset over something like this… I'm the one who should be upset in this situation.   I climb onto the front of the convoy behind the horses. I bend over slightly as I make a platform with my palms. Luna steps on them as she grabs my face for balance. I slowly lift her up. She lets go of my head and then climbs on the roof of the carriage. Afterward, I go back and then pick up my weapons. Sitos signals the horses to move again. This time, they move at a snail's pace.   We move along the trail in the Forest for several minutes with no encounters. I constantly look around my surroundings to see if anyone is there. Only a referee atop a tree is in my sights.   "Someone is up ahead!" Sitos alerts. There are two tanks standing side by side with their shields in front of them. Their Mage and spear user are behind them. The Archer and Wind guy are nowhere to be found.   "Be careful guys! There're still two people unaccounted for," I warn as I join up with the others are the front.   "Hiro!" Sitos exclaims.   "I'm on it!" Hiro answers while swinging his hammer around, letting it rest on his left shoulder while supporting it only with his left arm. He points his right palm toward our enemies. "Water ball!"   A sphere of water comes out of his palm that head toward the middle between the two Tanks. Sitos jumps off the convoy and then sprints toward them. In the split second before Hiro's magic lands, the skin color on the Tanks' faces turns bluish. Hiro's magic bursts upon impact, clearly drenching the shields and the ground below them in water.   "Volt thrust!" Sitos yells while thrusting his right blade toward the Tank with the circular shields. His sword stops short about two feet from him, but Lightning magic envelops his weapon, also filling the gap between his blade and him in the shape of his sword. None of them move a muscle, when suddenly, the spear user thrusts her weapon at Sitos between the two Tanks. The tip pierces Sitos' right arm. He jumps backward before it goes through completely. Drops of blood fall on the ground.   "Sitos!" several of us exclaim.   "I am fine. More importantly, what was that?"   "I think they covered themselves in Abjuration magic before Hiro's magic landed. It looks like it's the reflective type," I say.   "I see. It looks like it covers their entire body… Luna and Kai, hit them with concentrated attacks," Sitos replies.   I start preparing an ambush with my magic. I focus on having multiple very small-sized versions of my fireball that would converge on them from various angles.   "Enemy attack from behind!" Marin's warning interrupts my focus. I turn around, finding a volley of arrows covered in fire falling from the sky. It would land on the roof of the convoy if left unchecked. Marin shoots several arrows that collide with the enemy's arrows, knocking them away from their path. I raise my eyebrows. I look at the wall the two Tanks have created.   So that's why they're in a defensive position right now… I need to hurry. I continue programming instructions for the ambush.   "Marin, do ya see the enemy?" Hiro asks.   "No…the arrows were lobbed from the Fo—wait there's someone behind us! It's the axe user!" Marin warns as she shoots more arrows.   "Hiro, come with me," Sitos says as he disappears from my sights.   "I'm already on it! Water ball!"   "Whirlwind!" the axe user yells from behind me. The sound of wind blowing resounds.   "What the hell is that?!" Hiro yells.   "Pay attention, idiot! Just stop him with your weapon!" Sitos responds.   Alright! My magic's ready. Now all there's left is to send out my Mana…   As I'm sending out my Mana, Hiro interjects, "Gah!"   "Ah!" Sitos interjects at the same time. I turn my head around to check out the situation, dropping my jaws in response. The Wind user spins rapidly in a circle while slowly approaching us. There's some dirt rotating around him. It looks like a miniature tornado. Hiro's Water magic is in the vortex, rotating in the same direction as the Wind user's blade.   "You two, get back! I'll stop him! Hiro, hurry and disperse your Water magic!" Luna exclaims as she sits on the edge of the roof and then drops down.   "What?"   "Shout your magic anywhere except at that axe guy, you moron!" Sitos exclaims.   Hiro points his palm toward my direction and shouts, "Water ball! Water ball! Water ball!"   The water in the vortex has disappeared. I smile and face forward. Good, my magic's just about to activate… Hiro's magic will weaken—   I widen my eyes and drop my frown. The two Tanks are charging at us. Hiro's magic bursts on their shields like before. Damn, a second too late!   My magic activates. 20 miniature fireballs in total fly from various angles toward the two girls behind the two Tanks. Drugo steps in front of me as the Tank with the circular shields rushes toward me. Meanwhile, Luna shouts, "Bonfire!"   "Barrier!" the unarmed girl yells.   "Ahhh!" the Tank with the circular shields yells as he bashes one of his shields against Drugo's shield. The impact knocks Drugo on the ground.   What?!   I jump back and point my right elbow toward the two in front of me.   "Fireball! Fireball! Fireball! Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!"   I shoot out my usual flaming balls of fire out of my elbow, alternating my aim between the two Tanks in front of me. They stand still while holding their shields near each other. My magic bursts into shapeless forms of fire as they make contact with the shields. Some of it makes its way past the shield, but the protective Mana around them pushes it away. The skin on their faces turn to a normal color as the last of my magic fades away. I break down my Mana from Rich Mana to Unrefined Mana to prepare for a second volley.   "Dirt arrow!" Marin shouts. An ordinary arrow flies past me toward the Tank with the circular shields. "Scatter!"   A cloud of dirt appears all around the arrow. The Tank squeezes his eyes shut and flails his arms around while moving backward. Hiro and Sitos sprint past me. Hiro swings his hammer and then knocks away the shield on his right. Sitos follows up with a vertical slash on his right bicep. He lets out a scream of pain.   My attention shifts to their teammates behind the guy with circular shields. The other Tank stands by the unarmed girl, not affected by Marin's magic. I don't know how the unarmed girl escaped my magic unscathed. The spear user is missing.   I find her near the convoy about to thrust her spear into the horse. I immediately throw my right sword at her. Both of our attacks land simultaneously. She lets out a shriek of pain and distorts one side of her face as my weapon slashes her left shoulder. It stays in her flesh for a moment, but it falls and drops to the ground. She takes back her spear and falls back.   Meanwhile, the horse has been screaming and furiously running forward. It pulls the convoy with so much force that one horse alone moves the wagon at a speed greater than our pacing before. Marin shrieks softly as she falls from the roof. The other horse starts moving too. I immediately cut off the reins that tie the injured horse to the convoy and then pull back the reins of the other horse. The injured horse gallops off in a random direction as the vehicle comes to a stop.   "Retreat!" one of them yells as they run back into the forest. I turn around, finding the axe user on the ground with an arrow in his chest.   "Are you okay, Marin?" Luna asks, giving a hand for Marin to grab onto.   "That was so unexpected… I think I have a bruise, but otherwise fine," Marin responds as she grabs a hold of Luna's hand and then stands up. I walk over to where the Wind user lies.   "Is this guy unconscious?" I ask.   "Looks like it. He is injured enough to not be a threat anymore," Sitos says.   "We took out one of 'em and injured two!" Hiro exclaims. "Let's win already."   We take some time to refresh our formation before continuing forward. We move at a slower pace than before since we only have one horse tied to our vehicle now. We pass several turns. I recall that after the next U-turn, it's a straight path to the exit. There's a wall blocking the straight path measuring about 20 feet high and 5 feet wide. The enemy isn't in sight.   "I will move the convoy a bit closer before stopping. Everyone watch out for their ambush," Sitos cautions. I keep my eyes on the right side of the woods.   "There's no need to stop. I'll go knock down that wall right now!" Hiro exclaims as he quickens his pace.   "Wait," Sitos says. Hiro stops and turns his head around. "It looks like you do not have to. They are showing themselves."   The Tank with the elliptical shields comes out from the left side of the woods. The convoy comes to a stop about 25 feet away from the wall. A volley of arrows covered in flames is launched from the other side of the wall. I raise my eyebrows. So that's how their Archer knows exactly where to hit us…   "I'll take care of the arrows as usual!" Marin informs as she shoots her own arrows toward the enemy's arrows. Her arrows disrupt the trajectory of the arrows flying toward us. I focus my attention the side I'm covering. There are no noises or sight of any enemies. It feels like the convoy has moved closer to the wall, but I know the convoy hasn't moved. I knit my eyebrows as I stare at the wall.   I shift my gaze toward the Tank with the elliptical shields. He's standing still while making no movements. Drugo and Sitos are not doing anything other than keeping their stances up.   "Hey, Sitos, Drugo! Is the wall moving closer?" I ask.   "What are you talking about, Kai? Walls do not move."   "Wait, Sitoster… We seem to be closer to the wall than before."   "Now that you mention it…" A small smile emerges on the elliptical guy's face. I raise my eyebrows.   "Hiro, knock down that wall fast!" I exclaim.   "On it!" Hiro runs toward the wall with his hammer overhead. Drugo and Sitos cut the Tank off from a path that can reach Hiro.   They're clearly trying to do something with the wall…but what do they accomplish by moving it closer? The wall suddenly tips forward before Hiro reaches the wall. Their Tank falls back as soon as that happened. I raise my eyebrows. The Archer appears and then shoots an arrow toward Hiro. Hiro jumps back. I run toward the open space on the right side of the wall.   "Kai, where are you going?" Sitos asks, but I ignore him. The wall crashes down and resounds loudly as it collides with the convoy. The Archer, Mage, and elliptical shield guy are at the bottom of the wall, the girl apparently holding onto the circular shields. The other Tank is on top of the wall. He's holding onto two handles attached to the back of it. The Archer cocks an arrow and points it at me while the elliptical shield guy guards him. My attention shifts to the other Tank guy. He stands up as he holds onto his right bicep with his left hand.   I point my right elbow toward the three grouped together and exclaim, "Fireball!"   A ball of fire comes out of my elbow and then flies toward the three in front of me. Immediately, I charge toward the unarmed Tank on the platform. He smiles. I knit my eyebrows as I prepare to cut him with my sword. He removes his hand from his arm, revealing that there is no injury. I widen my eyes as I look behind me. The Archer is no longer pointing an arrow at me, and they're standing still.   I face forward as Luna and Marin scream. Luna falls off from the back side of the convoy while Marin slides down the wall on her back for several feet. The Wind user emerges from atop a tree and then smashes the roof of the convoy with his axe. He removes his weapon, and then the spear girl falls from the same tree with her weapon pointed downward. Her spear goes through the hole made by the axe user.   "That is it for the first half! Team seventeen has damaged the dummy located in the convoy! Report back to the starting point for the second half. Some of us need to stay and clean up the mess made from the first half," a referee announces.   We do as he instructs and head back to the beginning of the Forest. It takes ten minutes to walk back and another ten minutes for the referees to come back. They notify us that we can go back in to have our ten minute planning period, and we go in.   "I… I already came up with a plan…that will probably work…but it will take some time to set up…"   "That's perfect, Marin. Their plan of pushing down that wall gave me an idea too. It is definitely capable of buying you enough time," I say. "Then…two of you come with me while the rest helps Marin set up her trap."   "I'll go with Kai!"   "Count me in too." Luna and Sitos stay with me while Marin and the others run off to a farther part of the trail.   "So, what's the plan?" Sitos inquires.   "Basically, we'll pre-cut the trees closest to the trail right now. When they come, it will just take a little more force to make the tree fall toward the path. Luna and I can set them on fire too."   "Hmm… I see. That could work."   "On that note, I have an idea too," Luna says. We listen to Luna's suggestion and then start making preparations. Sitos and I take different sides to pre-cut some of the trees in the same area. To utilize Luna's idea, we cut several trees down before the area filled with pre-cut trees appears. By this time, ten minutes have almost passed. Luna sets the cut-down trees on fire with her magic. Afterward, she uses Wind magic to blow the smoke toward the side of the path they will come from.   I figure it will be a while until they reach this portion of the Forest. I sit and lean against the back of a tree. Something rumbles in the distance for a second. I cock an eyebrow as the noise dies off. Was that the sound of the convoy…?   Several seconds later, rumbling noises resound again. I raise my eyebrows and stand up. They're speeding through!   The convoy is in our sights. The spear user is on one of the horses while the axe user is on the other. The two Tanks are in the area at the front of the convoy. I assume the last two are inside.   The horses continue to charge toward us. They stop amidst the smoke Luna's blowing toward them. They stand on their hind legs and neigh. I smile.   The horses change directions toward the woods, but the Tanks pull them back with the reins.   The axe user points his right palm at a 45-degree angle in front of him and yells, "Drift!"   The smoke that Luna's blowing toward them moves in the direction of his palm. The horses continue along the path.   "Luna, retreat! They found a counter to your plan already!" Luna stops casting her magic and then runs into my side of the forest. Suddenly, arrows fly from the deeper ends of the woods. I widen my eyes. That trajectory is…!   The arrows fly toward Luna and then pierce through her. She screams and falls. I run toward her.   "Luna!" I yell as I look in the direction where the arrows came from. The Archer is atop a tree. Damn! So he wasn't in the convoy…   I kneel down next to her. She's shedding a few tears. I grit my teeth. One of the arrows pierced through her hand while the other one is lodged in her abdomen.   "I think I'm thr-through… The rest's up to you…" Luna says quietly with little energy.   "Water sphere!" a girl yells near me. The flames that envelop the trees start to burn less intensely. I stand back up. One of the referees is heading this way.   I frown as I get back into my position next to the pre-cut trees. It's my fault Luna's in pain right now… I didn't consider that they would try to ambush us instead.   The Archer atop the tree is no longer there. The axe user is cutting the cut-down trees into smaller pieces. Their Tanks bash the smaller pieces of the tree away from the center of the path. I turn toward Luna. The arrows lay on the ground next to them, and a green glow emits from the referee's hands. I turn back to the path as the convoy rumbles forward. Now!   I cut the tree in front of me, and Sitos does the same on his side. The horses stand on their hind legs and neigh again as their path is blocked off. I run and cut the trees preceding the one I just cut while Sitos mirrors my actions. Their Tanks split up on each side. Both of them raise their shields on the first falling tree's path. The circular shield guy is on my side.   "Ahhh!" he yells, subsequently pushing with enough force to cause all the trees I cut to fall toward the woods.   I gape at his ridiculous strength. Are you serious…?   "Wall!" someone yells from the other side. A tall vertical wall appears on the other side. The trees from the other side fall against it. I snap back to reality and then cut down more trees. All of them converge toward the convoy. After cutting the last tree down, I point my elbow at the convoy.   "Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!" I fire off my magic indiscriminately.   The spear user appears in the direction of my magic and exclaims, "Water sphere!"   A ball of water surrounds the tip of her spear. She moves the tip toward my two of my fireballs and then extinguishes them. My other fireball ignites a tree on fire. They don't do anything to stop the fire. "Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!"   "Water sphere!" The spear user nullifies two of my fireballs again while the other one spreads the flames further. Leaves crackle behind me. I turn around.   Shit, I forgot about that guy! The Archer runs past me without looking at me. He heads toward the convoy. I raise my eyebrows. Shit!   I run toward the front of the convoy while still staying inside of the woods. The axe user and the two Tanks have cleared the two trees blocking the road. With no other options left, I run in front of them. Sitos joins me.   "Kai! What happened to Luna?"   "She got eliminated… It was my fault," I say while keeping my focus on the enemies in front. The Archer holds onto two arrows in his open hand. He quickly cocks them one at a time, shooting them in succession at me. Someone chuckles near me as I deflect them. I cock an eyebrow as I turn to Sitos. He's frowning, and no one is chuckling. I guess it was my imagination… There was nothing funny about what I said.   "Finally, you guys will finally fight us instead of these cowardly tricks?" the axe user asks.   "I will hold these chumps off for a little longer by myself. You join with the others!" Sitos exclaims and then charges toward the enemy. I click my tongue. I don't want to waste the chance he's given me and run into Sitos' side of the woods. The sound of metal clashing resounds as I run deeper into the woods. Eventually, the crackling of leaves beneath my feet drowns out all other noise. I use this time to break down more of my Mana into Rich Mana and Unrefined Mana.   Later, I find Marin and Drugo in my sights at the final U-turn before the straight path to the exit. I join up with them. Drugo's sitting against a tree, panting. Marin asks, "Where're Luna and Sitos?"   I shake my head.   "I see…" she answers with a frown.   "So…  Did you guys complete your trap?"   "Yep... Everything's ready…but it's up to Hiro whether the plan works…or not..."   "Say what?!" I exclaim and widen my eyes. Marin smiles lightly and laughs.   "Don't worry. It's a role that's…hard to screw up. Come. I'll show you," she says as she walks further along the trail. There's a wall about ten feet high and fifteen feet wide, covering the entirety of the trail. It's located on at the beginning of the straight path. The most they can travel is an L-shape. "Did you notice anything…unusual? When you walked…over here?   "No…?" I answer in a confused tone. Marin giggles.   "The ground under you is hollow from here to over there," says as she points at the indicated points on the ground. I raise my eyebrows.   "I see! That's an amazing trap you came up with! How did you set it up so fast?"   "It was nothing… It was thanks to Hiro and Drugo doing the manual labor. I used my magic to separate the dirt into blocks that could be transported elsewhere so no dirt piles would be visible near here. Hiro took care of that while Drugo prepared the wood that was inserted near the top of the hole. Then dirt was placed on top of the wood to make it completely unnoticeable!" she explains with enthusiasm.   "You even took into account that they wouldn't see the wall until after they enter this part of the trail, guaranteeing that they would be in this position!"   She smiles. I feel bad for Sitos… He sacrificed himself for no reason…   "They're coming! We should hide!" Drugo exclaims as he runs over to us. The rumbling noises in the distance close in on us. We hide behind some trees in the deeper end of the woods near the L-shaped path. I peek my head out. The convoy is on top of the trap. A few moments later, cracks form on the ground. A loud noise resounds as the convoy falls through the ground, forming a dirt cloud.   "What the hell?!" one of them yells. We run toward the trap. Someone tries to open the convoy door, but the hole is too narrow to allow that.   "You damn cowards and your tricks!" the axe user yells from the bottom of the hole. He's no longer on the horse.   "It's apparent that Team seventeen's unable to move their convoy anymore. Therefore, their distance traveled ends here, and Team three wins the game!" a familiar voice announces. "You did well, Marin."   "Mom! How long have you been watching?"   I turn around. Marin's mother stands there. She pats Marin on the head and responds, "I saw everything."   Her mother laughs. I walk next to Marin. Her cheeks are flushed red. I ask, "Say, what happened to Luna and Sitos? I think they were both eliminated."   "They should be waiting for you at the entrance to the Forest."   "I see."   "By the way, the other two teams have already finished their match. So the next game will start at 10 AM. It's been determined your next game will take place in the Arena. So you'll meet there when the time comes."   We rejoin with Luna and Sitos. They seem good as new with no apparent injuries. They aren’t wearing their leather garments, though. There are various blood stains on their clothes.   "Our next game's gonna be in the Arena. We gotta meet there at 10 AM," I inform the two. I walk back toward our dormitory and say, "I'm kinda hungry… Luna, make me some food."   "No, Kai, you dolt. She is not going to make you anything after you—"   "Okay! What do you want?"   "I don't know… let me think about it a little more. What were you saying, Sitos?"   He clicks his tongue and then says, "It is nothing important."

The next morning we arrive at the Arena on the highest floor of the Academy. It's a large elliptical room. Dozens of spectators are in the seats elevated around us. Most of them seem like adults much older than us. I recall from last week Moria mentioned there may be scouts from various organizations around the city that would observe the preliminaries.   Following the instructions we received last week, we go to platform number eight. Another team of six is already waiting there, but the referees haven't arrived yet. The platform is about a foot high, made of the same material as the floor; stone. It's a square with each side measuring over 40 feet. There's a small black square near the top edge of the platform in front of me and on the other side. Surrounding the platform are four cylindrical devices shaped like an upside-down 'L' with a 45-degree bend instead of a 90-degree bend toward the center of the platform. I estimate that the vertical part of the device is about 15 feet high and the second part measures around half of that. I walk closer to examine it further; it has a slit opening on two sides of it, both pointing and parallel to the adjacent devices.    "Hey, look over there!" Hiro shouts and points at the entrance to the Arena. Several adults push carts filled with outfits of various sizes toward the platforms. I presume these are the safeguards Moria mentioned last week. Barrels containing weapons are visible on the carts too. A woman and a man in their late 30's approach us with two carts. They are dressed casually without armor and carry no weapons.   "Mom! Dad!" Marin exclaims as she walks closer to them. "What're you doing here?" The style and color of Marin's hair match her mothers.    "It's good to see you, Marin! You've grown a lot!" her mother exclaims, stopping the cart near us. Her father smiles but doesn't stop to greet Marin. Instead, he continues to push his cart toward the other side of the platform. Marin follows her father with her head. "Don't mind your father, Marin. He misses you too, but we since we're part of the referees we have to hurry and set everything up."   "Yes, I understand."   "I have to set up the barriers around the platform, but how about you introduce me to your friends first. They're behind you, right?" she asks with a smile as she turns toward us.   "Yep!" Marin exclaims as she turns toward us. She points at each of us individually while saying, "On the left that's our Tank, Drugo. Next is our Heavy, Hiro. She's our Mage, Luna. He's our Light, Sitos. And that's Kai…also our Light."   I cock an eyebrow. "I see, so you must be the Archer, right? Just like me!"   Marin nods.   "I have to go now, but we'll catch up later! Don't push yourself too hard! Archers have a major disadvantage in the preliminaries, after all," her mother warns as she walks away.   "Those two were A-class adventurers, right? They looked kinda ordinary to me," Hiro says. Sitos stares in the opposite direction toward the spectators. I focus on him and then extrapolate where his field of vision points. There are three men seated together.   "Well, of course! They're people too!" Luna exclaims and then Sitos turns back to us.   I ask, "Sitos, do you know those people? I saw you looking at them just now."   "Well, yes. It is my father, older brother, and personal trainer."   "You two are lucky… No one's comin' to watch the rest of us," Hiro says and then sighs.   "What about you, Kaister? Didn't you have Emdos?" Drugo asks. I jerk my eyebrows upward and then look in the seats around me. I narrow my eyes around everyone who are seated, eventually turning 360 degrees. Emdos is nowhere to be found. I frown.   "It doesn't look like he's here."   "Don't worry 'bout it!" Hiro exclaims and slaps me on the back.   Maybe he's one of the referees? I look around the various platforms. There are ten in total; two rows of four platforms with the third row with only two. We're located in the second row, fourth platform. There is no platform behind us. Emdos is not one of the referees close to us. The other referees are too far to identify. I notice Marin's parents inserting a blue Crystal into each of the four devices placed around the platform. I figure it's a Mana Crystal.   "We're going to be starting soon, so hurry and put on these leather garments. As you probably have been told before, these will absorb magic attacks that hit you so you won't have to worry about any life-threatening injuries," Marin's mother instructs. Afterward, we each pick out our own respective leather armors with sizes specified last week and put it on. Moments later, the sound of wood hitting each other resounds along with grunts and shouts of keywords from the other side of the Arena.   "I'll review the rules: When the method of battle is determined, one of you will step forward onto this black square and fight a member of the opposing team. Don't move or begin fighting until one of us has announced the start of the battle. You lose if you get knocked off of the platform, your magical armor loses its power, break the rules, don't make an attempt to attack at least once every 30 seconds, or we determine at our discretion. If you win, you can't fight again until every member of your team has fought at least once. Afterward, the rotation starts over, and you can fight in any order of your choice again. Losers can't fight again for the remainder of the preliminaries. In the first phase of the preliminaries, you'll fight this team until one of you is completely eliminated. That's all and good luck! My husband and I will take turns drawing the method of battle," Marin's mother explains while on the platform.    Soon after she briefly meets up with her husband before walking back toward us. "The method of battle for the first match has been decided. It's 'magic only'. Please decide which one of you will fight."   Our group turns toward each other.    "I'll go," Luna and Marin say simultaneously, laughing lightly afterward.   "You can go, Luna."   "Are you sure?"   "Yep, I'll go the next time 'magic only' appears." Luna steps on the platform while the rest of us observe from the side of the platform instead of behind her. Her opponent is a guy. Marin's mother stands near Luna while her father stands near the guy.    "Fight!" Marin's father announces. Luna raises both of her hands up but stands still. Her opponent is clenching their fists; his right arm positioned behind his body like he wants to throw something and his left hand in front of his chest. 20 seconds pass. I gulp, knowing that they both will have to make a move soon, or both of them will lose by default.   Soon after, the guy makes the first move; he begins to run toward Luna while maintaining the same arm positions. The distance is about 20 feet apart when the guy snaps his right arm forward, revealing a rock that flies through the air toward Luna.    "Blow!" Luna shouts while aiming her right palm toward the rock that flies toward her face. Her palm is angled slightly to the left. A gust of wind appears from her palm, and the rock slows down and swerves off course. The rock flies past the platform and eventually crashes into an invisible wall. There's a blue light surrounding the impact point. Luna stretches out her left arm and points her palm toward her opponent. "Fireball!"   A large flaming sphere of fire emerges from her palm that heads quickly toward her opponent's head. The diameter of the sphere is a little over a foot. By this time, the rock has disappeared from my sights, and the wall is invisible again.   "Buckler!" the guy shouts. A round flat shield-like object appears on his left forearm made out of stone. The diameter of the shield is just enough to cover the size of the fireball. He immediately moves his left arm to block Luna's magic. He grunts as the force of Luna's magic pushes him slightly backward. Luna's left palm is now facing us with three of her fingers pointed forward.   "Fireball barrage!"   A miniature fireball appears from each of her three fingers that gradually increase in size as they fly straight toward her opponent. The diameter of these fireballs is only about half a foot. After the previous ball of fire dissipates into the air, her opponent puts down his left arm but puts it up again in a hurry. Cracks appear throughout his shield. All three fireballs hit him at around the same time. Other than the fireball that he blocks partially with his shield, the other two balls of fire hit him directly in the chest and the legs. His shield crumbles and the last fireball lands on his face.     "Ahh!" he screams as he falls backward, landing flat on his back. Luna has been running toward him. She stands in front of his fallen body with her palms facing him.   "Stop! The winner is team three!" Marin's mother announces. We congratulate Luna on her win as she rejoins us. Marin's father helps the guy get on his feet and lends him a shoulder off the platform. They head in another direction afterward.   "Where's he goin'? Whatabout our next match?" Hiro asks.    "We'll resume after my husband escorts him to the medics."   "Sorry, it was my fault… I should've held back more," Luna apologizes.   "Don't be. It wasn't anything life threatening. If it were, one of us would have intervened before it happened."   "I thought the leather armor protected us…" Hiro mutters.   "Moron, it obviously can't absorb the attacks that don't land on our torso where the armor covers," I answer. A few minutes later, Marin's father comes back and hands a small enclosed box to his wife, who then takes out a piece of paper from it.    "For the next match, it's 'no weapons.' Get ready," Marin's mother informs and then puts the paper back into the box, giving it back to her husband afterward.   "Leave this one to me," Drugo says as he steps onto the platform. He stands opposite of his opponent, who happens to be a girl this time. We still observe from the side point of view, and the referees stand in similar positions from before.   "Hey, Drugo! Go easy on her since it’s a girl!" Hiro exclaims.   "Fight!"   Drugo immediately sprints toward his opponent. He puts his guard up similar to a boxing pose. The girl puts up her palms which face each other about two feet apart and pointed outward. She shouts, "Fireball!"   A ball of fire comes out of her palms and heads straight toward Drugo, who is about 20 feet away. The size of the fireball comes out immediately. It's about two feet in diameter and doesn't change in size. Drugo doesn't slow down his charge. He shouts, "Deflect!"   Unrefined Mana envelops his hands. When the ball of fire is about a foot away from his face, he punches it with his right fist. The fireball changes direction toward the spectators. They back away from the trajectory of the fireball, but it disperses when it comes into contact with the barrier. It fizzes into nothing. Drugo, who doesn't stop his charge is now a few feet in front of the girl. She turns her head away with both arms up covering her face. He stops when he's literally in front of the girl. He extends both of his arms and then pushes her off the platform.   "The winner is team three!" Marin's mother declares while Drugo walks back toward us. We give him a few congratulatory words, but the next match begins shortly.   "Anything can be used for the next match. Remember that your weapon supply is limited throughout all the matches so do be careful about how you use them," Marin's father cautions. Sitos walks over to the cart containing the weapons and then picks out a sword with a 3.5 feet wooden blade in his left hand and another with the shortest blade of 1.5 feet in his dominant hand.  I cock an eyebrow thinking that he usually takes the two longest swords of equal length.    "I guess Sitos' fighting this one," Luna says with a smile.   "Yes. I will end it within ten seconds," Sitos claims confidently as he gets into the starting position on the platform. His opponent carries a large thick sword with both of his hands.   "Fight!" Sitos immediately charges toward his opponent, who only move slowly toward Sitos with his blade tilted on his right side. When the gap between them is only about ten feet, Sitos throws the short sword in his right hand at his opponent's left side. His opponent stops moving and then swings his blade toward the left side. He knocks the sword away. By this time, Sitos already has moved his other weapon into his right hand. He swings it down on his opponent's blade. A clear sound of wood hitting each other resounds. Sitos already has his left hand on his opponent's hand.   "Electrocute!"   "Ah!" Sparks of electricity fly near Sitos' left hand as his opponent interjects. Subsequently, his opponent drops his weapon, and Sitos swings down his sword again but stops before it lands on the top of his head.   "The winner is team three!" Marin's mother announces. Sitos picks up the sword he threw before he returns the weapons to the barrels on the cart. At the same time, Marin's father picks up the heavy sword and then helps the other guy get off the platform. Afterward, he puts back the heavy sword back onto the other team's supply of weapons.   "I was wondering what you were gonna do to win so fast, but wasn't that too risky?" I ask as Sitos walks back toward us.   "Not at all. I was prepared to throw my other sword too if he did not have any openings after the first one. If by some chance he was not a complete pushover, I would have been willing to take a hit in order to disable him afterward."   "That never would've worked with real weapons."   "And here we are using practice weapons, so it did."   I sigh before saying, "I suppose that's true."   "Anything can be used for the next match. Prepare yourself."   "I guess I'll fight this time," I offer as I pick out the two swords with the longest blades. I climb onto the platform in the starting position. I wait for the start of the match with my arms completely relaxed. The guy in front of me uses a sword and a shield.   "Fight!" I walk casually toward my opponent in the same stance while programming my magical attack. I break down some of my Mana into Rich Mana to prepare.    Hmm… I'll focus on velocity and power… My opponent sidesteps slowly toward me with his shield facing me. When the gap between us is about 20 feet apart, I raise my right arm up, putting my sword over my left shoulder with my elbow pointing directly at him. He stops moving with his guard still up. I raise my left blade too as a feint while moving slowly toward him, who continues to stand still. I lower my left blade as I finish the final touches to my magic. I sprint forward and shout, "Fireball!"   A ball of fire shoots out of my right elbow straight ahead with a diameter of a foot. Marin's mother steps in front of me, and then I stop. Her husband tackles my opponent before my attack reaches him. My fireball crashes into the barrier where visible cracks appear near the point of impact. The crackling sounds continue, ending with the sound of glass breaking when my magic pierces through the barrier. The referee in the platform in front of us turns around and then shouts, "Extinguish!"   A stream of water comes out of both palms of his hands that head for my fireball. Some of the water turns into steam as it comes into contact with my magic, but my magic dies out completely within a second. When he closes his palms, water stops coming out of his hands, but before that some water blasts toward our platform. The water spills onto the floor, forming a puddle near our platform.   "Dear, are you alright?" Marin's mother asks as she runs up to him on the ground.   "Ye-yeah… I think that attack burned my left shoulder a little, though." He gets up while clenching his right shoulder. My eyes wander around me. The other students and referees are looking in this direction.   "That really caught me off guard… To think that there are students capable of fully utilizing Rich Mana… Marin's friends are something else."   I grin. "Umm… This means I win, right?"   "Oh, right. I forgot to announce it. Due to safety concerns, team three wins!" Marin's mother declares. I put my weapons back in the barrels before I rejoin the rest of the group. Marin's wears a worried face.   "Sorry, Marin… I think I hurt your dad."   "Umm…no…it's okay. I don't think it was a big injury."   "Kai, you're too strong… I bet they'll let you win by default every time now when magic's allowed," Hiro says.   "I hope not because that's no fun…" I reply while frowning. I look back toward the referees, realizing that the other referee who casted Water magic from before came over to talk to our referees. I can't make out what they're saying.   "The school should have already known something like this would happen… Are Moria and the others brain dead?" Sitos asks.   "They might've forgotten since Kai hasn't shown up to class as often recently," Luna mentions while staring at me like I'm at fault. I smile and chuckle.   "I agree with Lunaster. I think that's what they’re discussing now," Drugo says as he gestures his head toward the platform. A few seconds later, Marin's father runs toward the platform my fireball went to; it's apparent that he's switching with the other referee. Marin's mother goes to the magical item placed on the ground on the side where the barrier broke. She opens the device, takes out a blue crystal, examines it for a few seconds, and then puts it back in.   "We'll go ahead and begin our next fight for 'weapons only,'" The new referee says.   "Wait! Can you explain what just happened? They won their last match before our guy did anything!" a member of the other team exclaims.   "Well, it was because of safety—"   "You said that we didn't have to worry about anything life-threatening while wearing these leather garments! I might have been able to do something about it!"   Marin's mother doesn't respond. Several seconds pass and then the new referee asks, "You all saw what happened to the barrier, right? The amount of guaranteed protection the leather garments has about the same as the barrier. Did you really want to be standing there?"   The guy I beat turns pale and looks down.   "Now, that's settled. Prepare for the 'weapons only' fight."   "Finally, it's my turn! Y'all will see me in all my glory now!" Hiro bursts out while running toward our weapon supply. He takes out the only available heavy weapon; the large sword I saw someone use earlier. He goes onto the platform, and the battle begins soon after.   "Fight!"   Someone whispers something behind me I can't make out. I turn around. Marin is whispering something to Luna. I ask, "What're you guys talking about?"   Both of them turn their view toward me as I ask.   "It's nothing! Marin's just worried about next match."   "Oh, that's right… She will have to fight next regardless of the method of battle. Is there anything we can do?"   "There is nothing to do other than praying for a favorable outcome," Sitos states with his arms crossed.   "Your mom said you didn't have to try too hard. Just give up if you need to, Marinster."   "Maybe..." Marin says quietly while smiling.   "Stop! Team three wins!" I look back at the platform. Hiro's opponent is on the ground with his swords on the ground a few feet away from him. Hiro grins broadly as he runs off the platform, putting back his weapon.   "Did ya see how I knocked his weapons outta his hands?!"   "Uh, yeah… It was amazing," I respond, forcing a smile.   "You are too good," Sitos says while giving him a thumbs-up. Luna and Marin clap with forced smiles.   "What's with the weak reaction…? Whatabout ya Drugo? How was my match? Amazin', right?" Hiro asks enthusiastically as he turns toward Drugo. I skeptically curl one side of my lips upward.   "I was a bit concerned at first, but more importantly, Marinster's gonna fight next."   Nice one, Drugo! I give him a thumbs-up. He responds with a small smile.   "The next battle is 'weapons only' again. Get ready," the new referee announces. I frown. Everyone sighs except Hiro.   "What's with ya'll? Marin's goin' to win! I have faith! Don't lose, Marin!"   "Hey, don't pressure her!" Luna exclaims. Marin's eyes are slightly shaky. She widens her eyes and looks up.   "I'm going to try!" she declares as she walks toward the cart containing the weapons.   "Does Marin know how to use anything other than the bow?" I ask quietly.   "She knows how to use a skinning knife…" Luna responds quietly. I relax my facial expressions.   She can't win… She decides to wield a light club only 1.5 feet long with both hands. Her opponent dual-wields two of the medium-length swords with blades of 2.5 feet. I look into Marin's mother's eyes. It's shaky.   "Fight!"   Marin holds the club directly in front of her as she walks slowly toward her opponent. The sword user strangely doesn't make any movements. Ten seconds pass before her opponent suddenly charges forward with both arms stretched behind his back, with full swings ready to go. The best thing Marin can do is charge forward and strike him before he does… She's going for it!   Marin holds her weapon above her head but doesn't charge forward. The gap between them shortens rapidly to just five feet. At this point, Marin takes a step forward and then swings down her weapon in front of her, fully extending her arms. Miraculously, the blow lands on her opponent's head, and he stops his charge. He doesn't move for several seconds, and I can see Marin's expression lighten up with a small smile emerging on her face. When she lifts up her weapon away from his face, his eyebrows are narrowed with his eyes twitching.    "That hurt, you bitch!" he shouts as he begins to swing both of his swords at Marin relentlessly. Marin closes her eyes as she blindly holds her club in front of her while randomly moving it around. Her opponent swings widely and continuously that land all over her arms, torso, and legs. Her entire face grimaces as it's turned toward us pressed against her right shoulder. She slowly walks backward while making muffled cries of pain.   I look toward Marin's mother, wondering why she hasn’t ended the match; the winner is clear. She looks worried and uneasy, but she doesn't do anything else.    I close my eyes for a moment to think. I open my eyes and raise my eyebrows. I yell, "Marin, drop your weapon! Then the match will be stopped!"   She doesn't do it even after several seconds pass. I frown and knit my eyebrows. Damn, why is she trying so hard? She clearly can't win…   Marin screams as one of the blows knock her down, but she still holds onto her weapon. The guy is breathing a little hard as Marin's mother steps between them. She faces the sword user and says, "Wait a moment."   "Marin, just give up!" Luna exclaims. Marin slowly stands up.   "Marin, can you continue?" her mother asks firmly as she turns to face her.   "Yes," Marin replies while holding her club in front of her again.   "Resume," Marin's mother says as she steps away. Her opponent charges immediately at Marin again, mercilessly swinging his swords left and right at her. This time, Marin's eyes are open half of the time. She moves her club in the direction of his attacks, but she's overpowered. She continues to take blows from all over the sides of her torso. With every blow she takes, she twists her face and shuts her eyes for a moment. I frown, clenching my teeth and my fists.   "Marin, you can do it!" Hiro exclaims.   Damn, that guy isn’t even going easy… He could easily knock her weapon outta her hand or push her off the platform…   "He is dragging this out on purpose. What a sick bastard," Sitos says. I turn around observing everyone else. There's murderous intent coming out of Sitos and Drugo while Luna's eyes are teary.    "Go, Marin! Fight!" Hiro cheers.   I grab the front of Hiro's shirt with both hands and exclaim, "Hey, instead of cheering, make her give up! Don't you see she can't win?"   "What match are ya watchin', Kai? Her opponent's almost outta breath, and she just landed more attacks." I let him go and then turn toward the match. Her opponent pants for air while standing a couple of feet away from her. Marin charges forward for the first time, putting her opponent on the defensive. He doesn't make an effort to attack and simply blocks her blocks from above with both swords. I widen my eyes and smile slightly.   Can she really do it…? My smile disappears as the force behind Marin's blows grows weak after only seven more swings. She begins to pant heavily. Her weapon is lowered, but she doesn't let it go. A smirk emerges on the guy's face. Before there's any time for me to yell out or the referee to intervene, he makes a wide swing with his right arm. The incoming blow lands on Marin's face. She screams as she falls on the platform while finally letting go of her weapon.    "Stop! Team eighteen wins!" Marin's mother announces and then crouches down to Marin. She supports the upper part of Marin's body off the ground with an arm. "Marin… You did a good job… I'll take you to the medics now."   "Wait, no…" Marin mutters as she struggles out of her mother's arms. Afterward, she grimaces, probably from all the bruises she has all over her body.   "Don't be stubborn, Marin. The pain will subside after you get some help. Look, even your face is bleeding from that last attack," her mother says as she touches Marin's cheek. Marin jerks her head away as she does. She glances over to us for a moment before whispering something in her mother's ear. Her mother smiles and laughs as she carries Marin over to us. She rests her on the ground beside us before she goes back to the platform to put back Marin's weapon.   "Marin, I didn't expect much, but you did well!" I exclaim. She smiles, blushes, and looks away.   "Kai, that first part wasn't necessary!" Luna exclaims as she looks at me. She relaxes her facial expressions and then turns to Marin before continuing, "We all saw you tried your hardest! It was a good attempt!"   "You weakened the opponent, so it makes our last win quite easy," Sitos adds.   "Speakin' of the next fight, any of us can go now, right?" Hiro asks.   "No weapons for the next fight! Get ready!" the new referee announces.   "I'll go," Drugo, Sitos, and I simultaneously declare. We look at each other for several seconds.   "I do not have a problem if Kai goes."   "Same here."   "I'll get revenge for you, Marin," I say and then smile. She doesn't say anything back, but I'm not offended. I step on the platform and then stand on the black square. My opponent stands stiffly in his starting position.   "Fight!" I immediately sprint toward my opponent with my fists clenched. The referees' expression changes as they move closer to us. I sigh lightly while releasing some of my anger as I continue running toward my opponent. I program some new instructions at the same time using Scrap Mana. My enemy starts running at me too. I open my right fist pointing my palm toward him when the gap is about ten feet between us.   "Fireball!" I shout. A few sparks of fire comes out, but nothing else. My opponent stops running and dives sideways when I shouted my keyword. The new referee jumps back with his palm facing me, but I focus on my opponent on the ground. He has his eyebrows knitted and lips twisted as he stares at me with his back on the ground. I smirk before proceeding to jump on him with my feet bent back. I land while kneeing him in his nether region. He drops his jaws and widens his eyes while letting out a brief scream of pain. He jerks his body around while pressing both of his hands between his legs. I hold down his arms with my shins with my knee on his shoulder.   Knowing that the fight will be stopped soon, I throw my arms back, ready to senselessly pummel him to oblivion. But I am careful not to have any intention of real harm so that I'm not immediately stopped. I rain down a flurry of punches in rhythm on his face, with my right fist hitting his left cheek, and vice versa with my left fist. I punch him five times before the new referee yells, "Stop!"   Thinking that it probably won't hurt me to get a few more hits in, I don't stop, despite the whimpering of my opponent. The footsteps resound louder with every step. "Didn't you hear me?! Stop!"   I end it with one last punch in the center of his face. Subsequently, the new referee tackles me. "Hey, why didn't you stop him? You were standing right there!"   The new referee is looking at Marin's mother who's standing next to me. "After watching the last match, I thought I should let the match go on for a bit longer before making a conclusive decision on the end of the match."   The new referee looks down on me. "I can disqualify you for not obeying the referee… You should have heard me tell you to stop."   "I'm really sorry… I could barely hear the voice I thought it came from one of the nearby platforms…" I lie with a straight face. My fists throb with pain.   "It should be fine just to let him off with a warning… It's not like he delivered any mortal injuries."   The referee on top of me sighs before he says, "Don't let this happen again, you hear?"   He gets off me. I stand up and reply, "I understand."   "Team three wins and moves onto phase two!" Marin's mother announces. I examine my fists and find that my punches broke through some of the skin. There's some blood dripping down onto the platform. The guy on the ground has a bloodied nose and bruised cheeks with marks of blood. I smile at him before walking back toward my group. As I do, Marin's mother's eyes meet mine. I look away and drop my smile. I stop when she puts her hand on my shoulder. She quietly says, "Thanks. I feel better now."   I smile again as she lets go of me. Drugo and Sitos are smiling while nodding their heads.   "Rest in peace…" Hiro mutters with his eyes closed and hands in prayer in front of him.   "Kai, didn't you go too far? You almost got us disqualified! Look, you even injured your hand…" Luna says as she grabs my right hand. I pull back immediately while blushing a little.    "It's fine! This is nothing compared to what Marin received," I respond while not making any eye contact.   "We finished our matches, and there're still other people fighting… Let's go to the medic station for Marin and Kai!" Luna suggests.    "Sounds good," I answer as I offer a hand to help Marin stand up. I cock an eyebrow when she doesn't take hold of it. She looks away.   "Kai, what're you trying to do with an injured hand?" Luna asks.   "Oh…right," I respond quietly, with my face burning up. Drugo and Sitos lend their shoulders to help Marin walk. The rest of us follow behind them toward the medic station.

The next morning, Marin and I meet Ruby before heading over to the third level. We head to the mail station area and then find our lockers. I unlock mine. A plastic ID card and two sheets of paper are inside. My ID has my name, rank, and platoon on it. The first piece of paper is signed by General Nero. I read the second one. You will remain as a Sigma Platoon until obtaining the Lieutenant rank. Be aware that if you are not taking on requests, you may find guard duty or other tasks assigned to you in this locker. You will report to Captain Albius for requests taken.   I frown and grit my teeth while crumpling the piece of paper. I remember the humiliation from yesterday. “Kai, what’s wrong?” Marin asks as she and Ruby rejoin me. “We have to report to Captain Albius for the requests we take. He’s in charge of us.” “We can’t fight ‘im, right? We hafta respect ‘im and follow his orders.” I sigh. “Yeah. That’s right, Ruby. There’s also an order from General Nero to meet on the fourth level lobby area at 9 AM. We have a few hours.” We head to the request center. We put in a request to leave in order to pick up our belongings at the inn. Someone informs us that it has to be signed by someone of Lieutenant rank or higher. It will be in my locker when it is approved. We go to the cafeteria next. There are around a hundred people here already. We wait at the back of the line, eventually reaching the sign in area. One of the men at the table looks at my ID and then at a sheet of paper with a list of names. He gives me my ID along with a meal ticket. I look down at the ticket and sigh. I can’t buy any extra tickets yet.   Eventually, we get our meal trays and then sit down at a table to eat. The contents of the tray are not much different from last night. I eat it reluctantly. With our new IDs in hand, we head to the armory on the third level. We wait behind the small line of people. It moves fast. “Are you one of the new recruits?” the lone man sitting at the table asks. “Need to see your ID.” “Yeah,” I answer and hand over my ID. He takes it and then writes something on the sheet of paper in front of him. He gives it back along with a small purple ticket and informs, “Show any artisan on the first two floors with this, and they will take care of you. You cannot go to any on the third floor with this.” I wait by the entrance to the armory. Marin and Ruby join me shortly afterward. There are multiple rooms with separate craftsmen in each one. The ones on the first floor are occupied by many other soldiers. We head to the second floor and then walk into a more vacant shop. “Boss, we have customers,” a man in front of us says with his head turned toward the back. A door leading to another room is open. “They’re probably new recruits. Go take their measurements,” another man says from another room. “I need Cheryl’s help with this.” “What’re you…” An older man walks out from the other room. He looks at us for a moment. “Cheryl, you got two work orders coming up.” “Yes!” a woman says from the other room. She runs over to Marin and Ruby. “Come this way, please. I will take your measurements.” Marin and Ruby follow her to the other room. The older man paces around me. “Boss, do you want me to take his measurements?” “Measure his arms and legs,” the older man says. “I’ll take care of his chest piece.” “You’ll be able to make a new chest piece?” I ask. The other man straightens out one of my arms and extends measuring tape over it. He also wraps it around my arm. “Yeah, no problem. It’ll be made of Iron, though.” I knit my eyebrows and frown. “Can’t you just repair this?” “No can do. New recruits receive a set of Iron armor for free, but that’s it. This armor’s useless now. I’ll take it off your hands,” the older man says. The other man finishes measuring my leg.   If he’s gonna do that, I’m better off going into the city to get it repaired… But I need to save our money because I don’t know how much those magic seminars will cost me… I unsheathe my weapons and ask, “Can you fix these swords? In exchange for my armor.” “Cobalt swords with Platinum armor? An interesting combination. If I figure from your Light role, Iron armor would be more suited for you. I’ll take care of them for you.” I put my swords back in the sheath, unclip them, and then hand them over. Next, I remove off my armor and then hand it over. The older man sets my armor down on the counter. “Well, your weight will be roughly the same with the arm guards and leg guards equipped. I’ll take that off your hands too.” I hand over the ticket and ask, “How long will this take?” “Should have it done by this time tomorrow.” I sigh and take my leave, heading back toward my room. I go inside and then lock the door. I practice using Void magic until it’s time to meet General Nero. I head to the fourth level. Marin and Ruby are already here. A few minutes later, General Nero appears from a nearby corridor. “So you’ve made it, Kai, Marin, and Ruby. It’s good to see that you’ve joined our ranks. I see the potential the three of you carry.” I force a smile and say, “Yeah…” “How do you like it here so far?” I’m not really fond of this place…but I can’t tell him that… I think to myself before speaking up, “It’s not bad, but the food’s lacking.” General Nero laughs and then answers, “That’s something you get used to. But the food supply has been lower than usual because of the attack.” “I see… So what’d you need us for?” “Someone wants to talk to you. Follow me,” he says and then leads us down the hallway. I ponder for a moment before asking, “Is it true that anyone can learn Enhancement magic?” “That’s right. Anyone can use it,” he answers immediately. “But in the Academy, we used a magic item to measure our affinities. I didn’t have any for Enhancement magic. Can I still learn it?” “It takes some training, but yes. You can learn more about it in a seminar. There might be an Enhancement magic seminar soon, but I don’t know the exact date. Ask around in the request center for more information,” he says and then pushes open the double doors in front. We enter a large room going straight on the red tinted tiles. I widen my eyes. The king is sitting on the throne. No one else is here other than us. General Nero kneels on one leg. “Your Majesty, I have brought them.” “Good work,” the king says and then looks over to me. “Your name is Kai, correct?” I quickly kneel down on one leg too and lower my head. “Yes.” “You may raise your head.” I stand back up and raise my head. “Two days ago, you and your friends told General Nero of some important information regarding Alios. Is everything that was said the pure truth?” I grit my teeth and look down. Even though I fought against what Ruby said then…it wasn’t wrong. I reluctantly answer, “Yes.” “You said the last time you saw Alios was three months ago. Did he change his behavior at all during your 5th year Academy experience under his care?” I knit my eyebrows. If anything it was that…but…   I open my mouth to speak only to utter a weak sound. I close it while trying to think of something else. The king says, “Speak.” “Well… Alios had always been harsh on Sitos, but toward the end of the year, he seemed friendly with him.” “What of Alios? If you know anything else, tell me.” I contemplate for a while. Nothing comes to mind other than our time with him as probationary Adventurers. I remember something. “I asked Sitos a while ago to see if Alios had any requests for us. He said Alios was busy with minister duties.” “When was this?” “I asked him twice. The first time he answered was a week before the attack. The second time…was on the day of the attack.” The king sighs. “I see. There is nothing more I can do for an old friend.” Old friend?   “The execution will be in two days. Nothing flashy. A simple hanging will do.” “Yes, I understand,” General Nero answers. “For providing crucial information to this case, I will fulfill your wishes to the best of my ability. What is it you want?” the king asks. “Will you listen to me? Sitos was framed and—“ “Stop this. I have heard this once already. This is about how Sitos regretted his actions, correct?” I only frown at his question. “As much as I would like to believe it, the case was settled with the last piece of information you gave me. I questioned Alios earlier, and it was clear that he was withholding information. Alios did not have any minister duties for the month prior to the attack. The minister meeting was an excuse for helping the masked men with the attack.” That means either Sitos or Alios lied? I think to myself before uttering, “But—“ “There is no more say in the matter. Ask for something else.” I clear my mind of that matter for now and then smile. “Can I be promoted to Captain?” He gives me a look filled with disapproval. “Or Lieutenant...” “I cannot grant that. The military is under General Nero.” I didn’t think it would be that easy… I sigh before continuing, “I want to be in the next Enhancement magic seminar.” “I will grant this. Nero, take care of it for me. Allow Kai and his two friends entry into the next available session under no charge.” “I will see to it.” “Can I also see and talk to Alios?” “Very well. You should be satisfied with that. Nero, take them to the prison,” the king says and then walks away. General Nero leads us out. We head to the level below the first one. This level is dimly lit compared to the others. A guard is up ahead standing next to a closed door. “General!” he says with a salute. “Questioning Castalia again?” “It won’t be needed anymore. The king has granted these new recruits to talk to Alios,” General Nero informs. “Give them all the time they need. I have other business to attend to.” “Yes, sir!” the guard exclaims with a salute before opening the door. “Right this way.” I grimace as a familiar stench creeps out from the dark passage ahead. We follow him. There are small barred confinements on the side with one person in each one. The smell intensifies. It smells worse than the time I ventured into the sewers. “It smells like shit in here!” Ruby exclaims. “That’s because it’s shit you’re smelling,” the guard explains. “There aren’t any toilets down here.” “That’s gross. So they just let it out on the floor?” I ask. “There’s a hole in each cell. Most of it ramps down to the sewers.” We make several turns into identical hallways. The smell doesn’t improve. The guard stops and says, “We’re here.” Alios is sitting against the wall inside the cell like all the other people we passed on the way here. His clothes are ragged and covered in dirt. With his head down, he mutters, “I have nothing left more to say.” “General Nero said no more questions are necessary, but these three new recruits want to talk to you.” Alios raises his head and looks at us with an empty expression. “It is you, Kai… ”Yeah,” I say with a smile. The guard makes me feel uneasy. I turn toward him and ask, “Could you give us some privacy?” “I’m not sure if I should leave you alone here.” “The king said we could have privacy. Are you against that?” “No, not at all! I’ll wait by the entrance. Be careful, he’s a criminal. Don’t get tricked by his words,” the guard warns before walking away. “So you have abandoned your dreams of becoming an Adventurer?” Alios asks. I look down and frown. “Why have you joined the army?” “To find the ones responsible for the attack,” I answer immediately. “You found him.” “What?” I interject. “Everything was all according to my plan.” “That’s impossible…” I clench my teeth and fists. “It has to be that masked guy I met during the attack.” Alios widens his eyes and asks, “You met him?” “You know him?!” I exclaim. Alios frowns and lowers his head. “No, you are mistaken. I am the one responsible for everything, not whoever you are referring to.” “So… You also take responsibility for Sitos…right?” “Sitos… What has he done now? He is not with you…” “You haven’t heard from Zarus?” Alios raises his head. “Do not tell me he is locked up here too?” “No…but they’ve denounced him as a criminal.” Alios lunges toward me and grabs the vertical iron bars between us. His face pressing against them. “That is preposterous! That boy has not done anything. Everything was me. Kai, you have to let them know!” “It doesn’t matter anymore.” “What are you talking about? It matters to me, to his friends, to—“ “Sitos…is dead.” Alios opens his mouth but doesn’t say anything. He looks at me with widened quivering eyes. He slowly loosens his grip on the bars and lowers his head. I kneel down to his level. “The one responsible for his death is that masked man. You met with him, haven’t you? If you know something…anything, tell me.” Several seconds later, he raises his head. A few tears escape his eyes. “I…I do not know anything.” “Are you sure you don’t know anything? If you care about Sitos, then…” He grits his teeth and tightens his grip on the bars. His knuckles crackle. “I cannot say.” He can’t say…? No one’s listening other than us and the other prisoners… He doesn’t have anything to lose… Why? I sigh. “I see.” I stand up. I mutter, “You know… All Sitos wanted was your approval.” I walk a few steps away with the other two following me. I stop as Alios says, “I do not know what kind of relationship you think we had, but… He did a good job. I am proud of him.” We continue making our way toward the exit. “Excuse me, you are Kai, right?” a girl asks from a cell. Her voice is familiar. I turn toward her. She has pale skin and wears a purple dress. Her long black hair is disheveled, and she is covered in dirt. “Are you not Marin too?” “Kai, let’s go! I wanna leave this nasty place,” Ruby says. “I knew it! It is you!” the girl exclaims with a smile. “Do you not remember me? We met a few times briefly.” “Sofiel?” Marin asks. “Yes!” “Sofiel? What’re you doing in here?” I ask. Her eyes quiver as she explains, “They are confining me here until my execution.” “Execution?! What did you do?” “I did not do anything… I was asleep in Sitos’ room when suddenly loud noises erupted. Army soldiers burst into the room demanding that I come with them. A man with bushy eyebrows told me yesterday I will be executed for colluding with a criminal.” Bushy eyebrows… General Nero. I look at Sofiel’s face. I don’t think she knows anything about what’s happened or about Sitos. He probably didn’t tell her anything before everything happened.   Ruby tugs on my arm and says, “Hey, let’s leave…” Marin pulls her away from me. “Ruby, let’s go ahead and leave this place. Kai will catch up to us soon.” “’Kay!” Ruby exclaims. Marin smiles and waves at me. The two of them go on ahead. She widens her eyes and asks, “What happened to Sitos? I have not seen him since the night before the attack. I hope he is okay. You must know, Kai. You are the one Sitos trusted the most.” I gulp. My eyes tear up a little. Don’t look at me with those eyes… Don’t look at me with those eyes filled with hope...that I’ll have to destroy again with words of truth.   I think back to my last encounter with Sitos. Despite what happened, he trusted me the most… He cherished her and loved her. As his friend, I’ll have to bring the news and bring her to safety.   I take a deep breath before saying, “Yeah… You have a right to know… You see, Sitos was manipulated… He was manipulated by a bad person and made him do bad things…” “No…” Sofiel interjects with shaky eyes. “The criminal they were talking about…was Sitos? What did he do…?” “He killed someone and took something very precious from me.” “You are lying… Sitos would never do something like that!” “It’s the truth. At the same time, I know he wasn’t to blame. I know he was innocent.” “Was…?” “Yeah…he’s passed away.” “No way…” Sofiel says with little energy. She leans forward slowly, eventually crashing onto her knees. The last shred of hope disappears from her face. Tears stream out of her eyes. “Mother… Father… Now Sitos… I do not have anything left… There is no reason to live anymore…” “No, you have to live!” I exclaim. “Sitos would want that too!” She sniffles. “Ye-yes… You are right. But it is not up to me. They are going to execute me.” She forces a smile. I clench my fists. I know I can’t stop the execution or exonerate her at this point. “I’ll save you. I’ll find a way to free you out before your execution… I think it’s in two days, so there’s time to work out a plan.” “Thank you, Kai.” I bite my lip before muttering, “I haven’t done anything yet…” I head out. Sofiel sobs resound behind me as I walk farther away. I rejoin with Ruby and Marin, and we return to the Crossroads. It is noisy. Everyone seems to be running around combat ready; most of them heading toward the exit. Hina’s group dashes past me. I exclaim, “Hina! Where’re you going? What’s going on?” She stops and turns around. “Didn’t you get the news?” I cock an eyebrow. She asks, “What platoon are you in?” “Four.” “Sigma 4, 5, and 6 needs to provide backup at the Academy immediately,” she says and then runs off. Did more masked men appear?! I instinctively grab my swords, but they are not there. I widen my eyes. Oh shit… Everything’s at the Armory right now.   “We should get going too,” Marin suggests. “Right…but what about everyone else?” “They probably got the news too. We’ll meet them there.” “Yeah, you’re right. Let’s go!” We head toward the Academy. Along the way, we find large groups of people yelling undecipherable things. Guards push them back. We hurry on to the Academy. A large group of people is shouting outside the Academy’s gates. The majority have closed fists beating rhythmically in the air and chant, “Execute!” Six guards are lined up in front of the gate. Moria and the three other instructors are behind them. Several from the crowd pelt rocks toward the instructors. Some of the rocks are directed elsewhere in midair while other rocks are blocked by the guards stationed at the front. There are several familiar faces from the Academy wandering around the large mob. We have to find a way in to find out what is going on here. There is no path for us to join up with the other platoons. We move to the center on the backside of the crowd. “Can you make a path for us with your Wind magic?” I ask loudly in Ruby’s ear. “’Kay, got it!” she answers. She puts both palms pointed in front of her. A man near me shouts, “Bring out Moria!” “Give ‘im the cauldron!” “Take down the Academy!” A strong wind soon erupts from the center of the crowd and divides the mob in two. The chanting stops. Half of the people are flung toward the left while the other half toward the right. We cross the opening. The guards remain in position. We cross the opening and then rejoin with Moria. Some of the other reinforcements cross the gap too. “Moria, what’s going on?” I ask. “I do not know. This mob suddenly appeared. We have been holed up in here for a while. I sent a messenger for backup an hour ago.” “We’re here. What can we do to help?” “They are angry about something… We need to quell it. Were you responsible for that burst of wind?” “I told Ruby to open a path for us.” “Hmm… Yes, that may have had an opposite effect.” The yelling resumes from behind us. I turn around. The mob gathers together forming a big clump again. A man at the front shouts, “Moria showed his true colors! If he were the man he claimed to be, he would have found a peaceful resolution. But he used violence and excessive force, no different than the ones who attacked our city!” “No, you’re wrong! Moria didn’t do that!” I exclaim. “He musta taken the easy way out durin’ the attack too! He ran away to protect his own life! He didn’t try ta protect our children at all!” Moria walks toward the front and grabs someone’s raised arm. He pulls them to the front. Her arm has a small cut. “You are injured. Let me heal you.” Moria puts a hand over her wound, quickly closing it with his magic. I exclaim, “Moria’s a great, kindhearted teacher! You’re wrong about him!” “It’s all a part of his ploy to create this scenario to make himself look good!” “You can’t earn back our trust that easily!” “My daughter said she was abandoned by the instructors! She was left alone under the Academy for over a day! Now, she’s permanently crippled and scarred for life!” “He could’ve been the one responsible for your daughter’s condition! A wolf in sheep’s clothing!” “He couldn’t get enough, so he had to create an excuse to touch more women!” “I see, that’s why he chose her instead of me! Look, my shoulder cut’s worse than the young lady’s arm injury!” “I will heal all the injured. Please, come to the front.” “He’s only saying that now because we caught him. Don’t be fooled!” “There’s only one way we’ll forgive him and the surviving instructors! Take on the cauldron!” “Cauldron! Cauldron! Cauldron!” the mob roars repeatedly and pushes forward. The guards and the other reinforcements at the front hold them back. This is too crazy… They’re not listening at all. I think to myself before asking, “Moria, what’s the cauldron? Could you do it?” “Taking on the cauldron means that you are boiled slowly starting from the lowest point of the body. It is a death sentence.” I bite my lip. What can we do…?   A man on horseback is coming this way from the trail to the Academy. The symbol of Drosera is engraved in front of his armor. He throws something into the air. A loud noise resounds that silences the mob. “Attention! I have brought you an update from the king himself! It has been made official that the one responsible for all of the recent tragedies is no one other than Alios, the head minister! You, the townspeople will have an opportunity to deliver punishment yourselves tomorrow morning! The criminals will be brought out into the Royal District where you will have a chance to inflict pain upon them before the main event! Their sentence has changed from a hanging to a live feeding by wolves!” I widen my eyes. The unanimous cheers of the mob pierce my ears.

"Kai…" someone says in a familiar voice.   I open my eyes slowly, noticing that my vision is blurry for some reason. I smile in front of a warm nostalgic face before saying, "I missed you…"   I lean towards her while preparing my lips for a kiss.   "Eh?"   I stop right before I reach her lips. Suddenly, the clattering of a wagon resounds in my ears, and I feel small vibrations from under my bottom. Am I in…a wagon…? That's right… I decided to take a nap and…   I close my eyes and open them again several times, slowly realizing that the person in front of me is Irene. My face gets progressively hotter. I lean back towards the right corner of my seat in a hurry, still feeling my heart beating abnormally loud. That was a close one… I almost kissed Irene thinking it was her in a dream. Oh shit, was I awake when I said that?   I gulp as I make eye contact with Irene. "Irene, did you call my name?"   "N-no… Why?" Irene asks as she sits back in her seat. She's looking away from me.   What's she so nervous about…? Did she hear what I said? Why would she lie? I avoid looking at her directly. "Ne-never mind… What were you doing just now anyway?"   "Um, I thought you were crying, so I leaned in closer to make sure. Then suddenly you leaned forward…" Irene blushes as she puts her hands on her cheeks all while turning completely away from me.    My face cools down when I make the connection. Oh, that's why she's nervous… I'm being too paranoid about this…    I sigh. Wait… I'm crying…?    I knit my eyebrows together as I touch my face with my hand. Huh…? Tears…? Why was I…   I look down on the ground and discover the white mask I wore earlier. I furrow my eyebrows and stare intently on the mask. We use these masks whenever we carry out our mission. It's a white mask with open eye sockets with a black snake on the right side. The tail of the snake starts on the same level as the mouth, around the cheek it has one curl, and the rest of the body runs upward towards the top portion of the mask. The head is turned towards the center of the forehead with its tongue out.   I grit my teeth and gradually snarl, progressively biting my teeth harder as I clench my fists all while remembering my first encounter with it.   "Kai, you're making a scary face…"   I look up and find Irene frowning. I relax and wipe my tears with my hand. "Sorry, I was thinking about something…"   "Did something happen?"   "Yeah… I guess you could say that." Her lips are shaking. I sigh, knowing what she wants to ask. "I don't wanna talk about it, so don't ask me."   "Sorry…"   "You don't need to apologize," I say in a slightly irritated tone.   "Sorry…" I frown as I feel veins popping out of my head. I rapidly tap my finger on my lap as she switches between looking at me and the open seat next to me.   What does she want from me? I open my eyes widely at her as I turn both of my palms upward all while signaling my body that she has my full attention.   "Oh, um… I just wanted to say that you don't seem like a bad person… I saw your sleeping face, and it seemed so gentle."   For some reason, the tension eases from my shoulders. I sigh before asking, "What part about me is gentle? I kill people without a second thought, and I work for the most wanted man in the world. I'm a bad person…"   Irene crosses her arms as she looks away and pouts. "Nope, I think you're a good person."   "Listen here…"   The convoy stops as something loud rumbles outside. As Irene falls forward, I slide towards the left side of my seat, catching her before she collides with the empty space on my seat. Her feminine, fragrant scent enters my nose as I feel her chest pressing against mine. I smile shamelessly as I unconsciously flare my nostrils.   She blushes when she raises her head with her hands on my chest. "Oh, thank you."   "No problem," I say with a smile. What was that sound? I better check with Leila. I wanna stay like this for a while longer, though…   "Umm… You can let me go now…"   "Ah, sure," I say and sigh. Fun time is over…   I let go of my embrace. After, Irene sits back in her seat and looks away.   "Stay in here and don't make any noise," I instruct. Irene nods. I get up, quietly open the door, and then close it. I walk towards the front of the wagon.   "Leila what's going…" I stop mid-sentence when a familiar scene plays out in front of me. There are at least 30 of them, equipped with mostly leather gear. They wield various types of weapons including swords, axes, clubs, bows, and shields. Magicians are included among them, who probably caused this crater in the middle of the path.   One of them asks, "Hey, I thought there were supposed to be like around 15 of them?"   And another says, "Who cares, this'll be easier now, and now there's a bonus."   Bonus…? Ah, they must be talking about Leila. They snicker at us as they slowly approach us on both sides of around the crater; into the forest. I purse my lips as I turn my head towards Leila, who appears to be calmly collected. I'm surprised that didn't hit the wrong nerve…considering…   "Just give up, we have you outnumbered by more than 30. Give us the princess in the convoy and we won't kill you."   I drop my thought and ponder about what he just said while frowning and knitting my eyebrows together. How do they know…that Princess Irene is in the convoy…? It appears they knew of Dae's group coming back to Xantho, but how'd they know he was bringing back the princess?   I flush out my thoughts for now and draw my blades. I won't even need to use my magic for this.   "I'll take the left side, stay here and protect Irene." Leila nods and I rush into the left forest. I jump high into the air towards my first target, who is full of openings. I prepare my strike with both arms behind my head. With full force, I use the combined momentum of my fall and arm strength to make two clean deep vertical cuts through his entire torso. I land on both of my feet with bent knees.   I don't give them any time to prepare for my next attack as I kick forward, quickly accelerating into a sprint again. When I see a small volley of arrows heading towards me, I dodge using sidesteps while still running. After I dodge the last arrow, a blade approaches me from above. I react quickly enough to redirect the force of his attack with my left sword so that it misses me. Immediately afterward, I cleanly cut through his abdomen with a horizontal slash. At this point, I realize that he was hiding on top of a tree waiting to ambush me. Sneaky bastard.   I sidestep to avoid colliding with his body and charge into my next opponent. His eyes widen as I redirect his attack with one blade and slide the other through his throat. I repeat this pattern with the enemies afterward. Within a few seconds, there are only two left on this side. The one closer to me suddenly drops his bow.   "Mo-monster! Run!" he screams as he turns his back to me. I quickly catch up to him and stab him through the heart with my left blade. I pull out my sword as he starts losing his balance, eventually falling forward revealing the last bandit behind him. I slowly walk towards him as his comrades' blood continues to drip from my blades. He drops his weapon and falls backward.   "Wa-wa-wait! I don't know ho-how much you're being paid, but we'll give you half of what we received! No, we'll give you all of it! Do-don't kill me, please..."   I ignore him and continue to walk towards him. Screams and explosions resound from the other side; it must have been Leila taking care of her side. I should probably ask him how he knows about Irene. I think of something to say before opening my mouth. "Hey ho—"   "St-stop! Lo-look I know someone who can make a fortune selling female Elves. Just betray her and you'll be set for life!"   I close my eyes as an old memory flashes through my mind. I grit my teeth as I feel an old scar from my chest tingle. While frowning, I narrow my eyes in disgust. I stare at him for a few seconds then kick him in the face to lay him flat on the ground.   "Argh!" When he covers his face with both hands, I proceed to step on his abdomen with my right foot. I reverse the grip on my right sword, lean forward, and slowly pierce his right bicep. He instinctively tries to cover his arm with his left hand that reveals his bloodied, broken nose.   "Ahhh!" He cries out as I dig my sword deeper into the ground. I kick and step on his left arm, and slowly pin it down like I did with his other arm. While sweating and gasping for air, all other noise from the world disappears from my mind, including his screams, and I focus only on making this man have the most miserable death possible. When I take out my skinning knife, I grin and laugh sinisterly.    He struggles in vain as I tightly grab his left hand. With the skinning knife, I slowly and carefully cut off the fingernail of his thumb while minimizing the amount of flesh that needs to be sliced. His veins pop out of his hand as he violently twitches his fingers. He squirms his body around, wasting energy by thrusting his lower back off the ground and meaninglessly kicking his legs.    I repeat the same process with his other finger nails, eventually moving to his other hand and doing the same. He struggles even harder when I grab his left boot. He manages to kick me in the face when I'm focused solely on his left foot. I touch my left cheek with my left hand and then look at my hand afterward. There's muddy filth on my fingers. I grit my teeth and scowl. Damn bastard!   While running out of patience, I reverse the grip on my knife, and I slam it down on top of his right knee. I don't hear it break while I only hear ringing in my ears, but I know that it's broken because he stops moving that leg. I do the same with his other leg, take off his boots and then start cutting off his toenails. I cackle as I finish the last nail.   I sheathe my skinning knife and crawl over to his right hand again that seems to be lifeless. I grab the first joint on the tip of his index finger and then snap it in half. A smile emerges on my face when I see that his hand is lively dancing again. I take my time to break all the bones in his hand, starting with the fingers and moving down toward his wrist, one by one. I repeat the same process on his other hand, but he isn't as lively anymore. I raise my eyebrows.   Oh yeah… I should probably ask him what he knows. I slap him in the face before asking, "Hey, who ordered you to do this?"   His lips move slightly, no words come out. "Answer me!"   He opens his mouth wider this time, but still no words come out. "Bastard, answer me when I ask a question!"   In a fit of rage, I slash open his abdomen while preventing injury to his organs. "How'd you know about the princess?!"   I still hear nothing, except the ringing in my ears and my own voice. I reach into his abdomen wound with my left hand, grab a handful of his intestines, and then pull them out. "Say something, you fucker!"   Losing my patience, I take out my skinning knife and repeatedly stab his chest with all of my strength. Blood splashes onto me with every stroke and oozes out of each gash. Suddenly, something grabs my arm before the next puncture, but I shake it off and continue slamming down my knife.   "Kai!" someone exclaims. I slowly turn my head around. Irene stands there with tears welling up in her eyes while she frowns with a pained facial expression.    The ringing in my ears stops, and I relax my arm. I drop the knife, and subsequently, Irene lets go of my arm. I make eye contact with her and smile. "Irene? What're you doing out here, it's dangerous!"   Irene is silent as she continues to stare at me with the same expression. "You should leave. I need to keep interro…"   I turn around and widen my eyes. The man is already dead. His eyes are bloodshot red with traces of moisture below and around his eyes. Blood flows down his nose and leaks from the puddle of blood in his mouth.   My heart beats rapidly. I stand up and continue to stare at the man's corpse without blinking, remaining motionless. I close my eyes as I remember a painful scene from my past. "Weak…too weak, Kai. But I know you want to be stronger so I'll teach you a trick… The secret is rage… Let it consume you and you will become much stronger…"   I shake my head as his laugh resonates in my head. My hands quiver. I'm afraid of reverting to how I used to be; a cold-hearted, brutal murderer. I killed anyone and did whatever it took to achieve my goals, even the things I initially hated him for. Before I know it, my entire body starts to tremble. But the trembling stops when someone suddenly wraps their arms around me; it's Irene.   "Kai, it's okay…" Irene says, sounding like a guardian angel saving me from the depths of hell. When she tightens her embrace allowing me to feel her warmth, my tears well up. I turn around and embrace her back while tears flow my eyes down to her back, holding this position for several minutes.    "Thanks Irene, I'm okay now." I let go of her, but she doesn't.   "You're not a bad person…"   I almost break into tears again when I hear her sniffling, but I hold them back. Damn…she reminds me too much of her.   "Fine, fine… I'm not a bad person. Can you let me go now?"    She hugs me tighter before saying, "You're not a bad person… So never do that again…"   How can she be so sure…? She's known me for less than half a day and has only seen me commit murder… With her warmth and purity embracing me, I feel like my sins can be washed away. I close my eyes for a few seconds and open them again. In a gentle but firm voice, I say, "Alright, I promise. I won't do that again."   She finally lets me go, wiping her tears with her dress.    "We should get back to the convoy, Leila is probably wai…"I say as I turn left and stop mid-sentence when I see Leila standing against a tree with her head down and arms crossed. I frantically wave my arms around while saying, "Ah, Leila…this is…uh…not what it looks like…"   Leila slowly approaches me with her hands raised in front of her. I nervously close my eyes fearing for my life. She's gonna kill me!   She grabs my left arm. "Kai… You're a mess… Let me get you cleaned up with my magic…"   I open my eyes and stare into her face. I don't sense any malicious intent from her, which I find strange. In fact, her eyes and lips droop, as if she is extremely saddened. "Are you okay, Leila?"   She looks into my eyes as tears appear to form in her eyes and says, "That's what I should be asking you…"   I wrap my arms around Leila and caress her while stroking her hair with my right hand. "I'm fine… Thank you, Leila."   She smiles as she blushes and pushes me away while lightly sniffling. "That's good… Now turn around so I can finish wiping the blood off you."   I turn around and let her do the work with her water magic. I don't know what I'd do without Leila… I would never be able to walk around in town after battle otherwise.   "There, all done. Come over here Irene, I'll clean you too. He got some blood on you too, right?" I turn my head toward Irene. Blood smears stain over half of her dress. I blush and turn away realizing that I shamelessly got all the blood on my body on her when she comforted me.    "Well, I'll be waiting at the convoy. You can switch with me and get some rest in the back. I'll take the reins," I say. With that, I head back to the convoy and sit at the front edge of the wagon while waiting for them to come back. I wander my eyes around the wagon. No one would ever guess that a battle ensued here… There are no corpses, blood, or even damage to the environment, despite all those explosions I heard earlier. Well, she is obsessed with being secretive…   I sigh as I look on the ground in front of me. The crater has returned to flat terrain as well. I pick my nose to pass the time, wiping my boogers on the unfortunate horse next to me. I scoot over to the left front edge of the wagon and aimlessly stare at trees.   They sure are taking their time… Isn't she just cleaning the blood off…? The thought of Leila erotically cleaning off Irene's blood appears in my mind. Maybe Leila is into…   I close my eyes as I visualize Leila and Irene playing out this fantasy. I shake my head trying to clear these ideas out. Nah it can't be… Or is it…?   I grin lewdly as I imagine them kissing and groping each other while fully nude.   "What are you grinning about, Kai?" I open my eyes, immediately perceiving Leila in front of me.   "Ah!" I scream as I flail my arms and legs around. I lose my balance and fall on the ground next to Leila's feet. After taking a few seconds to gain my sense of reality back, I find my swords, blade first, next to my face.   "What are you doing…?" she asks as she looks down on me.    "You scared me… Thanks for getting my swords. I forgot about those," I say as I stand up. Leila's blushing as she hands me my swords. I grab both of them, one in each hand while inspecting them. Apparently she has cleaned the blood off them too. I smile.   "Yeah…" she says with her eyes pointing down. Irene opens the door to the convoy and goes in. Leila's face flushes red even more before she finally turns around and goes into the convoy without another word. I quirk an eyebrow as Leila shuts the door behind her.   What was that about…? I look down and see it. My face flushes red while I stand there. Shit, how long has it been like that that…? I think it was outta position after I fell…and I let Leila see that…   I fix my thing before getting on the wagon again, eventually signaling the horses to start running again.

"Guys, I have to go run an errand really fast!" I exclaim while running toward the exit of our home. "I'll be back in time for the mission!" "Kai, wait—" Luna's words are cut short. I make my way to the Residential District. Nostalgia hits me as I find myself in a familiar place. I smile. The Green Boar…huh. I walk into the establishment and then look around. The place is packed. I recall the memories I made here with Emdos. Emdos isn't too far from here. Maybe I should go visit him later. "Kai, over here," Hina says from the corner of the room. She's sitting at a table for two drinking something. I walk over and then sit across from her. "You're late." "Sorry, I forgot. Can you make it quick? I have a mission soon…" She sighs before saying, "Well, I'll make it quick. I take it you didn't figure out anythin'…" I put a hand behind my head and laugh hesitantly. "I asked Moria later that day for descriptions of those five referees that were supposed to be there instead of the five that appeared." I stop smiling and narrow my eyes. She continues, "I went to the Adventurer's District and asked everyone if they've seen anyone like that. No leads there. I followed-up with people who were already on missions when they came back. Still nothing." "Maybe they went to another Kingdom for their mission?" "Maybe, but I don't think so. Moria said these five came to him saying that they needed some quick money. They couldn't find any other jobs and went to him. Apparently the emergency stand-ins said those five found a better paying job." I know what she's insinuating. "That's not enough evidence to make a conclusion." "I know. That's why I didn't set up this meetin' until a few days ago. Someone told me that they saw someone that resembles that Gudar referee. I didn't tell him anything other than some of his physical traits. I gulp as she pauses for a second. "They said one of three executives of an outlaw group in Neomeris has brown slicked back hair and a golden nose ring. All the members have snake earrings coiled around the left ear." I knit my eyebrows as I think back to the referees. "I don't remember any of them wearing a snake earring." "True, but this is still something. It can't be a coincidence." It's true that those referees weren’t very professional… "What exactly happened to you during the tournament?" "Huh? Oh…" I mutter, remembering my close encounter with death. I pause for several seconds and look away. "Nothing, really. There were just some traps that were unavoidable, so I took a couple of hits." "Hmm…" Hina stares at me with a frown. "Are you hidin' some kind of secret?" My face grows hot, and then I gulp. "Wh-what do you mean?" "Like, are your parents famous or somethin'? If those referees are really from this outlaw group…they might have a grudge against you." "I don't know anything about my parents…" "I see," she says and relaxes her facial expressions. "Well, if you do see them again, I would be careful." "Alright, I will. You too," I say and then head for the exit. "Sir, did you want to order anything? We've been busy as you can see…" a waiter asks. "No, I'm on my way out," I inform and then leave. I start walking back to the dormitory. I recall the moments those referees smiled in my direction. Do they really have a grudge against me…? Maybe I should ask Emdos about this… I run back to the dormitory. I knit my eyebrows at the guards, who are shuffling about the Academy. I open the door to my home. "Kai's back!" Luna exclaims and then runs into Marin's room. "Marin~! Let's go!" "Kai, you are going to be the reason all of us are late. Where the hell did you go?" Sitos asks with a frown. "I told you, I had to go run an errand…" "Could it not have waited? I am blaming you if they penalize us for tardiness." "Sitoster, it should be fine. We still have plenty of time to walk over to your place if we leave now," Drugo notes.  Sitos smiles and then informs, "I will be waiting outside." "I need to use the toilet really fast! I'll meet you guys outside," I say as I run into my room and then into the bathroom. I relieve myself and then go back into my room. I knit my eyebrows. Huh? I thought I left my weapons on the bed before I left to meet Hina… I search under the bed, in the closet, in the drawers, and then the storage chest. I slam the chest shut. Shit! I run into the main room. Hiro leaves his room with his hammer in hand. I open one of the storage chests in this room but still find nothing. Hiro laughs and then says, "Ya misplaced your weapons right before the mission? How careless!" I cock an eyebrow and then look at Hiro. "Why're ya lookin' at me? I'll be outside…" "Wait," I say and then shut the chest. Hiro freezes in place as I walk over to him. "How'd you know I misplaced my weapons?" "We-well…be-because…" I glare at him and squeeze the side of his neck with my hand. "Ow, ow! I gi-give up!" I let go of him and then say, "Give them back to me." "Uhh…" "Hurry up!" Hiro drops his weapon, runs into his room, and then comes out with both of my weapons. I pull them away from his grip forcibly and then clip them on my belt. "We're already cutting it close on time here. Unbelievable." I lock the door after both of us leave. "So, why the hell did you think it would be a good idea to hide my swords?" "Be-because…I thought it would be funny." "Well, I'm not laughing." Hiro frowns the entire way to the exit.  "Where've you two been? We need to leave now!" Luna exclaims. "Sorry, Hiro thought it would be funny to hide my weapons."  Sitos clicks his tongue and then says, "I am disappointed in you, Hiro." "Uhh…" Hiro makes a small sound and looks down. One of the guards shuffling around approaches us. "Hey, are you 5th year Academy students?" he asks. "We are. Why?" Luna asks. "You students should be careful. We've received reports about missing female 4th and 5th year Academy students from Neomeris, Elbar, and Xantho. Don't stray from the group and don't follow any suspicious characters," he says and then leaves. "Missing? That sounds scary!" Luna exclaims.  "Yeah…" Marin says. "We don't have to worry because Kai will protect us! Right, Kai?"  "Ye-yeah! I won't let anything bad happen to you guys!" "I will protect you too!" Sitos exclaims with widened eyes. Luna looks at Sitos for a moment and then says, "Okay." A short silence follows before Drugo says, "All of us will protect you two. We really should get going." With that, we make our way toward Sitos' home in the Royal District.  The usual caravan is parked at the front. Alios is standing next to it. "What're we doing today?" I ask. "A competitor in the market suddenly appeared and bought out all the Gue, an agent used to make a numbing medicine," Alios informs. "The client wants you to collect it and bring it back here. An observer will be joining you." I cock an eyebrow. The caravan door opens, and then an old man with a long beard walks out. He strokes his beard and says, "Don't mind me. I'm just here to watch." He turns to Alios and asks, "Which one is the one you spoke of?" Alios points his finger at me and then says, "This child here." The old man walks up to me while continuing to stroke his beard. "Hmm… So you're the one Alios has spoken so highly of." I force a smile, unsure of what to say. Sitos is looking away toward Hiro next to him. "What's your name?" "Kai, sir."  "I see, I see…" he mutters and then walks into the caravan. What a weird old man…  Alios holds a backpack in front of him. "Take this. It contains a sample of the Gue you are to collect and fill the entire backpack with. The driver will take you to the cave. I expect to see you back here in a few hours." After I take the backpack, Alios smiles and then walks away into the mansion. We all get into the caravan and then it starts moving shortly afterward. Our banter along the way is not lively as usual. I figure the presence of the observer is the reason. I opt to take this chance and take a nap. I wake up when my body rolls slightly toward the front. The caravan has stopped. The driver says, "We're here. Your destination's in a cave up ahead." Sitos takes the backpack, we go outside, and then we find a cave on the base of a hill nearby. Sitos opens the backpack and then takes out some of the product. He lays it out on a hand for us to see. The two of them look like mushrooms. The white stem at the base is short and thick. It's connected to a red rugged dome-shaped head. "Let me take one of those for reference," I say. I quirk an eyebrow as Sitos closes his palm and then stores both of the mushrooms into the backpack. "No, I am going to keep it in the backpack to be on the safe side," he replies and then puts on the backpack. "Marin, make us a torch." "Sure," Marin answers and then creates a piece of wood suitable to carry around. Luna takes it and then lights the top on fire. Sitos takes it while holding a sword in the other hand and then goes into the cave. We follow behind him, the observer furthest behind. Bats squeal and fly past us as we venture deeper in. They are not hostile. Sitos' acting strange today… There isn't anything around at first sight, let alone mushrooms. About two minutes into the cave, we find a small patch of mushrooms. Sitos runs over and then puts down his weapon. He plucks the mushrooms out without a second thought. They look like the Gue we need, but I'm not sure. I ask, "Can you take out one of the mushrooms for reference?  "No need. I know this is the same mushroom," he says. I laugh a little before saying, "Well, you need to open up that backpack to put them in. Why not just take one out for reference before mixing them all up?" Sitos looks at me for several seconds before sighing. He takes out one mushroom from the backpack and then sets it next to one that he plucked. They look nearly identical except for the length of the stem. I note, "The reference mushroom has a shorter stem." "Big whoop." Sitos cuts the mushroom with the longer stem with the sword and then responds, "Now you cannot tell the difference, right?" "Hmm… Why would they cut off a part of the Gue? Something's off here," I note. "We do not have time to be sitting here thinking up bullshit reasons why that is," Sitos says as he puts all the mushrooms into the backpack. I take the reference mushroom on the ground before he stores it. He glares at me. I smile. "It shouldn't be a problem if I lose this one mushroom now that you have all of those, right?" "Whatever." Sitos stands up and then begins to walk further into the cave. My eyes wander around the area he plucked the mushrooms from. I light a fire from my forehead using Scrap Mana as Sitos' torch drifts farther away.  "Kai, what're you doing?" Luna asks as the rest of the group stops except for Sitos. "Look," I say. "There're some small skeletal remains here. They look small enough to be some kinda small animal." "Oh, you're right." "So what? We're gonna lose sight of Sitos," Hiro says. "I just thought it was strange." "What are you idiots still doing back there?!" Sitos exclaims. "There is a huge patch of mushrooms over yonder!" Footsteps resound rapidly deeper into the cave. I stand up and then run after him. "Wait up, Sitos!" Along the way, I run around random holes on the ground. The dirt on the ground is uneven. I stop again when I find a small patch of mushrooms. I squat down and then pluck one of them from the ground. The stem is longer on this one too.  "Kai, what're ya doin'! I can't see unless you're lightin' the way!" Hiro exclaims. "Forget it! Luna, lead the way!" "I'm gonna stay with Kai," Luna says and squats down next to me. "Fine, whatever!"  "Hiroster, don't go too far by yourself!" Drugo warns as he walks closer to me along with Marin. I knit my eyebrows at the bottom of the mushroom. There's a black circle on the bottom of the reference mushroom, but there isn't one on the base of the one I just plucked. I take out one of my swords and then cut off a part of the base from the reference mushroom. A purple liquid oozes out from the center of the stem. It's a slimy substance. I hold it up for everyone to see. "Gross… The mushroom is sick!" Luna exclaims. I turn to the old man who isn't saying anything.  "Let me see that mushroom," Luna requests. I hand it to her. She squeezes the head which causes more of the substance to flow out. She throws it at my face.  "What the?!" I rear back as the mushroom hits my face, and then I fall on my bottom. Some of the mystery substance sticks to my cheek. Luna points at me and laughs. I frown and grit my teeth.  "Luna…that's going too far…" Marin mutters. I relax my facial expressions and then knit my eyebrows as a weird sensation develops on my cheek. I use a hand to wipe off the substance off my face and then poke the area where it contacted. It feels slightly numb. "Hey, I don't think there was a mistake with that reference mushroom… Sitos' dad said the Gue was used to make a numbing medicine, right? My cheek is a little numb now…and I'm starting to feel something on my hand too." "Oh, so the mushroom wasn't sick?" "I guess not. Or it wasn't a mushroom." I pick up the mushroom and then hold it up toward the old man. I ask, "Hey old man! Is this a mushroom?" "I'm just an observer." I frown. Figures… "Hey y'all!" Hiro exclaims. "There's this mushroom all by itself! I'm gonna grab it really fast!"  I cock an eyebrow and then stand up. I face Hiro's direction. There's a lone mushroom surrounded by several skeletal remains like before. I raise my eyebrows and then run after him. "Hiro, stop!" He grabs the mushroom and then tugs on it, but it doesn't come out. He uses both hands and then pulls on it again. The ground around it shakes. "This stupid mushroom is stuck!" "Hiro, you idiot! Let go of that monster!" I exclaim as I grab onto my weapons. "Monster…? What're ya—" The thing Hiro pulled on finally comes out of the ground. Some worm-like creature comes out with its mouth open. Razor sharp teeth close in on Hiro's arms as he falls on his bottom. I slash the monster starting the opening of its mouth down its tail. The top half of the monster falls down next to Hiro. Blood oozes out of it forming a puddle next to Hiro. Hiro is frozen in place on the ground, still holding onto the false mushroom. It's connected to the bottom half of the worm. "Oh, it was actually pretty delicate," I say. The others run over to me. "This is why I told you not wander off by yourself. You're lucky Kaister figured it out." "Well, that's one mystery solved. I guess we need to hunt more of these things," I say and then cut off the false mushroom. A familiar purple substance oozes out from the bottom. I raise my eyebrows. "Oh, let me see that a sec." I sheathe my weapons and then take the false mushroom from Hiro's hands. There isn't much resistance. I hold it up and point one of my fingers at the opening at the bottom. I cauterize the opening using the flames of my Fire magic. The bottom blackens, and it stops oozing out liquid. I put it back in Hiro's hands which haven't moved. "You can have this back." "Hey…" Marin mutters. "What's Sitos doing right now?" I knit my eyebrows as I think about it for several seconds. I turn toward the direction SItos went in before exclaiming, "Oh, shit. We should go after him now!" I run after Sitos. "Y'all gotta wait for me! I'm still shocked from the worm!"  We find ourselves at the top of a cliff after a short distance of running. Sitos is at the bottom knelt down picking up mushrooms. I shout, "Sitos, stop what you're doing right now!" Sitos looks up and then says, "It is too late for that now, fool. I have almost completely filled this backpack while you were doing nothing." "Huh? What're you talking about? Anyway, we figured out the puzzle behind the mushrooms! Those mushrooms aren't the ones we're supposed to collect!" Sitos ignores me and continues to pluck the mushrooms. His hand reaches a mushroom that doesn't come out immediately. "Get back! That's a monster!" "I have no idea what you are talking about. Are you spewing nonsense to stop me from getting all the credit?" I click my tongue and look around. There is a ramp leading down to where Sitos is, but it's a long way down. I make posthaste and run down. Sitos is still tugging on the same mushroom. The ground shakes. I'm not gonna make it! The worm monster comes out of the ground like before. Sitos falls backward, and his arm is completely vulnerable. An arrow pierces the top of the worm to the ground. Sitos pulls back his arms before the monster closes its mouth. He scampers backward, speechless. The worm opens and closes its mouth repeatedly while twitching its body around. Nice save, Marin! I make my way to Sitos and then ask, "Are you alright?" "Ye-yes…" he says as he stares at the worm squirming on the ground. The worm doesn't have any eyes. "Get back. I'll extract the product from it." "Ri-right…" he mutters, stands up, and then moves back.  I unsheathe a sword and then cut the worm in half down the middle. Both of its pieces wiggle for a while longer before it stops. I grimace as I lift up the top of its mouth. I proceed to cut it horizontally, being extra careful not to cut the false mushroom. I hold the false mushroom up as I cut it off. A familiar purple fluid oozes out from the bottom. I cauterize it with my magic as before. "Dump out everything in that backpack and put this in," I say as I toss the false mushroom toward Sitos. He stares at it for several seconds before following my instructions. The others join us. "Sorry… I got too excited…" Sitos looks down and says in a demoralized voice. "It's fine! Anyone could've made that mistake," I say. "Besides we still need to get a lot more of that before the backpack is full. We should split into two groups and collect them now that we know where to get them." "Oh, I wanna be the person that kills the worm!" Hiro exclaims. "Kai, you hold the mushroom this time, and I'll kill it!" I grimace, remembering the bird incident from last year. "No thanks. I'll just do it myself." "What! That's not fair…" "I'll hold it for you," Marin says. "Oh, Marin! I knew I could count on you!" "Marin, I don't recommend that…" I warn. "It's fine. I'm sure Hiro won't let the worm eat me. I want to contribute something too." With that, we split into three groups. I'm by myself while Marin pairs with Hiro. Sitos gives Marin the torch for the light source. We decide that the most efficient way to kill the worm is by pulling it out as Hiro and Sitos have done and then killing it. I go around pulling on various mushrooms until one doesn't come out. I pull harder with my sword ready in my other hand. As the worm reveals itself, I cut it in half. After that, extract the false mushroom and then cauterize it as before.  We regroup after collecting a good amount. We fill up the backpack entirely and then head back to the caravan. I figure we spent over an hour in the cave. Marin is covered in blood and her hands covered in purple fluid. Her eyebrows are pointed downward, and she's frowning. I twist one side of my lips upward. I warned her… The driver takes us back to the Royal District. Alios is waiting for us at the front. The old man takes the backpack filled with the product and then hands it to him. Alios asks, "So, what did you think of them, Zarus?" Alios opens up the backpack and then examines the false mushrooms. "Kai is as good as you've said. He's the one who figured out the true identity of those mushrooms… He covered up the mistakes of your son, who jumped to conclusions too soon. Your son seemed too focused on individual contribution than working as a team." "That is not surprising to hear. Sitos has always been the type to seek attention at the cost of everything else," Alios says as he continues to review the contents of the backpack.  I look over to Sitos, who is looking down and frowning.  His fists are clenched. "Quite frankly, he has disappointed me the—" "That's not true!" I exclaim. "Sitos always works like a team! He's done a lot more work than you give him credit for!" "Kai…" Sitos mutters. "Hmm… If you say so, I will not give him a punishment this time," Alios says. Punishment…?  Alios closes the backpack and then says, "Good work on collecting the product. The client will be pleased to receive this. Next, he wants you to check out what the new buyers are up to. You are to find out what they are using the Gue for. The client should be here soon to fill you in on the remaining details." "Well, thanks for the opportunity on for letting me observe the seeds of the next generation," the old man says as he walks away. "I'll be heading back now." "You are welcome to come back anytime," Alios says. Later, the client appears and leads us to the Adventurer's District. He instructs us to follow the three men that will come buy the product after he gives us the signal. In the meantime, we idle next to a wall. It's been nearly half an hour. I yawn. I notice Luna has not moved her head for several minutes. I look in her direction. I don't see anything particularly interesting. There are two girls holding hands simply standing there. One is clearly older than the other. Other than that, the crowds of people are constantly moving about. "Do you know them?" I ask. "Huh? What're you talking about?" "Never mind." Another fifteen minutes pass. I think about the distance from here to Emdos' place. I figure it won't take me long to get there. "Hey, guys. I've been thinking about visiting Emdos for a while now…and—" "Go ahead," Sitos says and then smiles. "You did a lot today. We can take it from here. I am sure no one here minds." "Actually, I—bleh!" Sitos elbows Hiro in the stomach. Marin and Luna smile.  "Thanks, guys! Drugo, you know where to find me, right?" "Yup, I'll find you if we need you." With that, I run toward Emdos' place. I reach it in less than ten minutes. I smile, standing in front of the door with my heart pounding hard.  It's been over four years since I last saw Emdos… How should I act…? I stand there, thinking about everything I want to ask and say to him. I zone out for a while and then snap back to reality when I realize I can say what comes to mind when I see him, letting it come naturally. I put my hand on the doorknob and turn it. The door is unlocked. I'm about to push it open when a voice resounds. "Are you really going to do it?" I push open the door and then go in. "Emdos?" I call his name and close the door behind me. I walk down the hallway in front of me, heading toward the living room on the left side of the hallway. I find Emdos standing there facing the closet. He turns around. "Oh! Is that you, Kai? You've grown!" "Yeah!" I exclaim and then hug him. "Who were you talking to?" "I was talking to someone? You might've been hearing things." I cock an eyebrow. My eyes focus on the closet he was looking at just now. I smile. "How gullible do you think I am?" I walk over to the closet, preparing to open it. "Wait, don't open that!" "Let's see what you’re hiding!" I declare and then open the closet. A mountain of clothes falls and pushes me down. There's no one in the closet. I knit my eyebrows as I look around. The windows are shut, and I didn't hear them open after I entered the house. Was it really my imagination? "I warned you… I bought a bit too much," Emdos explains as he picks up the clothes and then shoves them back into the closet. "What brings you here, Kai?" "I was on a mission, but my friends can finish the job, so I came here to visit." The book I lost lurks at the back of my mind. I want to tell him, but I can't bring myself to.  "I see." My heart skips a beat when he suddenly asks, "Have you been keeping up with the book I left you with?" I don't answer immediately. I only stare at his back while he puts his clothes back into the closet. "Yeah…actually, I have something to tell you." My heart beats progressively faster. "I…" "Kaister!"  "Hey, Kai!"  Drugo and Hiro? Emdos shuts the closet door and then says, "It sounds like your friends are calling for you." "Yeah, I'm gonna go check it out," I say and then open the front door. "Kaister, there you are! It's an emergency!" Drugo exclaims. I quirk an eyebrow. "What happened?"  "We'll explain on the way, but we have to go now! Luna and Sitos got captured!" "What?!" "Is that Emdos behind you?" Emdos is looking over my shoulder. "That would be me indeed. So you're one of Kai's friends?" "Yup, but now's not the time! Could you come with us?" "I don't mind… Kai are you okay with that?" If we bring Emdos along, we would definitely rescue Luna and Sitos…but then what was the point of going to the Academy? I figure the situation is serious based on Drugo's facial expression. I rarely find him in this panicked state. I sigh before answering, "No, I don't want you to come with us. I'm gonna show you that I've grown since then." Emdos smiles. "I'll be waiting for you to come back with all your friends." "Kaister, are you sure about this? These people might be the kidnappers the guards were talking about earlier…" Drugo mentions. I widen my eyes and then say, "Seriously?" This situation might be direr than I thought… "Hey!" Hiro yells from close by. He's running toward us with Marin and a few guards. "I got some help from some guards who caught interest. Let's go back!" "I'll be back later Emdos!" I exclaim and then run alongside the others. "Can you fill me in on what happened?" "Yeh, those buyers came right after you left. We followed them here in the Residential District. They went into this alleyway in the slums. There was some kinda warehouse buildin' in there. We heard them talkin' about using these balls to kidnap people when they noticed us. We ran immediately, but some gas came out of a ball they threw out. Luna got caught in it and fell down. She wouldn't respond after that," Hiro explains. "What?!" I grit my teeth. After I told her I would protect her… Why did I decide to visit Emdos at that moment? It's all my fault… "Sitoster went in after we saw Luna go down. When he reached the gas, he went down too without a sound," Drugo explains. A few minutes later, we arrive at our destination. There are double doors leading to a building inside the alleyway.  "You students wait here. We'll go inside first," one of the guards instructs. "Be ready when we give the signal to go in." We nod our heads and let them go in first. Several minutes pass with no signs of anything happening inside. No noises at all resound. "It's too quiet… Should we go in?" I ask and then yawn. Drugo yawns and then says, "No, we let's wait a while longer." Something resounds behind me. It was the sound of Hiro and Marin falling to the ground. My vision blurs as my strength leaves me. I fall on the ground too and then pass out.

Floyd and the others rejoin us.   The atmosphere is a little tense right now, and I can’t let the others catch on. Need to lighten the mood somehow.   “So, did you guys settle on a value?” I ask and let out a chuckle. If comparing busts, Ada is the smallest. “Ada’s worth less, right?”   “Shut it.”   “Just the ballpark,” Aisha informs.   “Well, with that settled, let’s move onto the game. I’ve been working on a new game concept based on rock paper scissors. This table here is the only one in the entire Casino. It’s still under development, but this is the first playable iteration. I enjoy it because it’s not completely up to chance.”   “So, you’ll have an advantage because you made it and know how it works,” I say. There has to be a catch working to his advantage. That’s how it always worked on the Drymo’s streets.   “Yes, but it’s not hard to learn. You’ll see. I’m offering you the chance to play in pairs and have three opportunities to beat me once. My winning condition will be beating all three pairs.”   “Fine. What’re the rules?” I ask.   “The game is called ‘Tower Wars.’ There are five phases in a round. It starts with the Attacker Phase, where the player decides on a move. The options are Stone, Wind, Fire, Reflect, or Replenish. Replenish means having no attack and the opportunity to draw one of the other four at random.”   “The Examination Phase comes after the Attacker Phase, and it gives the other person a short window to engage in conversation with the attacker to determine what move they have chosen. The Defender is allowed to ask two questions in which the Attacker must give a definite answer, truth or not. An answer like ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I refuse to answer’ won’t be valid. It’s a mind game. Then it’s the Defender Phase where the person who hasn’t locked in a Gun chooses their move.”   “The fourth phase is the Event Phase. We observe what both players have chosen. Relatively speaking, Wind beats Stone, Fire beats Wind, and Stone beats Fire. Reflect uses Abjuration magic, and it’s self-explanatory. You’d want to use Replenish when the opponent uses Wind or Reflect. The only way to deal damage to the other opponent is through successful usage of Stone and Fire or Reflecting the opponent’s Fire or Stone.”   Some of those descriptions don’t sound right to me. Fire loses to Stone? I’ll wait until the end to clarify that point.   “The last phase is when any players who chose the Replenish option have the opportunity to select a Gun from the stockpile blindly,” Floyd explains and opens up something at the center of the table. There are dozens of Guns facing down. He takes one and then slides something on the handle, revealing the letter ‘S,’ presumably for Stone. “As you can see, they can’t be distinguished until you’ve selected one and checked manually.”   “You’ve probably memorized the locations of the Guns,” I say.   “The location of each Gun changes and it’s to be determined at the beginning of the game. There are a total of 12 Stones, 12 Winds, 12 Fires, and 6 Reflects. The game starts with each player taking turns selecting a Gun at random until both players have 14 Guns each. A shuffle fixes their initial location before that. Once Guns are used, they go into the trash bin. Also, each player is given the Replenish gun, which has nothing inside. All the Guns in your possession must be placed on the table if it’s not your turn. The roles of Attacker and Defender are swapped every round.”   The game seems simple enough. The luck comes into play when drawing your initial hand and drawing new Guns with Replenish. I mean, there’s some luck involved too with the outcome of the battle. According to Floyd, it’s a mind game, but there’s no way you can read your opponent with a one hundred percent certainty.   “So, shall we play?” Floyd asks.   He never clarified how the moves counter each other. I ask, “How does Stone beat Fire?”   “It might be easier to demonstrate. Keep in mind that the scale of the magic is not large to ensure that the participants aren’t injured accidentally,” he explains while taking several Guns from the table. These Guns don’t have a trigger button like the ones I’ve seen before. “The amount of Fire shot out is minuscule. Stone wins since there’s more of it.”   He moves around and inserts the Guns into the poles sticking out from each end of the table. “My engineer is still in the process of adjusting the properties of the Stone and Fire to make it do what I want. The final version of the game will utilize a Mana barrier around your tower as your lifeline, but we don’t have that now.”   He presses a button at the center of the table. Five seconds later, a tiny rock shoots out from below the Gun opening toward the other side. Meanwhile, the other side shoots out a thin layer of Fire, the same size as the rock. They collide briefly, and then the Fire disappears. The rock continues forward while descending slightly, eventually hitting the tower. It bounces off the surface, the table, and then finally the ground.   “As you see, Stone beats Fire. When the Mana barrier is set up, the remaining Stone will disintegrate into it, dealing some Durability damage,”   “How does damage work without the Mana barrier?” Aisha asks. “How many hits can the tower take?”   “We’ll say it has twenty hit points. A full Stone deals three, a full Fire deals two, and a leftover Stone from a collision with Fire deals one. If all the Guns are exhausted, we redo the shuffle with the ones in the trash pile and deal Guns as at the beginning of the game, but the hit points do not reset.”   “What about the Fire versus Wind event? You’re sayin’ that the Fire still does two damage?” Hina asks.   “That’s right. The Wind utilizes Blunt Wind magic, so it doesn’t deal any Durability damage as you’re all familiar,” Floyd explains. I didn’t know that but nod my head anyway. “It beats Stone by reducing its Kinetic Energy to the point where it can be shifted away from the tower. Fire magic can’t lose Kinetic Energy, so it doesn’t have a damage reduction.”   “Right...and the other kind of Wind magic’s called…?” Hina asks.    I’ve seen both types of Wind magic as everyone here, but I never learned their formal names. There’s one type that cuts and the other type that’s more of a push force. The devastating Wind magic Moria mentioned must’ve been the cutting type. I don’t know why neither Ada nor Hina has bothered utilizing it. Then there’s Blunt Wind...Floyd says it doesn’t do any Durability damage? All those times, people used Wind magic to push me away, I could’ve used Scrap Mana every time, and it would’ve made no difference. I should’ve suspected it when my Mana armor never broke. And what’s Kinetic Energy? Fire magic can’t lose that?    “Sharp Wind,” Ada responds, “I thought you knew better than your stupid boyfriend.”   “Shush. I haven’t invested in Wind magic as much. I wanted to know the formal name for reference.”   “If you knew about it, why haven’t you ever used it?” I ask.   “It’s too annoying to deal with.”   “In other words, you suck at it,” I say and then laugh. “You’re not any better off than her.”   “I don’t want to hear that from an idiot who only knows how to use Fire magic. It’s the most straight-forward Evocation type. Perfect for you.”   “Well, if there are no more questions, why don’t we get started?” Floyd asks.   “What’s Kinetic Energy?” I ask. Floyd gave us answers without asking for wagers regarding magic before. It’s convenient.   He cocks an eyebrow and asks, “Don’t you know already? You all used to be adventurers, right?”   “How’d you know?” I ask.   “It’s obvious. Those formally trained in the army wouldn’t be in this part of town right now, sniffing around. I’ve been giving you answers because I thought you knew most of this already. If you want to know, we can add it to our wager. A value of two more gold coins for the basics.”   “Wait, no,” Ada says. “I’m not risking more for that when I could attend an informational seminar.”   “It’s fine, Ada. It’s only two more gold coins,” Aisha says.   “Ugh, fine…” Ada concedes.   “Go ahead and add it. We’ll settle the details later as discussed,” Aisha says.   “Very well. Anyone have anything else to add?” Floyd asks.   It would be a stupid question, but I’m curious what he plans to do with all the leftover rocks from the Stone events. My guess is that the Earth Affinity Crystal that’s utilized is a small one. Eventually, they would start disappearing, but the size of these rocks is pretty small. He did say it wasn’t a finished game. Without that Mana barrier, it can fly off the table. It’s a bit too small to do anything, but who knows if it hits an eye.   “Let’s do this. We’ll go first,” Ada says as she and Aisha step forward.   “We’ll go last,” I say and put an arm around Hina. I’ll observe closely to see if Floyd uses a trick to win. It’s got to be worth something if I discover he’s cheating. He’d have to give us a free pass.   “Very well. I hope you’ll go easy on me. I’m sure ex-adventurers like you will have no problem picking up this game,” Floyd says as he returns the Guns back to the center of the table.   Aisha and Ada shuffle around the Guns in the middle for a few minutes to their liking. The match starts with our team and Floyd taking turns with their Gun selection until each side has fourteen. Floyd provides the empty Gun for himself and Ada.   Our team goes first, and they lock in a Gun for the Attacker phase. I’m not sure what to expect for the Examination Phase, but Floyd asks two standard questions whether Ada picked Stone for the first question and if she picked Fire for the second. Since we are playing in pairs, Floyd requests that each player answers two questions. He asks the same set of questions to Aisha. They answer the same.   Floyd locks in his choice. His selection is Wind against our Fire, so we deal two damage to him. This is what he meant by mind games. It looks like he isn’t too good at reading other people because our team responded with ‘No’ to whether or not they selected Fire as their move.   Aisha and Ada follow Floyd’s lead on the type of questions to ask during their Examination Phase. The rest of the game is about even but tips in our team’s favor. Floyd manages to do fifteen damage before losing all of his hit points. It could’ve gone either way with one wrong move for us.   “We did it!” Ada exclaims. She high-fives Aisha.   Floyd smiles and says, “Congratulations. I knew ex-adventurers would be tougher than the usual around here. As promised, I’ll tell you what I know about the auction and Kinetic Energy. Which one do you want to hear first?”   “Kinetic Energy,” I say. Let’s see what he tells us. I’m hoping for something worth two gold coins. He did say the basics, so it’s either hard to come across, or he’s conning us. Doesn’t matter too much since we won the bet.   “Kinetic Energy is, in essence, how fast magic is moving. Magic only lowers the Durability of other magic if it has Kinetic Energy. So, if any magic with Kinetic Energy comes into contact with magic without any, only the Durability of the one with no Kinetic Energy will be lowered,” Floyd explains.   It’s really straight forward. I’m not sure how some of this is applicable in combat for me since I only have Fire magic.    “If any two magical objects with Kinetic Energy collide, two things usually happen. The Durability and Kinetic Energy of both magical objects decrease. Anything with Kinetic Energy will decrease upon collision with any other magical object. The exception, however, is Fire magic. The Kinetic Energy from it can never lower from external forces.”   It’s true that whenever I shoot out magic, the speed that it flies through the air is constant. After blasting through other magic, it continues to move at the same speed. I guess for other magic, they would travel slower. I’m glad my talent was in Fire magic. The other Affinities seem weaker. Like Earth magic. After the Wind blows the Stone away, it’s useless. But wait, Ragnar used that stone cube to stop my strongest magic.   “Wait,” Ada says. “You’re wrong about one thing. You’re saying that stationary magic can’t lower the Durability of moving magic, right? But I know for certain that it does. One of our friends uses Earth magic, and we’ve tested this.”   “There are always special exceptions. Earth magic is special in that it doesn’t need any Kinetic Energy to lower the Durability of other magic. It’s no surprise to you that every magic has its advantages and disadvantages. Ordinary Mana doesn’t need to be moving to lower the Durability of other magic either.”    That makes more sense. Earth magic is suited for defense more than offense, especially because it has the highest Durability.    “Here’s one last piece of information on that note. Some magic, I know Earth included, has a certain Kinetic Energy threshold in which physical forces start acting on the magical object should the Kinetic Energy dip under it.”   “What do you mean?” Aisha asks.   “Think back to our game. Compare the Stone versus Replenish or Reflect compared to Stone versus Fire. What’s the difference?”   “Oh. In the Stone versus Fire event, the Earth magic dipped in a small arc downward. It wasn’t going straight anymore,” Aisha says.    “Exactly. It’s because the Kinetic Energy decreased past the threshold after the collision with the Fire magic, and then gravity pulled it down. In the other interaction, it shot straight until it hit one of the two towers. Hitting physical surfaces decreases Kinetic Energy too, but what’s interesting is that if it’s still above the threshold, after the ricochet, it’ll continue straight in the expected direction as a physical object would.”   Ohh… That’s why creating a rock ball and shooting it forward isn’t quite as advantageous to do compared to Fire magic because of the Kinetic Energy aspect. That’s why the Brown Ursa chose to rain boulders from above instead of from the sides. Even if Kinetic Energy reduces, gravity still gives it Kinetic Energy naturally. Splinter, too, mostly attacked from the air or from the ground. Spikes from the ground could serve as a defense barrier if the attack fails. Their decisions make a bit more sense.   I should be cautious in the future about taking on Earth magic head-on when they’re coming from the air. I got lucky the time with Ragnar. I only survived because of my Mana, and I happen to create a slanted wall that shifted the Kinetic Energy of the rock away from me.   “Kinetic Energy can be trickier when the user intentionally uses a non-straight path. I wouldn’t be able to tell you the specifics. Keep in mind that there are other nuances with it and special cases so don’t hold it against me if your plans in the future don’t go as planned.”   “Thank you for the lesson. What do you know about the auction?” Aisha asks.   “There’s an open marketplace down here where anyone can put an item for sale or trade for other goods. During the Inteiru Expota, there’s a surplus of both buyers and sellers. The auction was created to showcase some of the hottest items for sale in this three-day period. Anyone in the room can bid on an item as long as they have the gold to pay for it. It goes to the highest bidder.”   “What kinds of items are we talking about here?” I ask, having a good idea since this is the black market we’re talking about.   “It could be anything. Slaves, equipment, food, drugs, you name it, but what I’m personally most interested in is the shipment of new Aerkins. Do you remember when I mentioned that an unknown group has been supplying Aerkins at an all-time low price? It’s the same group,” Floyd informs.    Shipment of new Aerkins...it sounds familiar. I think Lotrem and Nazug were talking about it at the Icy tavern. I reply, “Yeah. I think I heard something about it. Something about it being on a completely different level?”   “Yes, you heard right. I’m excited because it could change the scene forever.”   “So, the auction is a building somewhere in the marketplace here?” Aisha asks.   “Indeed. There’s one requirement you should be aware of, however. It’s a safety precaution.”   “What’s that?” Aisha asks.   “Anyone wandering into the marketplace during the Inteiru Expota is required to wear masks as an unspoken required rule. It’s not enforced until you try to walk into the auction.”   A mask? I immediately think of the masked men. I ask, “Why?”   “As I’ve said, a safety precaution. Some people come from noble origins, and discretion is advised to ensure anonymity. All sorts of dangerous figures come to the event, and it’s best if your face isn’t seen by anybody. You don’t want to be marked. But it’s also to differentiate you from slaves, who won’t be wearing masks.”   So there’s a good chance for those snake earring guys or those masked men to appear. If Floyd knew anything about the snake earring group, it would be related to the auction, wouldn’t it?    Floyd continues, “Be warned. I advise you to keep your head down and mind your own business. Seeing how you’re broke, I don’t think you’re asking about the auction because you’re interested in purchasing something. Con artists lurk the scene. You shouldn’t trust everything someone tells you, especially in the marketplace. It’s an unenforced and dangerous zone.”   “If it’s so dangerous, why’re you planning to go?” I ask. He said he’s never fought ex-adventurers in the Tower Wars game and to go easy on him. That means he’s not one himself, or it’s weird to say that. He’s very knowledgeable about magic theory, though. What’s his background?     “I’ll be fine,” he replies calmly. “If there’s ever a time to purchase an Aerkin, it’s now. I’ll try my hand at the Achilles Sundance Circuit with the rumored shipment of Aerkins.”   “Who’re you to be so confident that you’ll be able to defend yourself in a place like that?” I ask. Perhaps he would hire a bodyguard. Or he’s confident enough on his own. “Did you serve in the army or work as an adventurer?”   “I have my ways. I’m afraid I can’t disclose that to you at any price.”   That’s a bit fishy, considering the risk he mentioned earlier for telling us a few things about the snake earring group. Whatever secret he’s hiding from us is something even more dangerous to know? He could be anything at this point. We know nothing about him other than his interest in the Achilles Sundance Circuit and that he’s the boss at the Casino. That alone draws suspicion in this mostly Dwarven populated area.   “The auction takes place from roughly 9 AM till noon on all three days. That’s all I have for you. Did you want to make another wager?”   “Yes. We’ll wager the same thing for the price of twenty gold coins in exchange for information on the snake earring group,” Aisha declares.   “Wait,” Hina interjects. “I need to talk to you and Ada about somethin’.”   Hina, Aisha, and Ada walk a few paces away from the group and huddle close together. She’s probably telling them about that thing from earlier. Only someone like Hina would know something like that. Their team is probably inexperienced in comparison. They whisper to each other for a minute before rejoining us.   “So, will you be taking on the wager?” Floyd asks. “Same rules as before. I’ll have to beat all three pairs to count as a win.”   “Yes, let’s do it,” Aisha says.   He wasn’t close to winning the first one, but he’s willing to play again under the same rule set? He must be confident about beating Aisha and Ada this time. But, he hasn’t had a chance to get a good read on Ruby and Marin or Hina and me yet.   While they’re setting up the game, I whisper to Hina, “So, what’d they say?”   “They’re goin’ to opt for the lowest level of service they can, but they’ll have to work longer hours. They won’t let it impact the investigatin’ work we’re doin’,” Hina whispers.   “I see. It’s not much to worry about. We won’t lose,” I say.   “Right.”   A few minutes pass, and they start the game as before. Aisha and Ada go first and lock in their Gun. It moves into the Examination Phase.   “Aisha, how many guys have you spread your legs for?” Floyd asks suddenly.   “Excuse me?” Aisha asks.   I knit my eyebrows. All the questions from the first game were pretty cut and dry, asking about if it was Earth, Fire, Wind, Reflect, or Replenish. How’s this accomplish anything?   “You heard me,” Floyd says and then smiles. “I haven’t heard your answer.”   “What the hell? That’s not a question about the game. You can’t do that,” Ada says.   “Of course I can. I’m free to ask any questions I’d like. Those are the rules. It’s not my fault you inferred incorrectly from the last game. Now answer it.”   Aisha stutters for a few seconds, unable to form a coherent word. She’s probably deciding to answer truthfully or lie. I don’t know why she’s putting so much thought into it. Just make up something.   She blushes and says, “T-two.”   “You mentioned messing around with guys before, but that’s a surprisingly modest number. That’s bold, giving me an honest answer. But you’re insecure about it. Do you think your parents would be proud of you right now?”   “Yes, they would be proud of me. I’ve grown into a strong, independent woman,” Aisha says without hesitation this time. It’s good that she answered the question literally without paying mind to his previous remarks.   Floyd shifts his gaze to Ada and asks, “You’ve admitted to being a virgin. Have you ever been curious about what sex feels like?”   “No, it sounds disgusting.”   “Don’t lie. Everyone’s curious about sex around your age. It would be strange if you didn’t. You said you didn’t hook up with your friends because it would make things awkward between you. Why didn’t you answer before that sex disgusts you?”   “I—uh…” Ada stammers. Floyd has been paying close attention to the conversations we’ve been having, remembering minute details. Ada’s clearly caught up in a lie. “I didn’t want to hurt their feelings.”   With that, Floyd locks in his choice. He picks Wind against Fire. He loses two hit points. After all that, it didn’t do him any good.    In the next round, Ada and Aisha ask the standard questions. It worked last game, so that’s what they’re rolling with. Floyd’s tone of voice down to his body movements seems to be the same to me. Our team selects Reflect against his Fire. He loses two hit points again.    The cycle repeats to Floyd, asking our pair questions. Will he opt to ask those nonsensical questions again? It could be his ploy to ruin their reputations in the process in exchange for a tie of sorts.   “Aisha, the rich girl. You consider yourself to be a strong, independent woman. That’s why you confidently declared that you’d go as far as second base. If you’re really as strong as you claim, why not go all the way?”   “There’s no need to.”   “Well, when you say it like that, there was never any need at all. But, you readily offered your body to make up the cost deficit without considering other possible options. You want to be touched, but you have to keep up appearances. Wouldn’t want to be viewed as a slut. You love sex, don’t you?”   “Yes, I like it! But, so what?!” Aisha bursts out. “Who doesn’t? It feels good. I’m not ashamed to admit it. But I’m not that desperate to want it from complete strangers, so stop making up shit.”   I frown with a skew. Aisha’s taking this a little too seriously. This is the first time I’ve seen her lash out like this. Is she flustered because what he’s saying is true or because she can’t handle it when people have facts wrong?   Floyd only smiles and nods his head repeatedly.    “Aisha, don’t let this pervert get to you,” Ada says.   “Shut up,” Aisha answers. “I know.”   Floyd turns to Ada and says, “Ada, Ada, Ada… You’re rough around the edges and have violent tendencies. You don’t let people in easily and push people away instead. If I had to guess, it’s because you don’t want to get hurt. You can’t get hurt if you aren’t in a position to. Does that sound about right?”   “You’ve got it completely wrong. You’re not as smart as you think you are.”   “It’s easy to put together that the real reason why you’re still a virgin is that you don’t want to get your feelings hurt. A one night stand would leave you feeling empty and used. Instead, you yearn for meaningful love. Admit it. You want to be loved, right?”   Ada hesitates for a second before replying, “No, you’ve got it all wrong again.”   Oh boy… Even though Aisha and Ada are winning, it feels like they’re losing. They’re completely under Floyd’s control. With so little to go off of, he’s figured out how to agitate them off their game.   Floyd ends up using a Fire against a Wind. We lose two hit points.   What follows is either blind luck or calculated on Floyd's part, but our team has been lagging behind. He starts mixing the standard questions following the questions he used at first.   It’s now down to our pair with two hit points left against Floyd’s three. Ada and Aisha have only one Gun left other than the empty one. Floyd has one more. If our team makes the wrong move this turn, it’s over. I haven’t been paying attention to every Gun that’s been used in the game so far to know what’s left. There are eight guns left in the Replenish pile.   Ada and Aisha take both Guns and hides from Floyd’s view so that he doesn’t know which one they select if he somehow knows which one is the empty one. They put a Gun into the tower and lock it in. The only way our team can win in a move is if they put in a Stone, and then Floyd selects Replenish or team uses a Reflect on Floyd’s Stone. But Floyd has to know that, so he wouldn’t pick Reflect or Replenish. I don’t know what anyone has, so I don’t know what will happen.   “This is your one time offer. Join me once in a private room for some unadulterated fun for 200 gold coins. What do you say, Aisha?”    I gape. 200 gold coins?! That’s insane. I didn’t think Floyd would be this type of person, though. But as Hina said, he’s a criminal. It shouldn’t come with that much surprise. Still, 200 gold coins...that’s no joke. Why would he pay that amount for something that mundane? I don’t know what the price is normally for that sort of activity, but it can’t be anywhere close to that number.   Aisha’s lips quiver for several seconds. She opens her mouth but doesn’t say anything and then closes them again. This question feels like it would be a no brainer, considering that she was willing to go as far as second base. For that high amount of gold increase for something a little further shouldn’t be that big of a deal.   “No thank you,” she responds after a while. “You haven’t won the wager yet. Don’t get ahead of yourself.”   “Aha, you thought about it. Judging by our conversation, I knew you wouldn’t agree to it, despite the generous offer. You’re agitated. You didn’t want to dance to my tune. It’s been really fun getting to know you. I love spoiled brats. Do you prefer top or bottom?”   “Bottom,” Aisha answers after another moment of hesitation.   “Ah, the strong woman. You’re not afraid of letting others take control. You’ll let them demean you, but it doesn’t shake who you are,” Floyd says and then glances at Ada. “I don’t need to ask about the flat-chested girl. You don’t have any redeeming ladylike qualities.  I’ll forfeit the rest of my Examination Phase.”   “Screw you.”   “I’ve won this game either way. I have two Fires in my hand. No matter your play, you lost,” Floyd informs.   The event unfolds just as he stated. Our Stone against his Fire results in one damage to him, but with Aisha and Ada out of moves, they lose all their hit points in the next turn by default with the remaining Fire. It looks like he was asking Aisha questions for fun. I can’t believe these two idiots played into Floyd’s hand.   Up next is Ruby and Marin. Are they going to be able to take the heat if he asks those types of questions to them?   “Now, the next pair. You always have the option of forfeiting, too,” Floyd informs.   Forfeiting? That’s one option… Maybe Marin and Ruby should do that. I don’t want them to get hurt. Floyd knows where to poke. I don’t need Ruby to become more twisted as a result of him poking her the wrong way.   “Maybe you two should sit this one out,” I suggest as Marin and Ruby switch places with Aisha and Ada.   “No way, are you crazy?” Ada asks. “Don’t let that creep have his way.”   “Let them do what they want,” Aisha says with little energy.   “Aisha, what are you talking about?”   “We can’t force them. It’s their choice.”   Ada stares at her, scoffs, and shakes her head.   “Don’t worry, Kai. We’ll be fine,” Ruby says. “Right, Marin?”   “Yeah…” Marin answers weakly with a nod.   I inhale and exhale deeply. I already feel the anxiety that’s coming. Hina holds my hand, her eyes focused on the game.   It starts with the usual steps with Ruby and Marin starting from the Attacker side. How will they answer Floyd’s questions? I’m certain that Aisha tried answering honestly while Ada attempted the opposite. Both didn’t seem to work well. I don’t think it matters as long as Ruby and Marin don’t let Floyd’s words get into their heads. They haven’t said much, so Floyd shouldn’t have much to work with.   They make their choice, moving the game to the Examination Phase.   Floyd stares at them for several seconds and then says, “Kai seems to be protective of both of you. You probably were adventurers together before joining the army. Aisha has been transparent about her activities in the past with her team. Have you messed around with Kai? Long hair answers first.”   “Yeah, I did it with ‘im lots!”   Is she answering as Ruby or…? Either way, it’s not completely accurate. So Ruby plans on spitting out lies. Though, a bit different than what Ada did.   “What about you, Marin?”   “No,” Marin answers quickly.   “So, you’re a virgin?” he asks.   My palms sweat. If she shows even a shred of doubt, it’s all over. Floyd will be relentless in pursuing lies like he did with Ada. Ruby will find out that I’ve slept with Marin at least once and possibly more. The fake relationship I’ve established with Hina could crumble too.    “Yes.”   “Very quiet and straight to the point. Back to you, long hair. How many other guys have you done it with?”   “A million.”   “Wow. So, you’re a slut.”   “Shut up and move on. They’ve answered their questions,” I say.   “I’ll ask you to refrain from influencing the game. This is a two on one battle, outsiders aren’t allowed to talk.”   The game proceeds, somehow still mostly even favoring Floyd despite that he hasn’t been asking questions about their selection. The possibility that he’s cheating somehow is still possible, but I don’t know how he would be doing it. He’s just lucky. The good thing is that Marin and Ruby haven’t been fazed by his questions, yet.   “Strange how you aren’t helping Ada and Aisha with the services. I’ll bet that Kai didn’t want to include you and Marin. Tell me, though. A slut like you would volunteer given the chance, right?”   “Yeah, I’ll do anythin’ for Kai,” Ruby answers.    “You’ll do anything...so you love him?”   “Yup.”   I bite my lip. I know she’s telling the truth now. But what about before? Were they lies or truths? A million? That has to be false. Yeah. She’s mixing them up.    “The quiet one always has the most to hide. What secrets are you hiding…? Hmm… Do you like it top or bottom?”   “I don’t know. I have no experience.”   This is nerve-wracking. Any inconsistency or hesitation could end everything.   “Have you ever lied?”   “Yes,” Marin replies with a slight delayed response time. She might’ve thought about lying and then decided against it. It’s not too suspicious. Everyone has bound to have lied at some point. I remember Marin talking about how she dropped a rock on Hiro back then. She could be thinking of that or the secrets we shared together. I’m not sure if keeping a secret is the same thing as lying.   I need to think about what I’m going to say if it comes down to Hina and me. He’s definitely going to ask about my relationship with Hina and how often we get it on. When and where we met. We don’t have to be truthful, but we can’t be caught in an obvious lie in front of Aisha and Ada. So at least what’s truthful should be clear between us. They might also find it strange if we lie about something we’re open about.   I whisper my idea to Hina, and she’s on board. We brainstorm all the possibilities we can think of with appropriate responses after every Examination Phase for our team. It’s too intense to look away during those moments.   “Kai seems to be popular around the ladies. Why do you love him?”   “He fills a void in my heart. I feel happiest with him by my side,” Ruby responds.   “Who else have you loved in your life?”   She pauses for a moment and then answers, “No one.”   “You’re a good liar, Marin. You must do it a lot. Might fool everyone else, but not me. Who do you think about when you pleasure yourself?”   “An old friend.”   “An old friend, you say. Someone deceased, perhaps. Have you joined the army for revenge?”   “Yes.”   The game proceeds. I might’ve been worried for nothing. Ruby and Marin both have this under control. Yet, the battle is even. We have eight hit points left, and Floyd has nine.   “What do you think of your father, long hair?”   “I don’t have one.”   Her answer brings me to that scene from that day. I gulp down that sour taste that creeps in from the back of my throat, forcing it down.   “That’s a lie. Everyone has one, that’s how it works. You’ve got some daddy issues?”   “No. I don’t have a dad.”   Now Ruby seems annoyed. I would be too with the way Floyd is asking these questions. But she was talking to herself that day. She said, “Daddy.” I remember it clearly. She...I mean, Luna didn’t have one. So, Ruby could have one, but no. Argh! I squeeze the skin between the eyes.   Floyd turns to Marin and asks, “Who’s your best friend?”   “Ruby.”   “What do you think about her overt sexuality?”   “She can do what she wants.”   Time goes by with nothing big happening. Thankfully, it’s almost over.   “Ruby, what would you do if you found out your best friend was dating Kai behind your back?” Floyd asks.   Oh, no. This kind of question is dangerous for a lot of good reasons. Is it a coincidence he asked something that specific?   “She wouldn’t do that.”   Floyd smiles and says, “But, I’m asking if she did.”   “Then, I’d probably flay ‘er alive ‘n’ spit roast ‘er over a fire made with ‘er arrows,” Ruby replies with a grin. “Oh, soup might be better, ‘cause Kai likes it!”   I can only imagine what Marin’s thinking right now. I’d be a nervous wreck. It’s a possibility we considered before that Ruby would be violent if she ever found out about us, but I thought she wouldn’t lay a hand on Marin. It really sounds like she means what she said. Still, I wouldn’t let her do that if it comes down to it. Ruby listens to me.   With Floyd’s line of questioning right now, I hope he doesn’t ask the same question about Hina. I don’t know what kind of reply she would give for that one, but it probably wouldn’t work in our favor. She can’t say that it’s physical only and she can’t say that she supports us, after her response to Marin.   Floyd laughs. “That’s quite the answer. After hearing that, I’m sure Marin wouldn’t ever dare try something like that in the future, right, Marin?”   “Right,” Marin responds normally.   “So that brings me to--”   “Boss!” a Dwarf runs over from behind us. He continues toward Floyd and then whispers something into his ear.   “Sorry, I have to take care of something. I’ll be back soon to finish our game. My associate here will make sure you don’t cheat while I’m away,” Floyd says and then runs off in a hurry.   What’s so urgent? With the Dwarf here, we can neither look at his hand nor the stockpile in the middle, not that I would. I want to win fair and square. Though, I’m curious if there’s anything special from his side of the table. Maybe there’s a gimmick there that gives him an advantage.   He keeps us waiting for quite a while but comes back after around fifteen minutes. His associate leaves at the same time.   “Sorry about that... Now, where were we? Ruby, you thought about using Wind, but you’re going with Replenish, right?”   What? That’s the first time he’s asked a standard question this game. Anyone would think that it’s a bit odd.    He continues with those types of questions for the rest of the game. It must’ve had to do with whatever urgent matter he dealt with. For the better or the worse, Ruby and Marin doesn’t have to deal with his shenanigans anymore.   But ever since he started asking normal questions, our pair loses every exchange. Floyd wins with five hit points left.

"It sounded like it came from one of the upper floors," Leila informs.   "It must be Jack!" We reach the entrance we entered earlier today. I pull the double doors open, not stopping to think why they're unlocked. With the three paths in front of me, I declare, "I'll take the left staircase!"   "And I'll go right!"   I sprint up the stairs, skipping several steps with every lunge. The sound of the metal doors closing echoes behind me. The stairs curve toward the right. It splits into two more paths. The stairs continue on the left and the right leads into a hallway. While holding my breath, I listen to my surroundings. A tiny sound comes from the hallway. I sprint toward it.   Thoughts of someone hurting Irene or worse play in my head. I shake my head and grit my teeth. Please be safe!    Using the occasional screams that resound, I navigate through the various hallways.   "Help!" Irene screams. Her voice is close. Light from a room with an open door ahead illuminates the dark hallway. My heart beats faster with every step I take.    I finally make it to the door and look inside. I widen my eyes. Nauseating memories appear in my head. I squeeze my eyes shut as I put a hand over the scar tingling across my chest. This time's different…   I open my eyes, walk forward, and then yell, "Irene!"   "Who is there?!" The man on top of Irene yells. He turns half his body around. I raise my eyebrows as I continue to walk forward.   "You… You're Reid," I say while frowning and narrowing my eyebrows. Irene makes muffled noises behind his left hand covering her mouth. She lies on the floor, wearing nothing except her underwear with her hands wrapped around his left arm. With only his shorts on, Reid widens his eyes and drops his jaws. Irene's judgment was wrong after all?   "Wait! There is an explanation for this!" he says as he turns around completely and stands up. He puts his hands in front of him. "It—"   I grab his neck, digging my fingers into his skin and thrust him against a nearby wall. He makes choking noises and grabs my arm with both of his. I move my head inches away from his face and say, "I had a feeling you were full of shit. By the time I'm done with you, you're gonna beg me to kill you…"   I grab the sword on the left side of my hip with my left hand. I start to unsheathe it, but someone grabs my left arm. I turn to see who it was. It's Irene. She frowns with quivering lips. What's she doing? Why's she stopping me? Reid just…   Her eyes tell me everything without her saying a word. I remember the promise I made with Irene. I hold back my demons for now and sigh. I let go of my sword and Reid. He coughs and gasps for air.   "Start talking," I demand. "If you lie…something bad will happen."   "I-I got that already…but…" Reid responds while darting his eyes around.   "But what?"   "Can you let me put on my clothes first? They are right over there." He points to a shirt and pants lying on the ground across the room next to the bed.   "Fine," I say and turn back to Irene. I take one of my swords and cut the ropes binding Irene's hands.    "I'm glad you came back, but what're you doing here?" Irene asks.    "There was something we needed to check again at the library."    She smiles and says, "Oh! Leila's here too then, right?"   I can't help but stare at her chest. I gulp and force my eyes to look somewhere else, but my focus is still there. "Yeah…"   I look around the room for her dress. It is on the floor across the room. I notice Reid still hasn't gotten dressed. He has his pants in his hands, but he's not putting it on. He grins widely. A second later, something rumbles in the distance. The floor occasionally vibrates beneath my feet. I raise my eyebrows and run toward Reid. He has one of his hands inside the pocket of his pants. I grab his arm and remove it from the pocket. He holds onto a Slave Remote.   I narrow my eyebrows and say, "You bastard…"   He laughs. "You will regret raising your hand against me!"   These vibrations… It can't be an Elf, so it must be one of the larger variants of the Xog… Is it an Ogre, Minotaur…or something else?   "Did you shit your pants? You will have to thank my benefactor for that one."   A benefactor…? Reid is still grinning in front of me. Damn he's so annoying…   I click my tongue and punch him in the face with a right hook. He lets out a cry of pain. I grab Irene's dress and run for the exit.  I hold out her dress in front of her and say, "Irene, take this and let's go. We need to leave."   She takes it and follows me into the hallway.    "Kai!" Leila yells. She's running toward us from the opposite end of the hallway I came from. The rumbling grows louder. A large silhouette emerges behind her. It's at least 15 feet tall. "It's an Ogre! We need to take this outside!"   An Ogre? 15 feet's unheard of…   I run with Irene in the direction I came. "We can't fight outside!"   "Why not? You know my magic's not as effective otherwise."   I think about Marin and Ruby. "It'll be bad if we draw unwanted attention. Just fight him here."   I start to slow my pace.   "No, keep running. He's fast and we can't avoid that troublesome weapon in this narrow hallway. If we can't go outside…then the only other open area I know of is the library. Lead me back to the entrance, and I'll lead the rest of the way," Leila says, eventually catching up to us in pace. "By the way, what happened?"   She looks at Irene. I answer, "It was Reid. He tried to—"   A roar resounds behind us, and the rumbling intensifies. I glance behind me.  At this rate, he's gonna catch up!   "Irene, I'm gonna carry you so bear with me!" I declare then sweep her off the ground while she's still running. She lets out a small shriek. "Haste!"   I retrace my own steps, eventually finding the same stairs and go down. Leila takes the lead, and we go up the stairs Leila took earlier. I look behind me. The Ogre scales down the stairs on the other side like it's a ramp. At the bottom of the stairs, he leaps at us. He raises his giant gray bat overhead and swings it down. Stone scatters around the impact point a few feet behind me. I feel a few bumps on my back. So that's the troublesome weapon she meant… A cave-in situation would be bad.   I gulp at the top of the stairs then ask, "How much farther?!"   "It's not that far now."   "Kai, run faster!" Irene exclaims. "He's going to hit us!"   I don't change my speed when Leila puts a hand in one of her back pouches. One of her seeds flies past me. "Sprout!"   The Ogre lets out a loud grunting noise, and the vibrations halt. Glancing over my shoulder, I find a rough wall made out of vines extended from the width of the hallway to each wall. I sigh before asking, "Did you really have to wait that long?"   "I was contemplating whether I wanted to waste one of my precious seeds to save you, but Irene is with you."   I curl one side of my lips upward. We finally arrive at the library. I put Irene down. "Find a hiding spot away from the battle."   "Okay, be careful!"   Irene scurries away. Leila points her hand toward the ceiling before shouting, "Flare!"   A ball of fire appears from her palm that shoots upward. It stops just before it hits the ceiling, illuminating the room. The rumbling and vibrations continue in slower intervals compared to before. A loud banging noise resounds in the distance paired with more shaking. This sounds like…   I look over on the opposite side of the wall. The loud sound stops for a few seconds, but the ground still vibrates a little. Subsequently, cracks appear on the wall paired with another bang. The wall bursts open, knocking down a bookcase in the process. The Ogre emerges and runs toward us. He wears a Slave Collar and has armor all over his body that matches the color of his bat. Reid is behind him, now fully clothed and dons a sword on his hip.   With that power, he'll probably break my swords if I take them head-on…   I point my left palm at the charging Ogre. "Fireball!"    A small ball of fire appears from my palm and flies toward the Ogre. It bursts into flames in front of his breastplate. He continues charging at me as if nothing has happened.   "His armor's fire-resistant, and his skin is too thick for my seeds to go through by themselves. I'll make an opening for you to make an opening," Leila informs.   "Got it," I reply, charging in. I take both of my swords and ready them in front of me.  The ogre raises his club over his head again with one arm. Several seeds zoom past me toward the Ogre.   "Sprout!" The seeds burst into a mist in front of his face and around his upper body. He drops his arms, looks behind him, and then lets out a confused noise. Reid runs into the library.   "What are you doing looking at me, you stupid Ogre?! I have not changed my command! Kill them!" Reid exclaims.   I run up to the Ogre's legs and cut him on both legs with a slash through the gaps of his arm and jump backward. I prepare my Mana. He lets out another confused noise and looks at his legs. Two more seeds fly past me. One of them enters the wound on his right leg and the other in his left. "Sprout!"   Vines appear from his wounds, spiraling around his limbs in both directions. He tries to grab it with his free hand, but he's unable to get a grip. I release my Mana and wait for the moment they reach their destinations. "Open!"   A vertical purple portal appears in front of me and a horizontal one above the Ogre's head. I reverse my grip on the swords and leap in the portal in front of me while the Ogre struggles with the vines. I appear on the bottom side of the other portal above the Ogre. My body falls on the top of his head.    "He is above you! Do something!" Reid exclaims. "Do you not understand?!"   The Ogre hasn't seemed to notice me. I take this chance to stab both of his eyes with my weapons. I pull them out and kick my legs off the back of his head. He lets out a loud growl and flails his metal club in front of him. His other hand covers his eyes. The force of some of the empty strikes blows against my body. I land on my feet behind him. "Close!"   The two purple portals I created scatter. He attempts to move his legs, but he staggers. He loses his balance and falls backward. I sheathe my left sword and point my right blade upward. "Strengthen!"   I put force into my right arm as the Ogre's head comes into range above me. My weapon completely pierces him, stopping only at the guard. Some blood splatters on the floor around me. My right arm is pushed back a little, but I stabilize it. Warm blood oozes out from the back of his head, bathing my hand in blood. Some of it slides down my arm and the side of my body. The rest of his body wiggles, gradually getting weaker.   "Shit!" Reid exclaims. I turn my head around and then he runs where he came. Leila chases after him.   "Sprout!"  Vines appear around the opening the Ogre created in the wall. It stretches across from each end. Reid takes out his sword and tries to cut them. He's unsuccessful. The shaking I feel in my right arm stops. I turn back around. The Ogre has stopped moving entirely. I augment my left arm with a burst of my Mana for a moment to lift his head as I pull out my sword. I cancel the enhancements in both of my arms and jump backward. The Ogre's limp head makes a loud thud against the floor.   I slash my sword against the air to get rid of excess blood and then sheathe my sword. I make my way to Leila and Reid at the other end of the room. Reid has his back against the vines with his sword in front of him. His legs are shaking, and he darts his eyes between Leila and me. I stand by Leila's side and say, "Now, you're gonna give me that explanation of yours…"

I can hardly believe it’s tomorrow.   "Kai, it's finally time for you to continue your training at the Academy,” Emdos says.   I raise my arms in the air with a big smile on my face. "Yeah! I can't wait!”    "Now listen, Kai, I know you're excited to finally enroll into the Academy, but you can't let anyone see you use the Mana I have taught you to control."   I hesitate a moment before quirking an eyebrow and then ask, "Why?"   "Didn't you want to make friends? If your peers find out you have something they don't, they'll be jealous and won't want to be your friend. But you should continue doing the training regimen you have been doing every day."   I frown and speak in a soft, conceding voice, "I do want friends… I guess I'll have to listen to you, Emdos. I just need to practice expelling Mana outta my hands and controlling how much comes out, right?"   "Yes, you've been doing an excellent job and almost have completed the first step. After you've mastered controlling your flow of Mana, you can begin training more advanced forms of Mana manipulation. You can practice expelling Mana from different parts of your body or cover certain parts of your body with Mana at will."   "Okay, then what comes after that?" I ask with a grin.   "Oho, don't get too ahead of yourself now. But once you've mastered that, you can open this book and read it. You can take this book with you to the Academy tomorrow," Emdos says as he grabs a book from the top of the shelf. He holds the book in front of me as he narrows his eyes into mine. "But you have to promise me. Don't let anyone else read this book, don't read it until you can manipulate your Mana freely, and don't lose it. Do you promise?"   Emdos' tone suddenly deepens, and I feel that the air around me gets colder as I stare into his eyes. I sense that I'm not talking to the kind Emdos that I know. My heart races and I can't help but quiver my eyes as I gulp, all while reaching for the book with my hand, eventually grabbing it. "I… I promise."   Emdos continues to stare into my eyes, but I don't dare to move a single muscle while frozen in place as I hold my breath. I feel so scared that I completely lose track of time; with every passing second feeling like years. I don't know how much time passes before Emdos finally lets go of the book as he smiles, speaking in a tone much lighter compared to his last words, "That's good. You can put this in your backpack, keep it safe."   Upon hearing that, my shoulders relax as I take a deep breath. Emdos walks out of the room and now I hold the red, tattered book in my hands. I look down at it, touching and squeezing the book, and realize that the binding is loose. I squint my eyes, concentrating on the words in front of the book, but I lose focus and sigh when I see that they are unfamiliar characters. Should I open it and just sneak a quick peak if I can read the contents?   My fingers slide through the edge of the book firmly clenched in my other hand. Eagerly, I stroke it and gulp. Since Emdos wouldn't like me breaking the promise, I crouch down and rest the book on the ground. I take off my backpack, open it, and store the text inside.   I spend the rest of the day training my Mana capacity. I stand still while keeping my eyes closed as I take deep breaths. I fully extend my arms as I keep my hand stretched back all while channeling Mana out of my palms starting slow, but changing the speed of the outflow every few seconds. I try to switch between a very fast speed and a very slow speed, but I fail; whenever I let out too much Mana it becomes hard to control and the rate it comes out is uneven.   After training for an hour, I lay on the floor with my arms by my side staring at the ceiling.    This feels similar to five years ago…when I first learned to release my Mana in the air for the first time. I smile. I was so excited that I did it that I forgot to concentrate on controlling it… I became exhausted from the loss of too much Mana and laid on the floor, kinda like now.   I take slow, deep breaths as I close my eyes. Images and scenery from earlier training days play out in my head, and my consciousness fades into my memories.   The next day, I wake up early morning in bed. I sit up and yawn as I turn my head left and right becoming more lucid when I realize that I'm in my room. Emdos must've carried me to my room after I fell asleep yesterday.    I turn my head towards the clock. 5:59 a.m...   While frowning, I turn my head back and sigh as I lie down. I stare at the ceiling motionless, but then I start to roll back and forth towards the edges of the bed with my arms and legs stretched out like a line.   I turn my head towards the right to look at the time again; it's 6:00 a.m. When I turn my entire body over resting on my side, I make an attempt to shut my eyes so that time would pass faster when I'm asleep, but my mind races. In just two hours I could make friends! I wonder how many I'll have! What’ll they look like? What time is it?!   I open my eyes widely to glance at the time again, but it hasn't changed. I squeeze my eyes shut and lie still. Even so, I sneak another peak from the corner of my eyes. And another. And another. Once I close my eyes, the past comes flowing back to my restless mind.    Emdos was kind, but he was really strict with my training. He often scolded me for not training hard enough and wouldn’t let me go outside to play with other kids. He was even reluctant about letting me go to the Academy, but after I worked really hard, he changed his mind and turned in an application for me.   I grin as I roll around in my bed trying to shake off my excitement, but suddenly an idea hits me, and I lie still with closed lips. Sorry Emdos… I wanna try something even though I haven't completed the first step…   I decide to get up and do a different type of training. An hour passes while I'm in a state of complete focus, but I can't stop my Mana from leaking out before it reaches the tip of my finger.   "Ugh!" I stretch out all of my limbs as my back falls to the floor. I think about giving up, but an epiphany hits me.    I was too focused on my finger and didn’t restrict on other places where it could leave… I’ll make a barrier so that no Mana can get outta my hand!    I focus my Mana again and try to release Mana from the tip of my right index finger. Nothing comes out as I expected, but then I make an opening at the tip of my finger in which Mana begins to flow out. I examine my hand more closely and distinguish that the only part of my hand that Mana escapes from is at the tip of my right index finger.   I did it! I grin and clutch my left fist in celebration of my success. Mana is flowing out too fast out of my right hand. I force myself to stop smiling, but my lip can't stop trembling from the excitement. I slap my left cheek with my left hand in an attempt to regain focus. Afterward, I try to concentrate on slowing down the pace of Mana flow as much as I can.    My attention on my right hand is suddenly broken when I hear a voice from behind me. "Oh Kai, you're awake already? What're you doing?"   I promptly stop releasing my Mana and put my palms on the floor behind me to let them support my weight. I can't afford to let Emdos know what I was doing, though I figure that he couldn't see me from the angle he called out to me anyway. I turn my head around and pretend that I was just taking a breather from my usual training routine. "Yeah, I got up an hour ago and did some training. I'm resting now."   "Oh is that so? Don't tire yourself too much before your first day." His footsteps gradually get farther away as I turn my head back. I sigh out of relief, but then I hear them stop. "By the way, you were doing some interesting training…"   I feel my heart stop for a second while maintaining a stiff posture.    He found out… Is he gonna make me eat carrots again for my punishment? Or maybe one of his concoctions… My lips shake as I frown and gulp.   "I'll let you off this time since you've done well. You're free to practice whatever you wish, but don't forget about the basics," Emdos warns.   I thought he was going to be harsher for going against his instructions. I take a deep breath and stretch out my arms over my head while my back falls to the floor. I think I'm done for now… I'm gonna take a nap…   I fall asleep immediately.   …   "Kai you're going to be late," Emdos says.    I yawn while I slowly get up and stretch. "What time is it?"   "7:44 a.m."   "WHAAAAT?!" I yell at the top of my lungs, instantly becoming alert.   There's no way I'm gonna be late for my first day! I can still make it if I sprint there! I get up and look for my backpack. I turn my head around and again, but can't find it. I run to the main room and find it against the wall. While panicking, I put it on my back and start to make my way towards the front door.    From the kitchen, Emdos says, "Kai, before you leave you should eat some breakfast."   "Ah I'm not hungry. Besides I'm gonna be late!" I put my hand on the door handle, turn it, and start to sprint, but my head hits the door, and I fall down. I rub my head on the place where I hit the door. "Ow… What the heck?"   I knit my eyebrows as I frown, unsure of what happened. I get up and try turning the door handle again, realizing that it doesn’t budge. In an angry fit, I kick the door as hard as I can with my right foot. Damn you, door!   I feel a hot puff of air escape my nostrils as I turn around. "Hey Emdo—"   I rear back in shock when I see Emdos standing right in front of me. His expression seems grim at first, but then it melts into an easygoing grin.   "I'm not letting you leave until you eat the breakfast I made you… It's your favorite," Emdos says with a smile and then giggles.   "That isn't a funny joke! I'm gonna be late as it is!"   "This isn't a joke. Would you rather not go at all?" He looks at me with narrowed eyes and frowns.   Geh… He's serious… I sigh before answering, "Okay okay… I just have to eat it right?"   I reluctantly run to the kitchen. If it's my favorite, it's definitely soup. I'll gulp it down, and I won't be too late.   In the kitchen, I find a bowl ready for me on the table. My eyes widen, and my jaw drops in shock as I look down at the soup. I take a spoon, stir the soup, and then scoop up random pieces of the ingredients. "Emdos wha…what is this?"   Emdos laughs. "It's soup of course… but I just changed a few ingredients."   "A few?! What did you put in this?!"   "Hmm…let's see… I used milk, lemons, Harpy meat, carrots, potatoes, broc—"   "Stop!" When I think about what he said, I feel the contents of my stomach turning sour as I imagine what they each individually taste like. I gulp and taste a trace amount of stomach acid. I guess I'm being punished after all… This soup is made with ingredients I despise.   I sigh and sit down. I decide it's better if I get rid of the liquid first, so I grab the ends of the bowl with both hands and begin to drink it. I try my best to not think about what's in the broth and use my teeth as a filter to stop the solids from going into my mouth. I purposely hold my breath in so I don't taste any of the warm, milky liquid. With every gulp I drink down, my insides turn, disagreeing with what went down. I finally gulp down the last of it and take a deep breath, but it backfires on me - I immediately taste hell. I drop the bowl and instinctively cover my mouth with my hands. I feel the rush of hot, sour air traveling up my esophagus. I think about delicious food trying to oppose the awful feeling.   Bread…steak…hamburger…rice…soup— I immediately think of what I just drank and another rush of hot, sour air stirs in my stomach. Emdos is still laughing. It seems that he's enjoying my misfortune.    I look at the time; it is 7:49 a.m. I uncover my mouth, take a deep breath, grab the spoon, and then start to eat the solids. Unlike the milky broth, I have to thoroughly chew the pieces before I can swallow them. I start with the hardest ingredient; Harpy meat. This type of meat is really chewy, and it forces me to taste it while I grind my teeth against it. I close my eyes thinking about making friends as I chew each piece of meat. I already prepared my stomach with a large amount of liquid, so I don't feel any added discomfort of swallowing the Harpy meat.    …   I…I finished… I look at the time again; it is 8:00 a.m. That meant that the Academy is starting right now. I wipe my mouth and run to the front door again. I turn the door handle and push. I see that the door actually opens this time. I turn around, smile, and then wave at Emdos. "Well then, Emdos I'm leaving! I'll see ya in five years!"   "Yeah…" Emdos smiles and says nothing else. I run out the door and go north on the main street. I turn my head back while running and notice Emdos still smiling at the entrance of our home. I don't pay too much attention, but I feel that he is a bit distant. It worries me, but I soon forget it thinking about making new friends.   Hmm, since my house is near the edge of the city of the Residential District, it's gonna probably take me at least 30 minutes to get to The Academy area while running non-stop since it's on the opposite side of the city… Sometimes I wish Drymo wasn't so big…   Up ahead is the marketplace, crowded with people despite still being quite early in the day. I know that it opens for 12 hours starting at 6:00 a.m., but I have only been here with Emdos in the afternoon to pick out ingredients for dinnertime. I squeeze through the hordes of people, not caring for invading their personal space. I drool at all sorts of appetizing fruits, vegetables, fish, and meat on sale around me. I fight the urge to eat them and move on.   I manage to reach a less crowded area out of the marketplace and continue running at my full speed. Five people in armor carry some type of monster meat past me. I stop running and stare at them with sparkling eyes with a smile. Cool! They must be adventurers! One day, I'll be one too!   I take a deep breath, wipe off the sweat on my forehead with my shirt, turn back towards my path, and continue running. Eventually, I come to an intersection where going straight would lead me to the Royal District and turning left would lead me to the Trade District. I choose the latter path and run still having plenty of energy left.    I recall a memory with Emdos at the restaurant called 'The Green Boar' on my right side.  It was the first time we ate out and I experienced all kinds of foods I never had before. I swallow a mouthful of saliva and shake my head trying to rid the feeling of good nostalgia at this settlement. I run around the people on the street and avoid the occasional obstruction, like carriages along the way.   Just a little more and I'll be in the Trade District…then I won't have to think about what I could've eaten instead of… A cold chill goes down my spine when I think back to the soup.    This district really is big… I didn't believe Emdos at first when he told me it took up nearly 35% of the city… Oh, I see it, a weapon shop ahead of me! I widen my eyes and smile. Wow! There are so many different shops I've never seen before! I wish Emdos took me here so I could've explored a bit more! Oh yeah, I think I need to go this way…   I make a right turn and go straight. Unsure of how long it has been, my legs are getting heavier. I shift my weight on every new step I take. My chest and throat burns from not being able to get enough air into my lungs. Sweat drips down my face with every step I take, and a few drops unfortunately make their way into my eyes. It burns a little, but I feel better after rubbing them with my finger. I feel my heart racing extremely fast, but that doesn't stop me from moving my legs.   Ahead of me, there's an enormous building which stands on top of a hill; it is The Academy. A smile emerges while I'm still running towards the building. I think I'm still around ten minutes away. I don't know how long it's been, but I haven't stopped running since I started so not that much time should've passed… Just a little more!   It is only ten minutes away, but it feels like an eternity as it doesn't feel like I'm getting closer to the building at all. Eventually, the path that leads directly to The Academy is in front of me. It's a curved path that slanted upward so it would be more difficult to traverse. I get on the path and with every step I take, my legs feel like they weigh twice as much. I stop running involuntarily, and it's difficult to even slowly lift my legs to the next step. At some point, I slump over and collapse while frantically gasping for air.   "Haaa… Just a little more…" I immediately get up and slowly limp my way towards the top. I completely lose track of time, but that doesn't stop me. I will make it!   I grit my teeth as my vision starts to get blurry. With every muscle in my body aching and fatigued, I find myself swerving left and right unable to walk normally. I discover that it's getting increasingly more difficult to keep my balance. So…close…   The two people equipped with armor and weapons stand outside the entrance. They turn their heads to each other. I squint my eyes and discern their lips move, but I'm unable to hear anything. They continue talking while glancing at me.   "Hey you! Who are you?" one of them asks.   As I continue to lumber my way to the entrance, the two figures run towards me.    "Are you a new student?"   I slouch to grab both of my legs with my hands. With my head facing down, I shift my body weight towards my arms.   "My…name…is…Kai…" I take a couple deep breaths between every word I say and hear something drop to the ground, driving me to move my head slightly up. One of them takes a book out of a backpack on the ground. I listen to the flipping of pages, doing nothing other than struggling to get enough air into my lungs.    "Hmm… Oh, there you are, Kai. It looks like you properly registered to start this year. You know school started over an hour ago right? They probably finished all the tests by now... I will take you to where the first years are right now and explain the situation to the instructor."   I barely hear any of the words coming from his mouth, but I decide to follow him anyway. While still gasping for air, I attempt to stand up straight, eventually managing to take a few steps forward, when suddenly, I feel all my strength leave me, and I fall forward.   "Hey… Alright?" The words from one of them fade out as my vision goes black.

Marin and I receive first-aid at the medical station. Phase one ends after thirty minutes pass. We head toward the center of the Arena.    "You all did very well to come this far. Remember that there are ten teams right now, but only eight of those will be able to play in the tournament. In the second phase, you will likely fight a different team for every round that is determined by drawing lots, but you may end up fighting the same team if luck permits. Unlike the first phase, you will have to wait for the other teams to finish before the start of the next match," Moria explains. I look around. The number of contestants remaining on each team varies; as few as two remain and as many as five remain judging by who's still wearing the leather garments.    "The rules will mostly remain the same, however, with one small modification.  Rich Mana is now forbidden to use for the remainder of the tournament."   I knit my eyebrows. Before I can let out a few words of complaint, Hiro shouts, "Hey! That ain't fair! That only puts us at a disadvantage!"   "That may be true," Moria answers as he turns his head to me. Everyone locks their eyes on me. I look down from the sudden attention.   "Then why? Do you want us to lose?" Hiro asks.   "I do not favor any one team over another…but this is something I cannot ignore. It is our hope that the tournament focuses on teamwork, not individual ability. If it were just about giving the prize to the group of students with the strongest abilities, I would have no problem yielding it to your team. Or are you implying that your team collapses when Kai is weakened just a little?"   The dissent inside me disappears. I sigh and then put a hand on Hiro's shoulder. "Just let it go, Hiro. I'll deal with it."   Hiro looks at me with an agitated expression, but he soon relaxes it."Well, if you're fine with it, I won't say another word."   Moria smiles and then says, "I will now determine the pairings for the first round."   He reaches his hand in an enclosed box he's holding in his other hand. He takes out two pieces of paper and then points in a direction. "In the first platform over there, team five will fight team twelve!"   He pulls out another two pieces of paper and then announces, "In the second platform over there, team three will fight team one!"   I head on over to the second platform with the rest of my group while ignoring the ongoing announcements. The other group soon arrives. They only have three people. Marin's mother arrives, pushing our cart of weapons. Another man pushes a cart toward the opposing team. Marin's mother informs, "It looks like both teams are here. We'll begin immediately."   She reaches into the usual small enclosed box with her hand and then pulls out a piece of paper. "The first match will be 'weapons only.' Please get ready."   "I'm going," I say immediately.   "My turn!" Hiro exclaims at the same time. "Kai, you just went!"   "I should be able to go again, though."   "No way! It's 'weapons only.' This is my realm," he argues as he begins walking toward our weapon supply. I put a hand on the back of his shoulder to stop him. My lower stomach grumbles. Hiro turns around, but neither of us say anything for several seconds.   "I need to use the bathroom… Just let me finish my match fast, and I'll be back before I have to fight again," I explain while walking over to the cart, slightly hunched over.   "What the hell… If 'weapons only' doesn't appear again 'cause you didn't poop before the tournament, my loss is on you!"   Sitos suddenly bursts out laughing. I quirk an eyebrow as I ask, "What's so funny, Sitos?"   "Nothing… I just expected the roles to be reversed here," Sitos explains, unable to hold a straight face.   "Shut up," I say, blushing a little. The others' faces are puffed up with twitching lips. A few chuckles escape their lips. I cock an eyebrow toward Hiro, who is laughing too. He stops after a few seconds.   "Wait a minute… You just made fun of me, didn'tcha?!" Hiro yells at Sitos.    I put a palm over my face and shake my head. I can't deal with this right now…   "Team three, please hurry up."   "Coming!" I answer in a hurry as I turn to grab the two longest swords. I step onto the starting position on the platform. My opponent wields a thin cylindrical stick about six feet long. Someone actually chose that as a weapon?   He uses an underhand grip with his right hand and an overhand grip with his left hand about two feet apart. I hold my own stance too before the start of the battle. "Fight!"   I dash forward immediately. He charges forward too but stops near the middle as the distance between us converges. I step in with my left foot before striking with a diagonal attack from above using my right sword. He tilts his weapon a little and blocks it, but I find an opening down below. I attack with my left sword. He pushes my right sword back while rotating his weapon clockwise into a vertical position and then blocks my attack from the left. He does a similar maneuver to push my left blade away while sliding his left hand closer to his right hand. My mind is blank as he steps in with his left foot.   His weapon is already coming at me from above. I take a step back while holding up my right sword to block the attack as I draw back my left sword to help. I place it behind my right blade and then push him away. I smile for a moment. The smile disappears as I find that his grip has changed. He comes at me with a blow from below. I jump back as my only option left, but the length of his weapon is too long. I grit my teeth as the blow strikes me on the side of my face. I think I pooped a little. Damn, how annoying…   I focus my eyes on my opponent, who assumes the same defensive stance as before. That weapon is more troublesome than I thought…  I lost some of my self-control during the shock of receiving that last attack… I need to end this as soon as possible!   I keep my eyes focused and teeth clenched. Constrained by a time limit, I rush forward while planning a risky move. I'll just hope that I don't get disqualified with my next attack!   I throw both of my arms back ready for two overhead blows and jump in the air. As expected, he keeps his arms bent a little to counter me after blocking what he thinks is an attack from above. Good, he's not attacking me!    I go through part of the motion to swing both of my swords down, but I keep them raised in the air. I land in front of him and then kick him in the balls. He whimpers as he hunches over a little and then lets his guard down. I take a step back and then swing both of my swords toward the side of his legs. He falls on his knees and drops his weapon. "Stop! Team three wins!"   I sigh with relief and turn around toward the weapon supply."He-hey, he cheated! He used his leg on me!"   I stop. The other referee says, "It is allowed as long as he held a weapon, which he did. There were no rules broken."   "Damn…to lose to such a cheap trick…" I continue walking away and then deposit my weapons in a barrel on the cart. There are numerous spectators around our platform that weren’t there before. I figure they must be part of a team already eliminated from the tournament.   "Nice one, Kaister. We have some time to observe some teams fight before the next—"   The grumbling of my stomach resounds. While running toward the exit, I exclaim, "I need to leave! Catch you guys later!"   With every step I take, I can feel my limits breaking. I run down the flight of stairs that lead down to the second floor. I race past the people walking in the hallways while heading to the bathroom. The bathroom is just up ahead. There's someone in front of me. I knit my eyebrows. He wears a red robe with black vertical stripes with the head over his head. Huh…? Is that Moria…?   I stop behind him and then ask, "Teacher Moria, what're you doing here?"   He stops but doesn’t turn around. "Oh, is that you, Kai? I'm secretly running an errand. So don't tell—"   "Oh god! I need to go!" I exclaim as my bowels force their way down. I run to the bathroom and then rip open the door. It resounds as it crashes into a nearby wall. I find an empty stall, pull down my pants, and then finally relieve myself. I sigh. I finish up in about 25 minutes. I run back toward the Arena on the top floor.   Damn, ideally I would go back to change my clothes, but I took too long as it is… I wonder what Moria was doing, though…Eventually, I find myself back in the Arena. I scan the various platforms in the farther end of the room, looking for my friends. I find Moria talking to a few adults on my way there. I ask, "Moria, you're back already?"   He turns toward me, cocks an eyebrow, and then asks, "What are you talking about? I have been here this whole time."   The other adults look at me too. Oh, right… He doesn't want anyone to know about his secret errand.   "Uh, never mind," I answer and then walk away. There are three teams still fighting on the second, third, and fourth platforms. Luna's on the second one. I run toward the crowd of people around our platform and then locate my group. Luna has her weapon knocked out of her hands.   "Stop! Team twelve wins!"   What…? Was that a 'weapons only' match? Those idiots, why didn't someone else fight instead?   I run toward my group and exclaim, "Hey, guys! Why did Luna fight a 'weapons only' match?"   I knit my eyebrows, blinking several times. I rub my eyes and then look again, but nothing changes. Only Sitos is wearing the leather garments.   "Kai, this is all your fault!" Hiro yells into my face.   "Why's it my fault?" I ask."If Luna's fighting a 'weapons only' match…that means she's the only person left who hasn't fought… So that means you already fought a 'weapons only' match and lost… Am I wrong?"   Hiro opens and closes his mouth repeatedly. Sitos says, "Yes, this moron lost. His opponent was using the same weapon your opponent used."   "Huh? He should've been easily able to overpower his opponent… He must've let down his guard and did something stupid," I say as I frown at Hiro.   "He did let his guard down…but I do not blame him for losing in that situation," Sitos says. I relax my facial expressions and turn toward Sitos.   "What do you mean?"   "His opponent used his weapon completely different than the guy you fought. Hiro probably thought his opponent was going to use strikes like your opponent did…but he initiated with a thrust. Hiro received a clean blow to the gut and never recovered from it."   "Boo!" I retreat a few steps to the left, nearly losing my balance. I turn toward the direction of the noise. It's Luna.   "Was that necessary?" I ask, feeling my heart racing. She laughs and smiles mischievously. I sigh.   "I didn't hear about Drugo's loss yet," I say as I face Drugo.   "I let my guard down. I'm a little ashamed."   "What kinda match was it?"   "It was a 'no weapons' match."   I cock an eyebrow and then say, "Wow, your opponent must've been built larger than you to have beaten you…"   "Well…that's…" Drugo's voice grows quiet. He looks away while putting a hand on the back of his head.   "His opponent was a girl," Luna reveals. I open my mouth, but no words come out.   "Yeh, when I saw ‘im chargin' at ‘er with his Abjuration magic on, I didn't think she coulda done anything… but suddenly she shouted a keyword that unleashed a ray of light from ‘er palm into Drugo's eyes, blindin' him. After that, she shot some Earth magic into Drugo's armor, and it ran outta power," Hiro explains. In an angry tone, he adds, "To top it all off…it was 'weapons only' for Luna... It's like everyone is in together on a ploy to make us lose!   "It is just shit luck. We already qualified for the tournament, so it does not matter that much," Sitos says.   "Team five is eliminated!"   "But don't you wanna get first place in the preliminaries too? We get the best seats in the tournament and a mystery prize!" Hiro says loudly.   "Who said I did not want to win? Kai and I are more than enough for these losers," Sitos states with confidence.   "Team one is eliminated!"   Soon after that announcement, Moria shouts, "In the first platform, team fourteen fights team twelve!"   A few seconds pass before he continues, "In the second platform, team seventeen fights team two!"   Two teams of six head toward our platform from the third platform. One group has one person left while the other has two people remaining. "Lastly, in the third platform, team twenty fights team three!"   Our group heads over to the third platform along with Marin's mother pushing our cart of weapons. I notice something strange when we arrive; the long-bladed swords Sitos and I usually used aren't present.   "Hey, what happened to the long-bladed swords?" I ask while cocking an eyebrow."I don't see them here…"   "They were broken during my match, my bad," Sitos answers.   "The sixth match here will be 'magic only'! Ready your fighters!"I go to the starting point without hesitation, knowing that Sitos' magic is not suited for this setting. My opponent is a girl.    "Kai!" I turn toward Luna."That's the girl who beat Drugo! Be careful!"   "Got it, thanks."   "I'd hate to be his opponent…" someone from the crowd whispers.   "Poor girl…"   "I'm glad our team didn't pass preliminaries… I heard in the main—"   "Fight!"   I focus back on what's in front of me; my opponent. I stand still while programming some instructions using Unrefined Mana instead of Rich Mana. I focus on velocity and power as I did before. I break down my Mana into Rich Mana, and that into Unrefined Mana, making sure not to overdo it. I keep the highest amount of Rich Mana possible as reserves just in case. Good, she's not coming for me… Sorry, but… I won't show any mercy.    I rush forward with my right palm pointing toward the girl. "Fireball!"   A ball of fire appears out of my right palm with a diameter of about a foot. It goes straight toward the girl. She easily moves out of the way since there is a lot of time to react before it reaches her, but I don't stop with one.   "Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!" I shout with half a second interval between each keyword. I stop running forward when the distance between us is around 15 feet away, knowing that she can't react quick enough at this range. She sidesteps, ducks, and rolls to dodge the incoming fireballs. Her dodge reveals people watching behind the girl. My supply of Unrefined Mana gets low, but I break down my reserves of Rich Mana to replenish it. "Fireball!"   Another ball of fire flies toward the girl on the ground. She jumps a small distance away while in a crouched position. She lands on her stomach flat on the ground. "Fireball! Fireball!"   I give only a quarter second in between the two keywords. She doesn't have any room to dodge while both of my projectiles head straight toward her. She points her palm toward them and then shouts, "Fireball!"   A ball of fire of her own appears, slightly larger than mine. It briefly collides with my magic, but it quickly disperses into the air as my second fireball comes blasting through the first. She doesn't make a sound as it lands on her torso, flinging her off the platform.   "The winner is team three! Team twenty is eliminated!"   The girl starts screaming during the announcement. She flails her limbs around as she burns from the fire. Their team referee shoots water from his palms to put out the fire on her leather garments. I gaze over the crowd as I rejoin my group. Their words are inaudible. They quickly shift their heads away from me.   "Kai, are you alright?" Luna asks in a worrisome tone.   "Yeah, I'm fine," I answer while knitting my eyebrows, unsure why she asked.   "Don't push yourself too hard. You have the lowest Mana capacity out of anyone here."   "Kai's fine! He probably already reached his maximum potential already which explains why he could use so much magic!" Hiro exclaims. I force a smile as droplets of sweat forms on my forehead.   I'd better find ways to win without recklessly expending my Mana, so they don't get suspicious…   "Looks like the other two platforms are still fighting. Let us go see what losers fight like,” Sitos suggests. Everyone except Marin heads over to the second platform. One of the fighters is a girl using a shield on her left hand with nothing on her right. Her opponent uses a shield on his left and a long sword on his right. The girl moves backward while blocking his attacks with the shield. There are puddles of water on the platform and around the crowd. The girl points her palm at her opponent.   "Stream!" A stream of water appears from her right palm. Her opponent raises his shield to block it, but the force pushes him backward. He is nearly pushed off the edge, but he jumps to the left toward the center of the platform while blocking the stream of water the girl keeps steady on him. The girl moves toward him as the water shoots continuously for about three seconds. "Landmine!"   Water suddenly bursts out upward around where her opponent stands. The force launches him about ten feet into the air."What?!"   "Stream!" A stream of water appears from her right palm, angled upward. It effortlessly pushes her opponent through the air. She runs in the direction he flies in up to the point her magic is stopped by the barrier. Her opponent screams as he is unable to do anything in the air. Eventually, he falls next to the second platform in the second row.   "The winner is team two!"   "Hina, you did it!" a girl exclaims from the other side of the platform.   "Wow! Didja see that?! She won usin' Water magic!" Hiro exclaims.   "Yes, that was surprising. She used Intermediate magic to launch him into the air. I thought Luna was the only one capable of doing that in our year,” Sitos comments.   I knit my eyebrows and ask, "Doesn't the name Hina sound familiar to you guys? I heard it somewhere before…"   "Hmm… It does sound familiar, but I do not remember where I heard it either,” Sitos answers.   "Stop! Team fourteen wins!"   Soon after the last match ends, Moria announces the matchups for the next round. "In the first platform, team fourteen fights team two!   A few seconds pass before he continues, "In the second platform, team three fights team twelve!"   Marin and her mother are on their way here from the third platform.   "Since there are an uneven number of teams, there will be another draw after the conclusion of these two fights to determine who fights team seventeen,” Moria explains. Sitos snickers.   I cock an eyebrow. "Sitos?"   He stops snickering but still smiles. He looks at the platform and says, "We finally broke our unlucky streak."   I stare at the platform for several seconds. I raise my eyebrows. There's still a 25% chance that it won't go as he plans…but I won't jinx it.   I look around, searching for our opponents. There’s a group of six students and a referee coming from the first platform. They have only one member remaining. A minute passes before a referee announces, "Only weapons are allowed during the seventh round here. Get ready."   I cringe and skeptically curl my lips inward. Sitos is still smiling with his arms crossed. He doesn’t move the slightest bit, not even a blink. I put a hand on his shoulder and say, "Looks like we didn't break it after all."   He walks away while holding the same expression, snickering again. He chooses the medium length swords as his weapons and then steps onto the starting position. His opponent uses the same length sword with a shield on his right. "Fight!"   Sitos employs the usual strategy and rushes forward. His opponent does the same. They clash around the center of the platform, splashing water everywhere as they run over it. Sitos launches a relentless combo of attacks with both swords. His opponent manages to parry one side with his sword and block the other side with his shield. He turns his side facing forward, blocking both of Sitos' swords using his shield. He blocks the next attack and then turns his entire body, swiping his sword horizontally in the process. Sitos ducks and then lunges forward. He strikes his opponent's neck. "Argh!"   His opponent maintains his balance while taking a step back from the blow. Sitos knocks his opponent's sword out of his hand with a slash from his other sword. His opponent drops his shield. "The winner is team three! Team twelve is eliminated!"   "Team fourteen wins!" another referee announces simultaneously.   "Team seventeen will fight team three! Let's see…you can do that at the second platform since team three is already there."   Sitos offers me his weapons as he rejoins us. I take hold of them, not knowing if I'll need them next match. It feels sweaty and warm to hold. I take this time to break down more of my Mana into Rich Mana and Unrefined Mana as I see fit. "Anything is permitted during this match! Get ready."   I step on the platform and then go to the starting position. Everyone's eyes are on me right now. My opponent has a heavy sword in his hands. Hmm… I'll take this time to reprogram something that utilizes Unrefined Mana instead…   "Fight!" My opponent holds his weapon in the air while slowly moving toward me. I do the same while I focus my attention on planning my attack. I stop after walking about ten feet forward, not wanting to initiate the attack just yet. He stops too, for reasons unknown to me. The gap between us is about 20 feet. Nearly 25 seconds pass with neither of us doing anything other than stare at each other.   I finish my preparations and dash forward. I position my right arm with my sword over my back, pointing my elbow toward him. "Fireball!"   A ball of fire appears from my elbow with a diameter of a foot. The settings of this spell are the same as my last match. I send all of the Unrefined Mana I have in the inactive form directly behind my opponent that is more than necessary but gives me more time to decide when to activate it. My opponent yells, "Gale!"    A sudden strong wind blows against me and pushes me backward. I plant my feet to the ground while trying to shift my body weight forward. The wind dries out my eyes, forcing me to squint them. The water on the platform flows in the same direction as the wind. The referees move off the platform. My fireball doesn't reduce in speed, but my opponent dodges it and then dashes toward me from an angle where the wind still affects me.   He's gonna push me off! I grit my teeth before shouting, "Reverse!"   A ball of fire forms at the point I left my inactive Unrefined Mana at that speeds toward the back of my opponent. It has a diameter of two feet; bonding all my Fire Affinity possible to the Mana. I raise both of my swords in preparation for his attack. He still charges at me with no change in his behavior. I'm currently less than ten feet away from the edge of the platform. I'll just have to pray… I can't even move, or this wind will push me off…   He does a full horizontal swing with the additive force of his charge and Wind magic toward me. My heartbeat pounds rapidly as the force of his attack quickly pushes me toward the edge of the platform. The heel of my feet is off the platform. I put strength into my toes and then jump as high as possible. He's standing right in the path of my magic. It explodes into flames as it hits the back of my opponent. I shift my legs up and then land flat on my back.    I gulp and lift my head up from the ground. My opponent is on all fours, with his weapon dropped next to him. Many seconds have passed since I fell off the platform, but no one says anything. The referees gather around my opponent, inspecting his leather garments. Marin's mother whispers with the other referee, giving me occasional glances. The other referee stands up and then announces, "The winner is team three!"   I close my eyes, rest my head on the ground, and then sigh deeply while relaxing all the muscles in my body. Cheering from the crowd around me simultaneously breaks out. This is so much work… I need a nap… I don't care. I'm gonna take a nap right here.   "Ahem," Moria clears his throat. The cheering stops. "We will move to the second row for the remainder matches. In the second platform, team two fights team three! That leaves team seventeen versus team fourteen in the third platform!"   I open my eyes, finding Sitos standing over me. "Somehow, it does not surprise me to learn that you can use Intermediate magic too. I am going to need those."   Sitos holds his hands out. I set my weapons on the ground next to my hands. "Take them. I'm gonna take a nap here. Wake me up only when it's my turn."   I roll over to my side and then close my eyes as I rest my head on my arms stacked on each other. Sitos picks up the swords on the ground next to me and asks, "You are unable to wait half an hour? You are hopeless."   He sighs and then walks away along with the crowd. As I filter the noise around me, my consciousness drifts off.   …   Something cold and wet splashes on my face. I sit up and interject, "Ah!"   Hiro stands in front of me, grinning. "Everyone told me to come getja. It's time for your match."   I wipe the water in my eyes with my shirt, stand up, and then walk there, noting that everyone is standing around the second platform in the second row. I yawn.   I furrow my eyebrows and say, "Why'd you pour water on me before my match...? You idiot."   "Hmm…" he interjects as his eyes point up for several seconds. "Oh. That was a bad idea. Sorry. Well, don't worry 'bout it!"   He smacks my back a few times and exclaims, "I have faith in ya!"   I force a smile. A referee instructs, "Hurry up and get into your starting position. We're all waiting for you. Anything is allowed for this match."   Everyone's eyes are on me as I walk over to my group. Sitos doesn't have his leather garments on anymore. Sitos holds the medium length swords in front of him and says, "I hope you enjoyed your 20 minute nap. Now, hurry up and beat those two so we can leave. They are the last team."   I hunch over and ask, "Do I have to…? We already got second place…"   "Win it for me!" Hiro exclaims. I look at him with a blank stare.   You're the last person I would win this for…   "I'm curious to know what the mystery prize is… Win it for me too!" Luna exclaims. Suddenly, my perception of my surrounding changes. Her voice echoes in my head, and her smile sparkles in my eyes. For a moment it feels like no one else is here.   "Okay, I'll win it for you…" I say gently, feeling the heat rising in my face. My heart thumps quickly, and it feels like my chest might collapse. I look away, coincidentally facing Hiro. "…guys."   "I knew I could count on ya!" Hiro exclaims as he smacks me on my back. I force a smile as usual.   I climb onto the platform at the starting position. My opponent is already standing on the other side, holding two long swords. I take a few deep breaths. The dry feeling in my eyes is gone. I focus my eyes on my opponent as I break down my Mana into Rich Mana and Unrefined Mana. I remember that guy… He's one of the other people who dual-wields swords like Sitos and me.   "Fight!" I dash forward after the signal, and my opponent does the same. I point my right elbow at him with my arm bent toward my left side.   "Fireball!" The usual ball of fire comes out of my elbow, but he dodges it while continuing to charge forward.   "Firebrand!" he shouts moments before we clash our weapons. Both of his weapons ignite instantaneously the moment we collide our swords.   Enhancement magic?! I grit my teeth and jump backward. He chases after me. I glance at my weapons. The surface of parts of it has darkened.   I avoid his attacks by sidestepping, backing away, or ducking. I can't let this drag out, or I won't have a weapon to fight with! It seems like he knows when to expect my fireball… I'll have to take my time and plan something.   I smirk. He must not be able to keep his weapons enveloped in fire for long. In that case…   I make an attempt to attack him and then clash with his weapon to not get disqualified. I dodge his attacks while leading him toward the center of the platform. I make a slight turn and then back away toward the edge of the platform while releasing inactive Unrefined Mana about ten feet in front of me. As expected, he comes charging toward me all the way to the edge of the platform. I glance behind me and then drop my jaws.   "You got nowhere to run now!" he shouts as he continues to charge at me. I block both of his attacks one at a time. We apply about equal pressure toward each other.   About six more seconds… Several seconds pass with my swords in constant contact with his. He smirks and snickers.   "I've won. Your weapons are toast," he says while my weapons catch on fire. I narrow my eyes and smirk back at him.   "Did you think I really didn't know this was the edge?" I ask as my magic activates. A ball of fire speeds straight toward his back.   "What?" he asks with knitted eyebrows. My magic bursts into flames on his back. His eyes widen, and his arms lose their pressure. I break his guard and then land a blow on his ribcage. He falls down. I feel something hot around my hands. I drop my weapons on the ground as the flames spread to the grip.   "Team three wins! We'll immediately begin the final match. Anything can be used. Good luck to both of you!" Cheering intensifies. I raise my eyebrows and then turn toward Marin's mother.   "I have a question. Am I allowed to bring all of the weapons I have remaining to the platform?"   "Hmm… There's nothing in the rules to say you can't."   "I see. Thanks," I say and then smirk. I go to our weapon supply. I toss the two light clubs, the heavy sword, long stick, and shield onto the platform near my starting position. I wield the two remaining short swords in my hands and then step back onto the platform on the black square, waiting for the start of the match.   The two scorched weapons I left on the platform are no longer here. My opponent brings only the long stick. He grips it with his right hand closer to the back end of it with his left hand two feet in front pointed at me. He uses an underhand grip with his left hand and an overhead grip with his right. I break down Rich Mana into Unrefined Mana. Hiro exclaims, "Hey, Kai!"   I turn toward him. "That's the guy who beat me! Make 'im pay!"   I face forward again. Hmm… Sitos said he uses thrust attacks…   "Fight!" my opponent slowly steps forward while maintaining his stance. I dash toward him.   I'll simply dodge his first attack while stepping in. Then strike him. He thrusts an attack. I dodge it. From this range, he's mine!   I slash my sword at his head, but my weapon doesn't reach him. Damn, that's only if I had my usual long length sword…   He thrusts another attack toward me that strikes me on my chest. It launches me backward onto the ground. I cough a couple of times before standing back up. I charge at him again, dodging to the right on his first thrust. I step closer to him and then strike him. He jumps back before I land it. I charge in again while launching more attacks. He moves his hands closer together on the center and then blocks my assault of attacks by rotating the stick. Several seconds pass with him constantly parrying my attacks.   I take a step forward. He thrusts his weapon, hitting me on my left shoulder. He launches another attack, one after the other while taking baby steps forward. I try to block his pinpoint attacks with my blade while trying to find an opening. I miscalculate and one of his thrusts brushes past my blade. It lands on my chest in the same place he struck me earlier. "Argh!"   I fall backward as the pain radiates around the impact area. I stand back up. I'll have to use my magic, after all. And I haven't seen his yet. But as long as it's not Lightning magic.   I send inactive Unrefined Mana behind him, planning the same surprise attack as before. I expect him to follow the same pattern. He has a habit of going backward when I pressure him. I dash forward as I finish my preparations. I redirect the trajectory of his initial thrust by slashing my left sword to the left while continuing to run in. I don't attack at this range since he's going to jump back. He changes his grip to the center of the stick again. Now!   I thrust my right blade toward his ribcage before he has a chance to move his weapon over to my right side. Suddenly, my view changes to the ceiling. Pain radiates from my chin. Huh…?   I point my eyes down. He struck me from below with a strike using the back end of his weapon. Damn, I was tricked!   I fly through the air, landing on my back. I put strength into my legs to stand up, but I stumble and fall. There's ringing in my ears. I focus my eyes on my opponent. There are two of them now. Marin's mother's mouth is opening and closing as if she's saying something. I figure she's asking if I can continue, so I say, "I'm good."   I can't hear myself. I make another attempt to stand up. My legs are shaky, but I stand up. Suddenly, there's a flaming ball honing in on me. I widen my eyes and drop my jaws. I immediately jump sideways and then land on my stomach. My heart is pounding. That was close… I nearly forgot about that.   I stand back up again while pressing my knuckles into my temples. My vision and senses return mostly back to normal. I'll just have to play it safe…but first, I need to engage him before the 30 seconds are up. I could throw my weapons at him, but he’d just come charging at me instead. I need time to prepare.   I run toward him as if I'm trying to attack him like before. I throw my left sword at him in which he knocks away with a quick movement using only his right hand. He thrusts at me. I leap backward. He wears a smug smile and asks, "Hah, so you've given up?"   I back away slowly and turn my head left and right. I find the shield I left on the ground seconds later. I hope this works…   I aim my left palm at the shield. "Fire bolt!"   Fire in the shape of an arrow appears from my palm that hits the shield in no time, setting it on fire. I drop my sword next to it and then aim my left palm at the sword. "Fire bolt!"   Another fire arrow appears from my palm that hits the sword. "Have you finally gone crazy? Destroying your own weapons…"   I ignore my opponent while I envelop my hands in Scrap Mana. I send commands to it, to continuously emit fire out of my hands outward about half an inch. I flip over the shield on the ground and then pick it up with my left hand. I pick up the burning sword using my right. It's not hot at all. A smile emerges on my face. I'd better hurry before these weapons burn to ashes.   My opponent stops smiling. I charge at him. I raise my flaming shield in front of me as he thrusts at me. There's no impact. I put down my shield, finding my opponent further back. His grip has changed to a grip suited toward striking. He sweeps his weapon toward my legs. I jump over it and then launch an overhead blow at him. My elbow happens to be pointing at him. I freeze my arm in place and shout, "Fireball!"   The usual ball of fire comes out of my elbow. He jumps sideways for the first time. He doesn't land on his feet and falls on the floor. I quickly change directions toward him after landing on the platform. I slash my weapon from above. He parries with his weapon. Several seconds pass. His weapon catches on fire. He drops it and then rolls off the edge of the platform next to him.   "And we have a winner! Team three has won the preliminaries!" Cheering breaks out all over the Arena. I drop the shield and sword on the platform next to me as I stop emitting fire from my hands.

I run toward Hiro's body. The monster shoots four small black needle-like spikes at me from its limbs. I stop.   "Watch out!" Drugo exclaims as he moves in front of me, his shield up. Loud clangs resound on Drugo's shield. He turns 90-degrees to his side and then topples over on me. "Don't try blocking those projectiles!"   Drugo stands up and continues, "Those went through my shield. I would've been in trouble if I didn't move outta the way."   "Run! That monster is too dangerous!" Sitos exclaims. I grit my teeth and stand up.   "How can you say that, Sitos?!" Luna shouts. "We can't abandon Hiro!"   "What do you suggest? Fight that monster and die trying? Hiro is a goner." The monster is gliding toward the others.   "It's coming your way!" I warn and run toward the others. Drugo follows. Marin shoots several arrows into the air. "Let's run for now!"   "Kai, you too?" Luna asks. Balls of fire appear around Luna that shoot toward the sky.   "We can't help Hiro while that thing hunts us! We need to come back for him after we lose it!" I explain. Suddenly, strong winds blow between us and the others. I put a hand over my eyes. A tornado forms between us. Large cuts appear on the trees around us and smaller cuts on my armor. I jump back. "We'll meet back at the caravan! Go!"   Luna and the others run away. The tornado moves toward them. The monster is gliding above it. I point my right palm toward it and shout, "Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!"   Several balls of fire come out of my palm and fly toward the monster.   "Kaister, we should get going too!" Drugo exclaims as he runs toward a direction.   "You go ahead. I'm gonna distract this thing while you guys escape."   He stops running and answers, "You can't! It's too strong! It pierced my Cobalt shield like butter!"   "Don't worry, I have a plan! Trust me."   Drugo's closed lips quiver for a second. "Alright. Be careful!"   He resumes running away. The tornado is still running its course cutting through everything in its path. Some trees are shredded through completely and topple over. The Albino Flying Squirrel isn't flying over the tornado anymore. I knit my eyebrows for a moment. I hear something behind me. I raise my eyebrows and turn around. The monster's gliding toward me near ground level. Immediately, I jump to the side. A strong wind blows against me as it zooms past me. My heart pounds rapidly.   I stand back up. The monster is nowhere to be found. I unsheathe both of my swords while looking around. I gulp. Black spikes fly toward me from the right. Instinctively, I move my blades in front of me to block them. I grit my teeth and jump out of harm's way. A strong wind resounds behind me. I turn around, finding the monster gliding toward me near ground level again. I jump to the side and then swing a sword down toward the monster as it glides by. My arm is thrown back before my blade slices through it. I fall backward. I stand back up.   The tornado from earlier is gone. A wide path of broken trees is left behind. I grit my teeth and run away. There's one thing left to try…   I turn my head around me. I locate the monster flying diagonally above me at the top of the trees. I gather my Mana into my left hand and prepare instructions. I sheathe both of my weapons. Multiple loud growls resound near me. Three Brown Hyenas sprint toward me from the side. I stop and point my left palm toward them. "Fire bolt! Fire bolt! Fire bolt!"   Fire in the shape of a fat arrow appears one at a time out of my left palm. They burst into flames in a forward direction as they hit each of the Brown Hyenas. The fiery gasses surround them and burn them for two seconds. Sizzling black charcoal is left behind. Suddenly, strong winds stir near me. I jump back as the nearby trees are cut. A tornado forms again. I hastily run out of the straight path it heads toward.   Suddenly, it changes direction toward me again. I widen my eyes. What?!   I run away from its path again. It changes direction and zooms in on me. I knit my eyebrows. How's that possible?!   The monster is no longer above the tornado. I look in front of me. It's gliding toward me far in the distance directly in front of me. It's fast. I keep the same pace while putting my left palm in front of me. "Fire bolt!"   Flames in the shape of a fat arrow shoot out of my left palm while the monster shoots two black needles toward me from its upper two paws. They collide with my magic and stops for a brief moment. My magic continues forward while the needles pierce through my magic. I slide forward before it hits me. My magic collides and bursts into flames on the monster. The fire envelops it for a moment before the flames disappear.   I stand up and continue to run. It feels like the tornado is traveling faster as the sounds of trees being cut grow louder. I run past a Horned Rabbit munching on a plant. Hiro's in view in front of me. Shit! I didn't notice I ran a full circle…   I change directions, so the tornado doesn't collide with him. For some reason, the sounds behind me aren't as close by. I raise my eyebrows and turn around. The tornado is heading toward Hiro while the monster glides toward me. I grit my teeth. Shit! There's no time!   I raise my eyebrows. Oh, wait…   I prepare instructions for my Mana while continuing to run farther away and then release it. I gulp as my Mana travels to its destinations. The monster closes the gap between us quickly.   Eat this! I just run past one of the destinations for my Mana and then shout, "Open!"   A purple portal appears between the monster and me. I go through it from my side and then appear next to Hiro. The sound of the turbulent tornado stops. "Close!"   I turn around and find a path of destruction that the tornado ran through. The monster lies on the ground not that far ahead. I gulp as I walk toward it. A growing pool of blood forms around its main body. All of its limbs have been cut off and are scattered around. It shows no signs of moving. I sigh, turn around, and walk toward Hiro who is lying on his back.   There are several small holes around Hiro's head on top of a small pool of blood. His eyes are open. My eyes tear up a little. "Hiro, you're playing a joke on us, aren't you?"   My heart pounds as I crouch down next to him. I put my finger on his neck to check his pulse despite that I know the truth. Tears flow out of my eyes before I know it. I clench my fists and my teeth. "Hiro…this can't be real…"   I rest my arms on top of his armor and bury my head in. I bawl my eyes out while all my memories of Hiro flash by in my head. I don't know how much time passes before I lift up my head. I wipe off the long piece of snot that's dripping down my nostrils. I sniff up the remaining snot. That's right… I need to get back to the caravan…   I close his eyes, slip my hands under him, and then stand up holding him in my arms. Don't worry. You'll be home soon…   I start walking the way back to the caravan. I knit my eyebrows. Are my eyes playing tricks on me…?   I turn toward where the monster should be. I widen my eyes. My heart skips a beat as a cold shiver goes down my spine. The main body is gone, but its limbs are still on the ground. I look above me and then all around me. There's nothing. I gulp, slowly taking steps backward. My heart feels like it bursts when a crackle resounds behind me. I turn around.   Sitos is standing there. I sigh and then say, "Oh, it's just you… Where're the others?"   He smiles and then says, "They are all safe at the caravan. I ran back in when Drugo told me what you did. Kai, I am glad you are okay. I do not know what I would have done if something happened to you… What happened to the Albino Flying Squirrel? Did you lose it?"   "Well…" He walks toward me, turning his head toward the limbs and blood left by the monster. His eyes turn back to me.   "You killed it? What happened?"   "Well…not exactly…" I contemplate on spilling the beans, but I refrain. "It suicided. I got it to run into its own tornado."   "I find that hard to believe…" he says with a penetrating glare. He relaxes his facial expressions. "Well, you are still alive, so it must be true. How is Hiro?"   I close my eyes and shake my head. "Damn. Well, let us rejoin with the others."   "Yeah…" I mutter. We make our way back to the caravan. I rest Hiro's body on the floor inside the caravan. I close my eyes in silence as everyone else mourns for Hiro. I keep calm at first, but I cry again as everyone's cries resound.   "This is all your fault, Kai. Are you not ashamed?" Sitos asks. I keep my eyes closed and tilt my head down, my hands on the floor. I clench my fists and teeth.   Someone sniffs loudly. Luna exclaims, "Sitos, how can you say such a thing at a time like this?!"   "But it is true, is it not? If Kai did not say what he did moments before he died… He might have lived. You are all crying that he died…but it was Kai's fault to begin with."   "He's right, Luna… It's all my fault…" I say, feeling my eyes burn up with tears again. I can't control myself anymore. I bawl. A slap resounds.   "I thought you were Hiro's friend…but you haven't shed a tear."   "Crying is not going to make anything better." Someone's footsteps resound closer to me. I smell Luna's scent in front of me. I open my eyes and look up, immediately finding Luna wrapping her arms around me.   "No one blames you, Kai… I don't blame you…" she says with a shaky voice. It sounds like she's barely holding in her tears. I embrace her back and bury my head in her shoulders. I return to bawling my eyes out. Some time passes.   I'm sitting against the wall, Luna next to me. The others are sitting against the opposing wall while Sitos is standing against the wall between us. I ask, "What're we gonna do with his body?"   "We have to bury him…" Luna says.   "Do you think he'll be happy if he was buried at the orphanage Drugo?" I ask.   "I think Hiro would be really happy if we buried him at the Academy…" Marin says. I smile.   "Yeah… I think you're right," I respond.   "That's a great idea, Marin!" Luna exclaims.   "I think that would be for the best. I'll let everyone from the orphanage know…" Drugo says.   "What do you think, Sitos?" I ask and then look up at him. He has a hand over his face covering his eyes. Tears flow through his hand. I look down at the floor, my eyes shaking. Luna puts her hand over mine and smiles. I smile too and hold back the tears.   "Well, I'll go to the front and drive us back. We'll stop by the Adventurer's Hub to handle our business there and then head to the Academy," Drugo says as he stands up. He starts walking toward the exit.   "Wait," I say. "Can you stop by Emdos' place first? I wanna tell him what happened…"   "I'm going to stop by the Academy ahead of everyone else to inform Teacher Moria and the others of what happened. Getting off at Trade District will be fine for me," Marin says.   "Alright. When you get off, come to the front, so I know," Drugo says and then exits. He heads toward the front.   "I'm going to start skinning the monsters we caught," Marin says.   "I'll help too!" Luna exclaims. The warmth of her hand leaves mine as she stands up and then walks over to Marin.   I guess it's naptime again… I close my eyes and then soon fall asleep.   …   I open my eyes as someone puts a hand on my head. Luna says, "Kai."   The caravan isn't moving anymore. Familiar noises surround us outside the caravan. I look up and yawn. She continues, "This is your stop."   "Oh," I interject as I stand up. "I guess I'll see ya guys at the Academy later."   "Yeah," Luna says with a smile.   "Are you sure you want to visit Emdos at a time like this?" Sitos asks. "You should come with us to the Adventurer's Hub."   "Yeah, I'm sure. I haven't seen him in a couple of weeks. I'll catch you guys later," I say and then open the door to the outside. As I'm closing the door, I find Sitos smiling in the corner. I walk to the front. "Well, I'm off. I'll see ya at the Academy, Drugo."   "Yup. Take your time with Emdos, Kaister. We'll wait for you before we bury him," Drugo says. He signals the horses to move again afterward. I walk to the door of Emdos' place. I knock on it several times. Half a minute passes with no response. I knock again but louder this time.   "Hey, Emdos! It's me, Kai!" Another thirty seconds pass with no response. I try turning the doorknob, finding that it's unlocked. I open the door, go inside, and then close the door behind me. "Hey, Emdos! Are you here?"   There's no response. I look around the entire place. He's not here. I sigh. Did he go shopping or something? Since the door's unlocked, he must be coming back soon.   I go to my room and then lay down on the bed. I'll rest my eyes a little longer before Emdos comes back.   I close my eyes and smile. I think about the night before I went to the Academy for the first time and then the days after that. I lose track of how much time passes. Emdos sure is late…   Popping noises resound outside. My bed shakes a little. I open my eyes. What's that noise?   Suddenly, a loud explosion resounds outside. I sit up immediately, my heart pounding. I widen my eyes. What the hell was that?!

When we arrive outside, I shield my eyes from the blinding sunlight with my hands. As my eyes adjust to the light, I notice a crowd of students standing on my right. The teachers and many other adults are lined up in front of them. "It seems everyone has arrived, and you must all be wondering what you are doing out here. You will now designate your own roles within your group. A balanced group will ensure a higher survival rate in the future. Typically, adventurers carry out their missions in teams of six or more which is why you split into a group of six. These will be your teammates for as long as you are students at this Academy." I can handle being together with Luna for five years… Drugo, Hiro, and Marin aren't that bad either… I grin as I close my eyes and fantasize about having friends. After opening my eyes, I find Sitos staring at me. He lowers his eyebrows as he wrinkles his nose all while frowning at me. "Great, I will be stuck with this…for five years…" He sighs as he shakes his head.  I narrow my eyebrows and rebut, "I'm not happy about you either!" I loosen my facial expressions, tilt my head down in dejection, and then sigh. My dream… "It is recommended that you include one of each role to ensure that you cover and balance each other's weaknesses. The five basic roles are Tank, Mage, Archer, Heavy, and Light. The job of a Tank is to distract and defend against attacks; they use a shield and a weapon in the other hand. A Mage would stand in the backline and either cast offensive magic or support spells to help the group. Despite being at the back, they still carry a weapon or shield to defend themselves. Archers specialize in ranged combat and supports the team in the back. Heavy are users of cumbersome and powerful weapons, requiring the use of two hands to wield. Light focuses more on speed, but they can also be powerful." I wanna be a Mage but… I can't… I'll have to keep my promise to Emdos. "Here are five weapon trainers who specialize in each basic role. Why do you not take some time and decide amongst yourselves what role you will fulfill? When you are ready and have chosen a role, you will follow them and then decide on what weapon you will train in." The chatter around me gradually increases, eventually filling my ears with indistinguishable sounds. "This can be our Tank," Sitos says as he points to me. I cock my eyebrow and point at myself. Sitos trusts me with such an important role...? "Even if it is worthless, it can still take hits for us." I quickly frown, my patience waning from the blow to my pride.  I'm thinking about saying something, but Luna suddenly intervenes. "Now, now, Sitos, you should be nicer to Kai. Hmm… Wouldn't Drugo be a better fit for a Tank? He's the biggest one out of all of us. You can do that right, Drugo?" My frown melts into a small smile as Luna speaks. Luna's so nice… I wonder what I'll be then if Drugo's the tank… "Yup, I can do that. I was actually thinking about that role from the start." "Only Heavy will be suitable for the great me!" Hiro suddenly exclaims. Marin steps forward as she slightly raises her right hand and quietly says, "I think I'll be Archer." I purse my lips while still lost in thought thinking about my role when suddenly someone shoves me aside. I fall backward landing on my bottom. I scowl at Sitos' back in front of me. That guy's getting on my nerves… "Hey, Sitos…ter…" someone mutters as I'm still glaring at Sitos, but I relax my facial expressions while thinking about my role. "Then it is settled. Luna will be Mage, and I will be Light." "Eh? What about me?" I ask as I frown with slightly parted lips all while pointing at myself. "We do not need you. Shoo, shoo," Sitos says as he waves his hands in a shooing motion towards me and turns around. "Sitos, stop that… Kai, you can be anything now." I don't process the words someone says while I'm focusing on Sitos.  I squeeze my eyebrows together in a glower, tightly clenching my fists. "You bastard…" I push myself up using my arms and legs, and I try to tackle him, but he steps aside, and I fall landing face first on the ground. While ignoring the pain that throbs around my forehead, I get back up while covering my face with my left hand. I throw my right arm back getting ready to punch him, but someone grapples my chest from behind. Judging by the thickness of his arms I figure it's Drugo. I attempt to push him away by furiously waving my arms around and using all my strength to run forward, but I can't get out of his grip. Sitos smirks at me with a dirty look. "Bastard!" I yell as I snarl all while continuing to struggle in Drugo's lock, somehow inching closer to Sitos.  "Stop…don't fight... You too Sitos…ter… By the way Kai…ster, all of our roles are filled so you may choose whatever you wish to be," Drugo says, letting me go after I relax my muscles. I feel the hoarseness in my throat as I breathe out hot puffs of air. One day, I'll sock him good… Luna suddenly steps in front of Sitos and slaps him leaving a red hand mark on his left cheek. The sound echoes off of the Academy walls. The conversations around us stop. Everyone's eyes are on us too.  Luna exclaims, "Sitos! You need to apologize to Kai! We're a team now and how you're treating him isn't acceptable!" I smile slowly as my eyes become slightly watery all while glimmering at Luna. Luna… She's always on my side... She faces Sitos with her arms on her hips. Sitos is silent for several seconds with his eyes widened and lips slightly apart. He looks away from me and apologizes in a barely audible voice, "Sorry…" I narrow my eyebrows. What the hell… If you're gonna apologize, then do it right...  I relax my facial expressions before asking, "What was that? I didn't hear you." Sitos points his eyebrows downward as he glares at me. "You bas—" "Sitos...?" Luna asks, silencing him. Sitos' lips twitch as he looks at Luna for several seconds.  Soon after, he relaxes his facial expressions as he sighs, looks down, and then mutters, "I am sorry…" I get closer to him and raise my voice. "I can't hear you, say it more clearly!" Sitos' entire body begins to shake. He widens his eyes as he raises his eyebrows all while taking a deep breath. "I am sorry… Be whoever you want." Sitos' voice dies out towards the end, and he turns around. Although I discern some tears welling up in his eyes before he turns around, I'm not going to let him that off easily. I narrow my eyes as I think about what would make him the angriest. I raise my eyebrows and smirk. "I've decided...I'm gonna be Light." "I'm glad you were able to decide so quickly, Kai!" Luna exclaims as she turns to me. A second later, Sitos clicks his tongue. Luna smiles as she asks, "Sitos, that's okay, right?" I gulp as my eyes focus on her face feeling like I'm staring at a ferocious lion. I feel hostility seeping out of her smile that sends shivers down my spine. "Ye-yes…" Luna can be scary sometimes… Luna grins at me, and I smile back hesitantly. Before I know it, everyone has continued their conversations around me. But my group remains silent, only exchanging glances at each other and smiling. One of the teachers suddenly shouts, "Listen up! My name's Fulharm and I'll be in charge of the ones in the Light category! We'll be going back into the Academy to our training room, so follow me." He's a muscular, tall, bald man probably in his 30's with dark brown skin who is wearing a white, sleeveless shirt, black trousers, and brown boots.  Sitos avoids eye contact as he passes me following Fulharm. I walk after him and look back, immediately noticing Luna waving her hand with a wide grin on her face.  We go inside the building, where kids older than me walk around. Instead of turning right into a straight corridor containing the lecture room, we go left into a similarly long passageway.  The sound of metal clashing reverberates in my ears. While wondering what the noise is, I stop following the group and slowly approach the room I heard the noise from. I slowly turn the handle and carefully open the door just wide enough to fit an eye. I support my weight against the wall as I peek inside with my right eye. There are at least five pairs each dueling with real metal weapons. The one closest to the door, however, catches my attention the most with his ambidexterity. My eyes twinkle in admiration at his skill of being able to use two swords at once. His opponent wields only one sword, and he's constantly being pressured by the relentless assault of two. The twin swordsman's attacks didn't end until he finally knocks his opponent's sword out of his hand, causing it to clatter across the floor. So cool! I've decided… I'm gonna train hard so I can be like him!  I close the door without a sound and then turn to the hallway again, excited to start my training. However, in my distracted admiration, I lose the rest of the group. Panicking, I eventually find them. "We're here. We'll be going into this room." Instructor Fulharm opens the door and then goes in while the rest of us follow; I'm the last one to enter. It is a large, rectangular, flat room slightly larger than the dimensions of the lecture room earlier. The floor is made out of fine wood, which is much different than the hard black and white tiles in the hallways. At the end of the room, there are a bunch of wooden swords of various sizes inside of open barrels. "Go ahead and go over there and pick something you like. These are all light weighted training swords to build your foundations in combat. Once you have mastered this, you can practice with a different kind of weapon if you wish." While the crowd runs over to pick up a sword, I walk over to the instructor and ask, "Instructor Fulharm, is it okay if I take two swords?" "Hmm, that should be fine, but are you sure you can carry that much weight?" "But aren't they light weapons?" "Correct, but you haven't developed your body yet so it may be difficult." I walk over to the weapon selection as I curl both lips in my mouth. Hmm… If it's difficult, maybe I can start with the medium length sword? I go to a weapon barrel and spot a blade that appears to be the medium length sword. I grasp it with both hands and attempt to lift it in the air. So heavy… I try to straighten my back and stand up while holding the sword in the air, but I find it difficult to maintain my balance and wobble as a result. I put the sword back in the bin and scramble around looking for the smallest sword available. I see a candidate and lift it with my right arm realizing that it is quite light. Although it only has a wooden blade of around two feet, I can comfortably lift it with just one arm and swing it around. I search the barrel for an identical sized sword and hold it in my left hand. Yeah, this'll work. "It seems everyone has chosen a sword for now. I'll have you kids practice swinging before you do anything else." Fulharm picks up one of the longer wooden swords in the barrel near me, goes back towards the middle of the room, and holds it in front of him. "You can use both hands if you need to for this training portion. Grip it with your dominant hand above the other hand. Hold it in front of you, raise it, and then swing it downward. Swing it by combining the forces in both in your arm and the elbow. You'll practice this until you can do this with proper form. It should look something like this." The instructor lifts the sword above him and swiftly swings downward. The hair of the kids in front of him gets ruffled, and the sound of his slash resonates around the walls of the room, slowly dying out in a few seconds. Wow… "Well, I don't expect you to master it to the extent that I have. Go ahead and try it for yourselves now, I'll be looking at your form." Everyone spaces out around the room in order to practice their swing. Coincidentally, I end up standing next to Sitos on my left. He's using the same weapons that I chose. I point my left sword at him and exclaim, "Hey you copied me!" Sitos turns his head to me and quirks an eyebrow. "Huh? If anything, you copied me because I have been training in the art of dual-wielding for a year now." "What? You liar." He narrows his eyebrows and widens his mouth as if about to say something, but he just sighs. He turns back around and starts swinging his swords. What's with him? I squint my eyes focusing on his swords and then at mine. My eyes widen as I open my mouth. Wha… He's using the medium-sized swords! How's that bastard so much stronger than me? I narrow my eyes and stare at the ground. I figure he was actually telling the truth about his training. The thought of him being better frustrates me. I clench my teeth, squeezing the grip on my swords until my knuckles turn white. I position my left foot sideways slightly behind me and my right foot slightly forward.  I picture Sitos' smug face as I lift my right blade in the air in front of me, and I alternate swinging between my right and left arm while keeping both legs slightly bent. I use as much force as possible between every swing to release the pent-up anger inside of me. I only think of smashing his face while I swing each sword downward. Ten minutes pass by, and I can't seem to get enough air into my lungs despite that I take deep, heavy breaths. I feel like my entire chest is on fire as sweat drips down from my entire face while also feeling the back of my shirt that is drenched in sweat. But I still swing down my swords; with every new swing, it feels like my arm can fall off at any moment. I can't…go…on… I let go of the swords and fall forward. While still gasping for air, I turn my head left, glance over to Sitos, and widen my eyes. He's still swinging his swords as if he isn't affected by any fatigue at all. He turns his head towards me making brief eye contact with me and smirks. I frown bitterly and look away, staring at the ground below me. Damn it…! I'm so weak! My eyes burn, and I shut my eyelids as far as my muscles would allow. Hot tears leak out of my eyes as I clench my fists with what little strength I have left in my body.  I press my forehead to the floor to stop anyone from seeing my current state. My entire face, including my lips, twitches uncontrollably, but I force myself to not let even the quietest sound out. Warm mucus drips out of my nose onto the floor, being careful not to sniff which would create noise. I hold that position and cry to myself. I don't know how much time passes, before someone calls out to me, "Are you alright? You've been on the floor for over five minutes now." The sudden attention frightens me, and I empty out my thoughts, attempting to calm down. I recognize the voice as the instructor Fulharm. I turn my head slightly to the right and peek through the corner of my right eye. He's squatted down next to me. My pulse shoots up rapidly. What do I do…? I don't wanna be seen… My head shakes uncontrollably as I continue to stare at the floor. I can't breathe through my nose at all due to the congestion so I breathe deeply through my mouth in an attempt to stabilize my breathing pattern. I try to imitate my normal tone and say, "Yeah, I'm just tired from training, so I'm lying down." "In that position?" My face burns up in fear of being found out. I open my eyes wide while emptying out all unnecessary thoughts from my mind and focus on trying to come up with a good excuse. What's it matter to you? No. I'm too tired to move outta it… No. Damn, I'm running outta time! "It's comfortable." My face burns even more, when I register what I just said. What?! Why’d I say that…? Kai, you idiot! Even I wouldn't believe that! My heart beats like a drum as fresh sweat drips down my forehead. I hope that a miracle happens, and he leaves me alone.  "I'll leave you to it then…but you should gather your strength soon for the next activity." He bought it?! Shortly afterward, he stands up and walks away. I sigh and realize I have stopped crying. I conclude that the fear of being seen probably overwhelmed my upset feelings.  "Attention! You've worked hard for your first day, but it's almost time for the next segment for today. Put away the weapons and conserve the rest of your strength. You are to report back to the front of the Academy for your next set of instructions. See ya kids tomorrow." Footsteps in the direction of the hallway slowly fade away. Soon after, people groan and chatter around the room. "I'm so tired." "Me too… I couldn’t even last five minutes before I had to take a break." I feel relieved, hearing everyone's troubles with the training like a heavy load is lifted off of my shoulders. I rub my eyes on my arms trying to get rid of the last tear drops. I lick my lips and taste the saltiness of snot that stained on my upper lip. I rest my head on my arms until all the footsteps leave the room. I slowly push myself off the ground and stand up, then suddenly hear a voice from behind me. "Finally done crying, weakling?" I feel a shiver go down my spine. Wha… Someone was still here?! I slowly turn around. Sitos stands there with the same smirk from earlier. I raise my voice and rebut, "I wasn't crying! And I have a name, you know!" "Huh? You are weak, so I'll call you weakling; it is a befitting name for you. Besides, your eyes are completely red." "No…that…I…it was the sweat! The sweat got in my eye and it burned, that’s all! If anyone was crying it was you earlier!" He blushes as he leans back slightly. "Wha-what are you talking about? Something is wrong with your eyes… Whatever, you are not even worth talking to anyway." And with that he walks out the door. Damn that Sitos… He makes me mad, but even though I hate to admit it, he's stronger than me. I'll train hard and make him acknowledge me. I pick up the two swords that I practiced with and return them to the barrel they were in. My stomach suddenly growls as I look around the room noticing that I'm the only person left. Ugh… I'm so hungry…especially after that unappetizing breakfast…that I threw up. I hope I can eat something good soon. I head for the door, but I feel the sudden urge to practice my Mana control. I get into my position and focus my concentration on my right hand, particularly on my right index finger. I want to see if I can repeat the same thing from this morning. I release my Mana and witness the dark blue Mana flow out of the tip of my finger.  I think I'm getting used to it. Hmm… But I'm still confused about what the teacher was talking about in class. He said the types of Mana were called Scrap Mana, Unrefined Mana, and Rich Mana, but none of them looked like this Mana I'm releasing right now… I try to bring Mana from other parts of my body to the tip of my right index finger and release it as usual, but no matter where I get the Mana from, what comes out is still the same deep, dark blue color. Argh, I give up… I should probably head to the front of the building. I spent too long playing with my Mana.  I leave the room in a hurry, running in the direction I came from towards the front of the Academy again. Before I reach the entrance of the building, I bump into the Teacher from earlier. "Hmm? You are Kai, correct? What are you still doing here? I thought everyone was already outside when I announced the instructions... You must be feeling hungry, right? If you want to eat, you will have to go to the other side of the Academy. The only rule is that you cannot go through the central corridor of the Academy to go straight there. You will have to use the right path on the right side of the Academy. There is no time limit… but you should probably hurry. Oh, I almost forgot, you should take this." He hands me a small piece of red paper. I ponder for what it would be used for, but I decide to put it in my pocket and follow his instructions for now. I run outside towards the right side of the Academy. When I look closer, there is space between the building and the fence that surrounds the entire building. The space between the fence and the building is much wider at the front of the Academy compared to the sides. I face the path leading to the backside of the Academy and don't see anyone in the far distance at all, so I figure that I spent longer than I thought playing around with my Mana.  I don't waste any time and start to run down the path. I imagine what kinds of food would be served, and I swallow my saliva in anticipation.

I scan the area around me carefully while moving forward. I continue this way for a while and then change directions. Out of consideration for Kama, I wait for the formation to adjust before moving forward again. So far we have only come across non-hostile monsters. We haven’t discovered any signs of recent battle or camp. I think the weight of my actions finally hit me. The possibility that none of these requests that I took would be resolved successfully. What would happen if we failed all of them? I don’t want to think about it too much but that possibility appears in my head. It sends a shiver down my spine. An hour later, a very small fire particle flies past my shoulder from behind me. It reignites the previous confidence I had as this is the signal we agreed on if someone saw something. I gesture Banni and Jetia to regroup. I smile slightly and quickly rejoin with the girls. Optimistic, I ask, “Did someone see something?” Kama raises his hand. “Yes, it was me. I think I saw a group of people over there.” He points to the direction where he was positioned at. I ask quickly, “Okay, which direction were they going?” “I didn’t get a good look, sorry.” Really? I want to scold him for not doing something so basic and obvious. I thought he already mentally prepared himself. Did the sight of a group of people scare him immediately? I know he’s an amateur, but this is an important time for us. I only have myself to blame for deciding to take all of these requests. If I want to get something done, I’ll have to do it myself. I don’t let my true thoughts show on my face. I simply sigh and say,  “Okay, tight formation everyone. I’ll lead a bit and see how many there are.” I move forward quickly with light steps. I reach around the point where Kama should have been and then look around. There’s nothing. Did Kama see a monster move and passed it off as a group of people? I don’t want to consider that possibility further because I want to believe in him. If there’s something, I figure it has to be from the direction perpendicular to us otherwise they would have spotted him. I move further in that direction. There’s a faint sound in the distance. I stop moving to listen closely. It grows quieter with every passing moment. I walk deeper at a slower pace than before. I’m careful not to step on anything that could create noise. I’m not going to let a stupid mistake like stepping on a twig blow up everything into flames even though I don’t see anyone around. Better safe than sorry. I smile, seeing the large group up ahead. I stop behind a tree and peek out slowly. Their front isn’t as visible as the back. I estimate there are a total of at least three dozen. Four of them unarmed with two young children included in the back. They’re enclosed around three men behind them. I don’t see anyone out of place other than those four. They look like an ordinary group of bandits to me. I’m a bit disappointed, even though it feels wrong. I rejoin with the others nearby. “I don’t think they’re the ones who we’re looking for, but there’re children mixed up in there. We gotta help.” “Oh no,” Vicki interjects. I point in their heading and continue, “They’re moving in that direction, so we’ll move over there too. When we ambush them, it’ll be better if we can reach them faster after being in plain sight.” “Ho-how many of them are there?” Kama asks. “At least three dozen…but don’t let that number scare you. Most of them don’t have any armor and probably aren’t very skilled,” I inform. Although some of us aren’t very skilled either. “If we fail this time…more people will die, right?” “You’re right. That’s why we won’t fail. It’s good for us if the hostages are all gathered in one place at the back. We hit them before they notice and secure the hostages immediately. Then we can go wild without having to worry about them. And remember what I said—“ “Yeah, yeah…  Kill them before they kill us,” Jetia says. I frown. “That’s not what I—“ “We all know what to do. Can we get on with this? They’re going to get away.” You guys know what to do? I wish that was the case. Then Kama would’ve paid attention to which direction they were heading in before I checked for myself. If I’m not thorough in my explanations, some of us won’t understand. I refrain from rebutting, though, because what Jetia’s saying is right. I’ll give everyone the benefit of the doubt. “Fine, Let’s go. Same formation as before.” I lead the way. The group of bandits is still moving in the same direction. I gesture everyone behind me to stop while I close in on them.  I scan the front and middle of their lineup. No hostages, but several of them have Iron armor. Could this be one of the requests? I can’t rule out that possibility. I hope that’s the case. I regroup with the others. “I didn’t see any hostages in the front, but no large-scale magic until we’re sure they’re just bandits. Got that Ruby?” “Got it,” Ruby answers quietly. “I’ll take care of the three guys in the back. Charge in after me. Ready?” Everyone grips their weapons tight and looks at me in silence. We slowly approach the enemy from the path I took a moment ago. I move Scrap Mana into my leg, foot, and core muscles of my body in higher amounts compared to earlier but with the same ratio. I instruct my Mana to strengthen them for thirty seconds this time. I deduce that the three in the back must be bandits. If there were adventurers mixed up in here, they wouldn’t be placed around the back where they could plan an escape. I unsheathe both of my blades. We’re almost out of the safe zone. I activate my Mana and dash forward. They haven’t noticed us yet and continue on. I focus on the three behind the hostages. My best chance is when they haven’t noticed.   The guy toward the left turns his head toward me with a blank expression, but it’s too late for him. I slice through his neck while continuing forward. I slash through the back of the other two bandits’ necks too. They scream and go down without a struggle. While looking at the hostages, I exclaim, “Run for it while you can!” The unarmed man and woman turn around, but so do the rest of the bandits. One of them yells, “Enemy attack!” “Let’s go!” the unarmed man exclaims. The couple grab the girls’ hands and run. Must be a family of four. “Oh no you don’t!” one of the bandits exclaims while swinging his weapon toward the woman. I step in front of him and parry his blow. There’s another one attempting the same attack on the man. I push my blade forward, pushing the guy I’m crossing swords with back for a moment. I dash toward the other guy but an arrow flies into his head. I smile. I can always rely on Marin. He drops his weapon and falls. Screams resound from the front of their formation. They’re fighting each other. It seems that the adventurers were mixed up with them. With several of the bandits gathering toward me, I jump back. The four hostages have successfully gotten away. I can’t distinguish between who’s who at the front. Now that I know that this could be one of the requests, I’ll just take out whoever attacks me first. I wouldn’t want to accidentally attack an adventurer.   Jetia, Kama, Dano, and Banni gather up in a line on the right side. Fire and Lightning magic activates in the distance. I widen my eyes. It never crossed my mind that the bandits could use magic. Is this the adventurers or the bandits? It won’t be good if it’s the latter. If they target those four who don’t have any means of defending against it, things will end badly. I’ll find the magic users and take them out. Four of them are heading my way. A gust of wind knocks them down toward the left. “Flame pillar!” Flames appear in the shape of a circle cover the ground in the center of them. Fire erupts inward and upward at the same time, enveloping three of them completely. A magic I’ve seen before with an adjustment. Images of that day flash through my mind. I shake my head and run past them. I run along the left side to avoid confrontation. Most of them are facing the right side. My Enhancement magic ran out already, but I don’t need it anymore. Most of the bandits are using Iron weapons in poor condition; they’re chipped. The ones wearing  Iron armor among them are using Iron, Platinum, and Cobalt weapons in good conditions. Are they the adventurers? One of them is holding onto something I’ve never seen before.  It doesn’t look like something you swing and it’s not a bow. He has it pointed at another guy in armor. One of these two must be an adventurer. One of the men in a nearby cluster turns toward me. I prepare Rich Mana in my right elbow and point it at him and the others near him. I’m about to shout my keyword, but I refrain since I still don’t know who is an enemy and who isn’t in the cluster. Even if these guys at the front are bandits, the magic could go through and hit an adventurer. “We found someone by ‘imself! Let’s take ‘im out boys. Whoever kills ‘im gets his weapon!” the man exclaims. Seven others near him turn around.  “What?! He’s got two Cobalt swords!” one of the seven exclaims. A few of them with armor step out in front. “Wait. Leave this one to us. He must be stronger than yer ordinary soldier since he’s got those weapons. Handle the other ones at the back. You’ll get yer hands on better weapons based on yer performance,” the man holding onto a large Platinum hammer says. “Fine,” the earlier man says. He and three others run toward the backline. There are four men in armor in front of me. The one in the back was the one I saw with that strange object. He has two of them, one in each hand. It looks like its made out of Iron. So the other guy must have been the adventurer. Alongside the hammer guy are two other guys. One with an Iron sword and Iron shield. The other one with a long, heavy Platinum sword. They snicker and split themselves around me. The heavy sword guy asks, “Here for revenge are ya? Saves us the trouble of lookin’ fer more of ya.” I pay no attention to their words. I grip my weapons tightly. The man with the strange objects in his hands has them pointed toward me. There’s a small opening in the long part of it. I don’t think anything threatening can possibly come out of there. I recall my fight with Captain Albius. It was because I underestimated him that I lost pathetically. I won’t make the same mistake twice. I’ll play it safe until I know how good these guys are and what those strange objects do.   Two smooth, spherical rocks come out of the strange objects and speed toward me. What?! These rocks are larger than the opening of the strange object. I block them with the flat part of my swords. There is power behind these rocks too. How’s it able to pack such power? I don’t understand. The heavy sword guy points his blade at me with his arms fully extended, showing many openings. Flames appear and extend out from the tip of the sword. I jump back. So this heavy sword guy’s one of the magic users… I’ll be careful around him since he might be capable of stronger magic. He must be trying to lure me in with his poor form. I dodge the small rocks coming from the strange objects by swerving left and jump while moving backward. They come one after another with no pause. There’s no way that those strange objects can hold so many rocks. Is there an Earth Crystal inside he’s binding his Scrap Mana to?   I let out some Unrefined Mana from my left elbow and instruct them to form a small wall in front of one of those rocks. A noise resounds as it clashes with the Mana. This guy’s really good. He can program instructions into these rocks rapidly without a keyword.   A few seconds later, the rock falls and stops emitting noise. The Unrefined Mana I let out stays in place. The shield guy moves toward my flank while the hammer guy charges at me. It’s actually beneficial for me that the shield guy does, so I can unleash my magic on him with no fear of hitting an adventurer. The hammer guy swings horizontally. I barely avoid it with a backstep. The force of his swing generates more wind than I thought. Things wouldn’t have ended well if I didn’t dodge it. This guy’s strong too!   His balance is way off. It looks like he’s about to tip over. The right side of his neck is vulnerable. Is this a trap or is he stupid? It confuses me for a moment as he could be luring me since the heavy sword guy is near. Instead of waiting for an opportunity, he fully extends his arms again with his blade pointed at me. I take this chance and dash in toward the hammer guy. My sword approaches his unguarded neck. Blood gushes out of the cut. He drops his hammer and keels over. Weak. How can he make the most fundamental mistake when he has such a powerful swing? It’s beyond me.   Flames extend out from from the tip of the heavy guy’s sword again. The other guy has his strange objects pointed at me on my left. It’s about time the shield guy repositioned himself. I point my right elbow toward the shield guy running toward me and exclaim, “Fireball!” At the same time, I lunge forward and jump over the flames. The other guy follows my movements with his strange objects. I prepare some Unrefined Mana just in case. His balls of rock appear, but not matching the direction of his strange objects. They appear and fly straight to my previous position. I make note of this.  I land next to the heavy sword guy. He steps back a bit and swings his weapon down.  I dodge it easily with a sidestep. I stab him through his throat. I overestimated them. These guys are idiots. How’re they using magic?   “Damn it!” the last guy exclaims. I look around. Their numbers have reduced drastically. Kama, Jetia, and the two others have surrounded one person. They simultaneously attack him. It’s good to see them make up their lack of strength with teamwork. The last guy is only holding onto one of the strange objects now. He takes something blue out of it. He reaches into his pocket and then puts in a blue crystal. He closes the opening and then points the object at me again. “Yer done fer!” I charge at him while swerving left and right. If I do this his accuracy will decrease. The rock balls that appear are faster and larger in size, but their trajectories are always in the location I was in a second ago. I close the distance between us. “Shit!” I pierce through the front of his throat with one of my blades. He croaks while he gradually raises his trembling arm with the strange object. I knock it off his hand with my other blade. His hand goes limp a few seconds later. I remove my sword from his neck. I step out of the way from his fall. Til the very end, he was only capable of doing the same magic over and over again with no change. He should have used Unrefined Mana much earlier if he could. I’ll commend his speed in programming instructions to the Mana. Even I couldn’t do that.   Eight men remain in front of me. Six have two surrounded. I figure the six are adventurers. The two in the middle are quickly cut down. The difference in skill is obvious. Of those six remaining, four have armor and two don’t. Marin and the others are already finished and are heading this way. The four unarmed people are with them. I slash both of my blades to remove as much blood from them as possible and then sheathe them. “Kai!” Ruby exclaims as she runs over to me. “Are ya hurt?” “No, I’m fine. How’s everyone else?” “I’m fine. Marin’s fine. Umm…Vicki’s fine. Uhh…the mean guy with the shield has some scratches…” “Mean guy with a shield? Jetia?” “Yeah, that guy!” I almost let out a chuckle, but I keep a straight face. Some parts of her never… No, I don’t finish that thought. She’s Ruby, whom I met a month ago. I never knew this side of her is all. I sigh and then say, “It’s been a month since we formed this team. Don’t you know everyone’s name by now?” “I know yer name, Marin, ‘n’ Vicki. Ain’t that good enough? I don’t need ta know anyone else.” “How are Kama, Dano, and Banni?” “The guys that look kinda the same are hurt kinda bad. The other one ain’t hurt as bad.” The guys that look the same? Must be Dano and Banni. I used to have a hard time distinguishing between them too. “Well, at least everyone’s alive.” Marin, Vicki, and the four we rescued join us. I smile and say, “Glad you two aren’t hurt.” “Yeah…but the others…” Marin says quietly. “I heard from Ruby already.” She makes eye contact with me for a second and then looks away. “I see…” The children’s parents come forward. The man asks, “You are the leader?” “Yeah, I’m Sergeant Kai.” “Thank you so much for helping us, Sergeant Kai!” the man exclaims while bowing. “Thank you very much, Sergeant Kai,” the woman says with a bow. She turns around for a moment and gestures the two young girls to come. “Remember what I told you?” The two girls come forward and then bow. They say simultaneously, “Thank you for saving us, mister.” “No problem, we’re just doing what’s right. It’s our duty to help those in need. What happened before you were caught?” “We were traveling to Drymo with a team of four guards. Bandits attacked and killed them. They robbed us of everything and brought us with them,” the man answers. “I see. We’ll escort you to Drymo ourselves once we’ve finished our business here. We’ll drop you off at Beltan in the meantime.” The couple smile. “We can’t thank you enough, Sergeant Kai.” “Indeed, we can’t give you enough gratitude,” a man from the group of six adventurers says. He’s the one with the Cobalt weapon I saw earlier. A long, heavy sword. “Thanks to your intervention, we were able to make a move.” “You were planning something?” I ask. “Yeah, once an opportunity arose. We knew we were stronger than these bandits but we were outnumbered. So we hatched a plan, but before we had a chance to execute it, additional hostages were brought in. Our hands were tied,” he explains as he looks toward the couple. “By the way, you wouldn’t have happened to join a shady adventurer group to hunt horned rabbits and gather herbs, were you?” “Oh, you knew? That’s us.” I smile. “You must be one of the two with the adventurer’s licenses then. We met with a younger man earlier claiming to be a former teammate and speculated something must’ve happened and put in a request.” He smiles and answers, “That must be Coy. We were indeed comrades. He didn’t want to come along but he still has our backs.” Bingo, that’s a match for request two. One of those two without the armor must’ve come from the third request. “So, what happened after you joined the group?” “As we made it to the hunting grounds, we were suddenly surrounded. The ones we joined turned on us too. We could’ve taken them out there, but…some of us weren’t as skilled…” “You mean the two without armor over there?” I ask while pointing at them. “Well, yes…but there were others too. They’re holding the women that were with us at their hideout. There are others too. That’s not all. They have our information, our addresses. Of our families and relatives that live in Drymo. They could kill them if we ever disobeyed. We were on our way to their hideout now. Their leader is expecting us soon, so if we take too long…who knows what will happen. That’s why…please help us save everyone!” he exclaims and then bows his head. A hideout… If there’re more people there, the person from request one might be there too. If there isn’t we save more people. It’s a win-win scenario. We can completely outweigh last week with today’s achievements. I smile before responding, “I understand. We’ll do our best to help you, but after we return to Beltan to drop off the non-combatants and the injured. It looks like two of yours are at their limits.” The man looks behind him for a moment. “I understand. I have no problem with that. I’m Kane, by the way.” “Great. Kane, we’ll take a brief break here and then we’ll head to our transportation,” I say. Jetia and the others rejoin us. Jetia and Kama are supporting the other two while walking. They set them down against a tree near us. I walk over to them. Dano and Banni have several cuts on their arms. “Congratulations on surviving your first combat experience. I knew you could do it. How’s the injury?” “Ugh… I don’t think I can swing my sword anymore.” “Same here.” “That’s fine. We’re headed back to Beltan soon. You can rest there. Kama, you should probably stay there too.” “I can still fight,” Kama says. “Where we’re headed next might be a little more dangerous than this encounter. We’re going to their hideout where several others are being held hostage. You won’t have Dano and Banni’s support anymore.” “I see… I’ll stay behind in Beltan then.” I notice Marin is holding onto one of those strange objects. “Marin, is that…” Marin looks down at the strange object. “I picked it up. I don’t know…” I remember the compartment that other guy opened. “Let me see that.” Marin hands the strange object to me. I mess around with the top part of the handle but can’t open it. “I saw someone using the same thing. He opened this part somehow.” “You’ve never seen an Artificial Magic Weapon?” Kane asks. He holds out his hand with his palm side up. I hand him the strange object. “Artificial Magic Weapon?” “It’s easier to show you,” he says and then points the strange object toward the sky. A small ball of fire appears directly in front of the strange object. The magic moves in a straight line at the same angle of the object. “Artificial Magic Weapons allow users to use magic with no knowledge of how to use magic naturally. You don’t need to know how to manipulate Mana at all.” You don’t need to know how to manipulate Mana to use magic? Impossible. He lowers the Artificial Magic Weapon and does something around the handle. Something clicks and then a compartment opens at the top. “These are composed of a Glim, an Affinity Crystal, a Mana Crystal, and some kind of switch that presses the button on the Mana Crystal. Afterward, the Mana is sent through the Glim. It applies instructions to the Mana which then go through the Affinity Crystal.” There are multiple models for those four ingredients can fit into. This one is called a Gun. I heard it was modeled after the crossbow. This model is worth a lot of money even though it’s only Iron. The Glims’ value depend on the capabilities. These bandits have a lot of Artificial Magic Weapons. You can have them all to sell or use. It’ll be our way of thanking you.” He hands me the Gun. I’m still not sure what all of this is, but returning with valuable items is another way of increasing our contribution to the army. “Thanks, Kane. That helps a lot.” I fiddle with the handle of the Gun until something clicks. I open up the compartment at the top and look inside. It looks like the crystals fit snugly inside each slot. The slot for the Glim looks different. The Glim is placed on its side instead of vertically like all the other crystals. I take out the Glim. There’s a slot for the vertical position too. I ask, “Why does the Glim slot have a vertical position and a horizontal position?” “The side position is for short-range activation and the vertical position is for long-range activation. It’s how much distance the Mana travels after passing through the Glim before activating. Most Glims made for Artificial Magic Weapons are always made with those two modes so that they’re compatible with a range of models.” “I see. You can replace the Affinity Crystals and Mana Crystals with different kinds, right?” “As long as they’re compatible with the Glim.” So that guy earlier replaced the Scrap Mana Crystal for an Unrefined Mana Crystal… Since pressing the switch on the outside doesn’t unleash magic immediately, it makes sense how the magic appearing didn’t match the direction of the Gun. I put the Glim back in the side slot. “Glims are more useful than I thought. How’re they made anyway? And why does laying it by the side mean it’s short –ranged?” “I have no idea.” “We…um…learned a little at the Academy,” Marin says. “You need Intermediate Runic magic to make them. I don’t think Moria…told us more than that.” “Hmm… I have heard something like this, so that’s probably correct.” “What about the Mana Crystal? How does the Mana come out fast enough to create magic rapidly? The ones I’ve seen at the Academy are really slow.” “It’s a different type of Mana Crystal. There is a range of different outflow rates for different purposes. Try pressing the button on that Mana Crystal.” I take out the Mana Crystal and do just that. A burst of Mana comes out, but nothing after that. My first thought is that it’s out of Mana.   “Let go of the button and then press it again.” I take my finger off the button and then press it again. The same amount of Mana comes out in a clump. “Ohh, that’s interesting. How’s this made?” Kane shrugs. An answer I expected based his previous response. I put the Mana Crystal back in the slot and then close the compartment. I point the Gun to the sky and then press the switch three times rapidly. About a second later, the first ball of fire appears. The second and third appears shortly after the first. “This weapon’s ridiculous. It’s like a cheat shortcut in using magic with no training at all.” Kane laughs and then responds, “In a way, yeah. But they’re pretty expensive to use.  And predictable.” “You have a point,” I say and pick up one of the two Guns from earlier. I toss one over to Banni and the other one to Dano. “You guys, take one each since you can’t swing a sword. At least you’ll be able to defend yourselves in case something happens.” I walk over to where I killed the hammer guy. I pick up his weapon, finding a button on the handle. I press it. Suddenly, the weapon swerves to the left. I lose my balance and fall. “Ah!” “Kai, are you okay?” Marin asks. I stand back up with the weapon. “Yeah. That caught me off guard… Kama, can you carry this back to our transportation?” “It’s going to be difficult with my weapon on my back, but I can try,” Kama says as he walks over to me. I hand the weapon over to him. He slumps over a little upon receiving it. I didn’t think he could do it since Platinum is heavier than Iron. It’s good that he can help out with something I physically can’t do by myself. “Can you replace your sword with that big sword over there?” I ask optimistically while pointing at the heavy Platinum sword nearby. “There’s no way I can do that. That sword won’t fit into my sheath. He doesn’t have a sheath for it either.” He has a point, I can’t blame him for that. “I’ll help you with that,” Kane says. “Hey, everyone. Help these guys out by carrying as much of the Artificial Magic Weapons as you can.” I smile. This is turning out to be really convenient for us. I have a good feeling about what’s to come. If all goes well, the Lieutenant promotion might not be too far away. “Thanks. We’ll have to compensate you at least a little bit for doing that for us.” “We’ll take you up on that offer,” he says while picking up the heavy sword. “I think there’re a few Artificial Magic Weapons back there…” Marin says. “Unless it was their own magic.” “Oh, really? Can you bring Vicki and Ruby with you to check? Bring it over if you can.” “Okay,” she says and then walks away. I recall the guy with the Gun had Mana Crystals in his pockets. I add, “Check their pockets for crystals and other valuables too.” Marin nods and then continues her way. I go over to where the shield guy lies. He hasn’t moved since I used my Rich Mana fireball on him. His face is completely pink, red, and raw. Some parts black. He can’t be alive. I pick up his shield and examine it. Another button on the handle. I press it. A second later, streaks of Lightning magic extends out from the shield. “Jetia, take this,” I say and throw the shield over to him. He catches it. “What do you want me to do with this?” “Use it. The button for the Lightning magic capabilities is on the handle,” I inform. I examine the sword the shield guy used. There are small tiny holes around the flat surface of the sword on both sides. The hilt is over twice as fat. The button is on the hilt. I point the sword toward the sky and press it. A second later, flames envelop the sword. I purse my lips. I recall when I set my own weapons on Fire during the tournament. Is this Fire magic…? Or is it Fire magic with Enhancement?   I let go of the button. The flames disappear after about two seconds. I could test it since the sword isn’t using my Mana.   I break down my Unrefined Mana into some Scrap Mana, Rich Mana into some Unrefined Mana, and my Mana into Rich Mana. I bond some of my Fire Affinity to Scrap Mana and then instruct them to form a small stationary sphere in front of me. The stationary sphere made out of my Fire magic appears. I don’t want to waste the Mana Crystal in the sword, so it’ll be a quick test. I know from the Enhancement seminar we went to that everyone’s capable of Basic Enhancement magic, involving enhancing your own body. Intermediate Enhancement involves enhancing inanimate objects. So if the fire surrounding this sword is from Enhancement magic, this sword won’t be able to go through my magic. The sword will act as a magical energy and collide with the fire in front of me. If there’s no Enhancement involved, my sword will go through and the fire around the sword will linger on my magic. I press the button on the sword. As soon as the flames appear, I swing it across the globe of fire I made. The crackling sound of the fire intensifies slightly as the sword collides with my Fire magic. All the momentum in my swing is gone. It’s like I just hit an unbreakable brick wall. I let go of the button and relax. This sword might come in handy since I can’t use Intermediate Enhancement magic. That’s another advantage in these Artificial Magic Weapons I didn’t realize earlier. It can be useful to me too despite that I know how to use magic. Now, the only thing left to check are these pockets. I check the pockets of the four I finished. I only find two Mana Crystals in the guy with the two Guns. The outflow style of both of them comes out in short bursts. Both of them Scrap Mana. I put them in my pocket. “Kai!” Ruby exclaims. She runs over to me holding onto a dagger. “I found this! Are ya proud of me?” “Marin and Vicki are making their way here too. I ask, “What’s it do?” She presses the button on the grip of the weapon. A second later, the dagger shines brightly. I focus away from the dagger as it hurts my eyes. Must be Light magic. It stops emitting light seconds later. Ruby grins. I answer, “Good job on finding that.” “Yay!” I look toward Vicki and Marin, who approaches. Marin’s looking away. Vicki informs, “We didn’t find anything.” “That’s fine. We’re going to move out soon,” I declare. Ruby’s still shining brightly. “Ruby, can you let everyone know that we’re going to leave? Gather them up here.” “’Kay!” I smile. We gathered a lot of valuable weapons, saved a family of four, and resolved two of the four requests. We’ll get more valuables and possibly one more request resolved after we raid the bandit’s hideout. With this much luck, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ariane randomly bumps into us. I chuckle. I can’t wait to see the look on Captain Albius’ face when he finds out how much we accomplished. I’ll wipe that condescending look off his face. He won’t be calling me a stupid monkey for long. I’ll make him respect me. That I’m someone who’ll catch up to his rank in no time. Soon enough, everyone gathers up around me. I lead the group toward the transportation outside the forest.

I open my eyes from the sudden banging on my bedroom door. I flip over to my other side and then close my eyes again.    "Kai, are you awake? Kai!" Luna yells from outside my room. She continues to bang on the door. "I won't bother you about skipping class again, but at least bring our dinner for tonight! Kai, I know you're awake!"   I ignore her, hoping that she stops trying to disturb me. The banging stops after fifteen more seconds. I sigh and then smile before my consciousness drifts off again.   …   "Kai, get up!" Luna exclaims as she bangs on my door again. I frown and narrow my eyebrows.   I turn my head toward the door and exclaim, "Can't you tell I'm trying to take a nap?! What do you want?!"   "You told me to wake you up when dinner was ready! Everyone's here except you!"   I relax my facial expressions. "Oh…coming!"   I yawn, stand up, and then stretch my limbs. As I'm walking toward the door, I find my backpack against the wall. I cock an eyebrow. What? How'd this get here…? I haven't moved my backpack in over two years… It should be in the closet… Well, no use thinking about it! I'll just put it back and head off to dinner! I wonder what's on the menu for today…   I bend over to pick up the backpack as I imagine the aroma of delicious food entering my nose. I swallow the large amount of saliva in my mouth. I lift the backpack off the ground and then knit my eyebrows. It feels heavier than it should be. What the hell?   I put down the backpack and then check the lock on the door; it's still locked. I unzip my backpack and then reach in with my hand. The book is still there, but there's something else. It's spherical, and the top part is covered in short hairs. I knit my eyebrows as my hand reaches the puddle of liquid. I reach in with my other hand and pull it out.   I widen my eyes and drop my jaws. I'm staring at the ceiling with my heart pounding hard. I get up and then turn my head in all directions. The backpack isn't against the wall anymore. I rush over to the closet, open it, and then take out the backpack. I open it, finding only the book inside. I sigh. What the hell was that…?   An eerie feeling creeps over me like something is going to pop out of nowhere and attack me. I shake my entire body once as someone knocks on my door. My heart is still pounding.   "Kai, get up!" Luna exclaims. I sigh while feeling some déjà vu. I zip up the backpack, stand up, and then close the closet door.    As I'm opening my mouth to say something, Hiro says, "Give it up, Luna. Ya know how Kai is with his naptime."   "I know, but… He hasn't contributed to any of our food supplies in over two weeks, and we're out of meat for tonight."   "What?! I'll get on that right now!" Hiro exclaims with his voice and footsteps getting farther away. "Just let Kai nap and save his energy for the tournament. With ‘im at his best, it's a guaranteed win!"    "Will you be okay by yourself?"   "Yeh, I'll be fine. We've been huntin' these things for almost a year now." Hiro's footsteps and voice resound near my door again. I figure he got his weapon from his room.   "Okay, be careful!"   "I will. See ya later!" A door opens and shuts following footsteps. An uneasy feeling envelops me as I think back to the nightmare just now. On a whim, I clip on my sheaths on my belt before unlocking my door and then run toward the main door without stopping.   "Kai, you're awake? Where're you going in such a hurry?"   "You wanted me to get us dinner, right?" I ask while opening the door. I run out and exclaim, "I'm heading out now!"   "You don't have to do that anymore. Hiro's already—" Her voice dies out as I run farther down the hallway. I go straight and then make a right turn toward the exit. Hiro's walking in the same direction with his sledgehammer in hand.   "Hey, Hiro!"   Hiro faces me and then asks, "Huh? Kai, weren't ya takin' a nap?"   "I decided that I wanna contribute to the group after all. I feel bad for being lazy as of late," I reply with a smile.   "What are ya talkin' about…? You've always been lazy… So, what's the real reason behind your change of heart?" Hiro asks with a suspicious look. He knits his eyebrows and mutters, "Wait a minute…"   A few seconds later, he narrows his eyebrows and exclaims, "Ah, I got it! Ya don't trust me with a simple task like this!"   "That's not it…" I deny.   "What is it then?" he asks. Judging by the look on his face; he's not in the mood for jokes.   "Uh… Well…" I interject while thinking of a viable reason, knowing that he'll think it's a joke if I tell him the truth. "It might be hard carrying the prey back with your weapon type, right?"   His facial expressions relax. He grins and says, "I guess that's true. Very well, you'll be my pack mule!"    "Whatever. Let's go already." After my suggestion, we head into the Academy's hunting grounds next to the dormitory building.   "Since I'm just the pack mule, can I at least pick what I'm gonna haul?" I ask as I follow Hiro deeper into the forest.   "Sure. You'll see me in my full glory," he says with confidence. There's a chubby bird nearly a foot tall on a tree branch up ahead; one of the non-aggressive creatures available in this forest. It mostly has red feathers with some streaks of white randomly throughout its body. I smile.    "How about that red bird on that tree over there?" I ask while pointing to the bird. "I'm kinda in the mood for bird."   "Eh… That's just an ordinary bird… It doesn't even fight back," Hiro responds.   "So Hiro the Great can't bring home an ordinary bird for dinner? Tsk tsk," I say while shrugging my shoulders, shaking my head, and smiling. Hiro frowns.   "Fine… I'll easily take care of that bird no problem. Watch me," he states before turning toward the bird. He raises his sledgehammer behind his head as he approaches said bird. When he reaches striking range, he jumps and then swings down his hammer. The tree crackles as he makes impact; the branch breaks and falls to the ground. The bird is already in the air and proceeds to fly away. I put a palm over my face while shaking my head. Hiro slams down his hammer in front of him and exclaims, "Damn! That lucky bird got away!"   "And the bird leads by a point!"   "Let's find another bird… It won't get so lucky next time," Hiro says bitterly. We eventually find another bird, but the result is the same. He swings widely and doesn't hide his murderous intent at all, giving the bird enough time to take flight before he connects his blow. This goes on for several more birds.   "Hiro… Don't you think you need to try a different method?"   "What, so you're saying I can't take down a stupid bird?!" I point both of my palms toward him and smile.   "No, I'm just saying what you're doing isn't working… Try something else?"   "What else can I do? Hmm…" He knits his eyebrows and narrows his eyes. He raises his eyebrows and exclaims, "I got it! Let's find another bird now!"   He runs off in a random direction. I sigh. Finally, I can observe what I wanted to see in the first place…   I follow Hiro, eventually coming across another bird. He drops his sledgehammer. I knit my eyebrows as he runs at the bird with his bare hands. He tries to grab it while doing everything else the same. He fails and falls to the ground, the bird already in midair. I close my eyes and pinch the skin between them.   "Damn! I was better off usin' my weapon after all!" he exclaims while getting back on his feet. I relax my facial expressions and then sigh.   "Why don't you try using your magic?" I suggest.   "Huh? How's that help? My Water magic's useless."   "What happened to that confidence from last week? You were bragging about completing your keyword…"   "Oh…uhh…" Hiro mutters.   "Unless you were lying…"   "No, I wasn't! Fine… I guess I'll hafta show you." He picks up his sledgehammer, and we go explore to find another bird. He drops his weapon on the ground and then points his left palm toward the bird on the tree branch. I stand near a tree between him and the bird. "Fireball!"   I widen my eyes and drop my jaws. What?! He's been hiding his Fire Affinity all this time?!   I relax my facial expressions as a wave of disappointment hits me. A rugged sphere of water comes out of Hiro's palm. It moves so slow I can follow it with my eyes without any effort. It moves on a straight path toward the bird. It flies away before his magic can hit it. A moment later, it hits the adjacent branch, and the sphere of water expands, splashing water all over. Hiro gapes at the result. He knits his eyebrows, stares at the ground, and mutters, "That's strange… When I made the keyword, it was faster… I coulda sworn it was bigger too…"   I press a finger into my forehead and ask, "Didn't you pay any attention in our second year…? Oh, wait… I keep forgetting you didn't actually pass that written test…"   "Stop makin' fun of me and just tell me what happened!"   I sigh. "Don't you know? If you use a keyword that has nothing to do with the magic that you programmed, you can lose up to 50% of its effectiveness… The reason why your magic was weaker this time's because you used the keyword instead of manually assigning the instructions you did the first time…"   He purses his lips and then interjects, "Oh…"   "It was a good thing you showed me that before you'd miserably fail the keyword test next week…" He puts a hand behind his head and giggles. "I'll give you one more chance to get a bird…and if you fail again, I'm taking over."   "I got it…" he says in a conceding voice. We locate another bird, and I stand in a similar position as before. Hiro's eyebrows furrow as he faces his palm toward the target. It takes a few minutes before he shouts, "Water ball!"    A sphere of water with a smooth surface appears from his palm, nearly twice the volume of the first one I saw. The speed of the sphere doubles, but I'm still able to easily follow it move the entirety of its straight course to the bird. A smile emerges on my face as the water disperses all over the bird. The bird tries to fly away afterward, but it fails and falls to the ground.    "Good job, you finally beat the bird," I praise as I walk over to pick up the bird. I cock an eyebrow as Hiro seems awfully quiet about his success. I crouch down to grab the bird still attempting to fly away, but footsteps rapidly resound toward me.   "Bastard, it's payback time!" Hiro exclaims as the ruffling of grass grow louder.   He wouldn’t… I skeptically curl one side of my lips upward. As soon as I turn my head around, his sledgehammer swoops right past me. A liquid splashes on the right side of my face and my right arm following a splattering noise.   "Don't worry Kai, I got 'im," he says in a reassuring tone. I turn my head back, finding a bloody mess on the ground. I would have a hard time recognizing it's a bird if I didn't know it was a bird before this happened.   "Hiro…?" I ask as I feel veins protruding from my forehead.   "What is it, Kai?" He asks and then faces me. He laughs loudly. "My impact was so strong I even got some of it on ya!"   "Just so you know you're eating that one," I say with a frown. He smiles.   "I don't mind. It's not like any meat disappeared, right? I wonder why the bird didn't fly away this time…"   "You used your magic without knowing why…? If a bird gets wet, they can't fly anymore."   "Well, you told me to and usually you're right…but that's neat! Maybe Water magic ain't as useless as I thought!"   A smile emerges on my face in light of the trust he put in me. I ask, "Why was your confidence staggering earlier? You legitimately completed your keyword."   "I was kinda nervous 'cause I just copied the one you showed us last year…"   "I see now…" I say and nod my head. "That's why the keyword was fireball the first time…"   A few seconds later, a boar squeals in the distance. Some guy yells, "He's getting away! After him!"   "We should hurry and gather five more birds before it gets crowded in here," I suggest as I reluctantly pick up the bloody bird with two fingers. Some blood drips onto the ground as I do.   "Sounds good. My revenge ain't complete yet!"   "Wait," I say to stop him from running off on his own. I approach from behind and then open the backpack he's carrying. "Since this is yours, I'm gonna put it in here for you."   "Hey, wait! That's…" I quickly drop the bird into his backpack and then close it. I laugh hard inside, but I keep a straight face.   "Damn it, Kai… What good's a pack mule if he doesn't carry the goods?" he asks as he gives me a contemptuous look.   "Since you're here, you can carry your own dinner. I'll carry mine and everyone else's," I say. "Oh, one more thing… You're not getting your revenge today. You'll be a good boy and let me do the work after you immobilize them. Understand?"   I put the hand with bird blood on Hiro's shoulder from behind. I grip it tightly while releasing murderous intent. He turns his head toward me. There are droplets of sweat on his forehead.   "Go-got it…" he answers without his usual light-heartedness.   "Good, let's go," I say as I let go of his shoulder, but not before I wipe the blood on him. A few chuckles escape from my mouth as I'm trying to keep myself from breaking into a cackle. We find another bird in a few minutes of searching. After Hiro stops its movements, I pick it up and then snap its neck. We repeat this for the next four birds, finishing our hunt in 15 minutes. Afterward, we make our way back home.   "Kai, what happened?!" Luna exclaims as she runs over to me. "Are you injured?"   "No, this is bird blood. I'm completely fine," I answer. Luna sighs.   "Thank goodness," she says while staring into my eyes. "I was really worried because you were gone for so long…"   "Those pesky birds kept on flyin’ away at first…but eventually, I got 'em. You were worried ‘bout me too, right?"   "Um, yeah, of course!" Luna says with a smile. She points toward the kitchen and instructs, "Kai, you can put those birds on the counter over there. I'll get a head start before Marin comes back."   I go to where she pointed and then drop the birds piled between my arms and my chest onto the counter. Luna counts them with a finger. "Hmm? There're only five here."   "Hiro's bird's in his backpack," I explain while pointing to Hiro. Luna's cocking an eyebrow as she turns her view over to him.   "Kai was bein' a big baby back there. He didn’t want the bird that I took down. Anyway, I'm goin' to take a shower," Hiro says as he sets down his backpack on the counter. He walks over to his room and then shuts the door. The lock on his door clicks. Luna opens Hiro's backpack. She reaches her hand in and then shrieks softly. There is blood on her fingertips after she rears her hand back.   "Jeez… So that's how you got the blood on you," she says while frowning at the backpack. I laugh lightly.   "Yeah, I stopped him after the first one."   "I'm glad you went with him now! You're so reliable!" she exclaims with a smile. I blush and look away toward my room.    "It was nothing… I didn't want my bird to be a bloody mess is all. I'm gonna go shower too and clean this mess off me," I say as I walk away with my face getting hotter. I open the door to my room, walk in, close the door, and then lock it. I go into the bathroom and then set the temperature of the shower to 106 degrees Fahrenheit as usual. I activate the shower, but no water comes out. I knit my eyebrows. What the hell…? Is it broken again?   I open the lid to where the components of the device lay. There are several Crystals and some mechanics I don't recognize. Let's see… Since no water's coming out, the Water Crystal must be drained, right? Hmm… There're two blue looking Crystals, though…   I pick up one of the blue Crystals. What do I do with this now…?   I ponder at the Crystal in my hand for a few seconds before deciding to go back to the main room. Luna asks, "Kai, you're done with your shower already?"   "Uh, not yet. I think my Water Crystal is drained…" Luna turns around holding feathers in her fingertips. She disposes them in the trashcan before walking over to me.   "Let me see that." I hand her the Crystal, and she walks over to the sink. I quirk an eyebrow as water flows out of the Crystal moments later. She turns back to me. "Umm… This looks fine to me… Did you check the Mana Crystal?"   "Uh, what…? I thought there were only a Fire Crystal, a Water Crystal, and a knob that adjusts the temperature," I say while recalling my memory with Emdos. Luna laughs loudly with a grin on her face. Not knowing what to think, I blush and frown.   "We learned this in class last year, you know… Maybe if you actually went to class…" she explains as she locks her eyes on mine with her hands on her hips. I continue to frown and look down at the floor.   "Well, we didn't have to replenish any of our Crystals ourselves until this year… I'll show you. Let's go to your bathroom." We go to my bathroom afterward, and she puts the Water Crystal back. "Okay, pay attention…"   I do as she instructs and focus my eyes where she points. "This is where the switch activates the Mana Crystal. When you turn on the shower, it basically moves this over and presses against the output mechanism on the Mana Crystal. The Mana comes out on the other side, and it passes through this thing, called P-Glim. You probably don't know what that is either… Basically, it's like a Glim, but the instructions are pre-defined and depend on what the knob is set to…"   My eyes wander toward her chest. I smile while ogling the portion sticking out of her tank top. "…after that, the Mana goes to the Fire Crystal and Water Crystal. Then the water comes out from over there. Understand?"   I look in a random direction as she looks back at me. "Uh, yeah…"   She sighs. "Okay, look."   She takes the Mana Crystal from the device and then holds it in front of me. "You can check if the Mana Crystal's drained by pressing this button. I'm pressing it right now, and nothing comes out from the other side."   "Oh, I see," I say as I nod my head. She puts the Mana Crystal back and then takes the Fire Crystal out.    "Take this." She hands me the Fire Crystal. "Try passing some Scrap Mana through this. You should be able to activate it because you know how to bond Fire magic. Be careful not to burn yourself."   I do as she says while holding the Fire Crystal at my fingertips. I channel some Scrap Mana into the Crystal, making sure not to bond any of my Fire magic as I do. I try to act as if the Crystal is a part of my body and make my Mana bond with the Crystal. A few moments later, a small spark of fire emits from the Crystal. I smile.   "As expected of Kai! You got it without me explaining how to do it!" Luna exclaims with a smile.   "It's because you explained everything so well!" I exclaim with the same energy level. I put back the Crystal back into the device where it belongs. I ask, "So, do we have any Mana Crystals on hand for the shower?"   "No, I don't think we do… I think Drugo left to get some earlier, but I haven't heard from him…" she blushes and looks away. Her voice grows quiet. "So, um… I guess you can use my bathroom…"   "Oh, really? Thanks!"   I gather my change of clothes as she heads back into the main room to prepare our dinner. I head into Luna's room adjacent to mine. I close the door and then find my way to the bathroom. The layout of the room is the same as mine. I smile as I take a big whiff of Luna's lingering scent. My eyes wander around her room, and they stop on Luna's drawer. Luna's underwear…   I close in on the drawer and then gulp as I reach my hand to take a peak. As soon as my fingers touch the drawer, the door suddenly opens. I rear back from the drawer immediately with my heart pounding rapidly. Droplets of sweat form on my forehead.   "Ah, Kai! I forgot to mention, but can you use your own towel?"   "Oh, yeah, sure."   "Thanks!" Her footsteps resound back toward the kitchen area. I sigh and then head back to my bathroom to grab my towel before going back to Luna's room. I lock the door before using her shower. I take my time, savoring the rare chance of using Luna's shower. I finish within 20 minutes, and then I head to the main room.   "Kai, what're you doin' comin' outta Luna's room?" Hiro asks. He's sitting on the couch. I walk over to the couch, finding a large number of feathers in the trashcan along the way. Two of the birds remain outside of the caldron in front of Luna and Marin. There's also something cooking in a smaller pot next to the caldron.   "My Mana Crystal was drained, and Luna let me use hers," I explain as I sit down next to Hiro.   "So, didja look?" he whispers to me as he nudges me with his elbow. I frown.   "No, I didn't," I whisper back.   "Damn, so borin'." He sighs. I turn toward the sound of the main door opening. Sitos and Drugo walk in.   "That smells good. What's for dinner?" Drugo asks as he walks toward one of the metal chests.    "Bird from the hunting grounds," I answer. "Are those the Mana Crystals?"   "Yup it is, why?" he asks as he opens the chest, pouring everything in from a bag.   "Perfect. I needed a Mana Crystal for my shower."   "All the Crystals are gonna be in here Kaister, so take it when it's convenient," he says as he closes the chest. Sitos heads into his room.   "I will catch up with you guys later after I shower."   "Same here," Drugo says as he heads for his room too.    I listen to Hiro go on about the tournament and how excited he is as dinner is being prepared. By the time Luna and Marin announce dinner time, Sitos and Drugo have finished their showers. Each of us gets an extra large bowl in order to fit the entire bird into it, along with the soup and other ingredients. Marin and Luna split one of the four birds in the caldron and serve Hiro his own bird from the other pot. We sit at the table and eat our own meals.   "Speaking of the tournament, I am going to be pissed if we do not win it this year… This is the last chance to take the 1C room for ourselves, so do not screw this up. Thanks to a few idiots, we failed the previous two contests," Sitos says.   "And whose fault do you think that is?" Luna asks.   "It was not just me! Kai, Hiro, and Drugo all agreed! Who would have known that fried chicken dressed with peanut butter was a bad idea?"   I don't comment and simply slurp the delicious soup. I savor the rich umami flavor of the bird in the broth. I look over to Hiro, who is strangely silent. He hasn't started to eat his meal. I ask, "Hiro, what's wrong?"   He stays silent for a few more seconds before responding, "Why's only my soup a dark-red color…?"   He stirs his soup with his spoon and continues, "And I can still see the feathers attached to the bird…"   "Marin made that, you know," Luna informs.   "It wasn't my fault… The bird was bloody….and touching it was gross…and the insides were messed up… So…I just threw it in the pot," Marin explains.   "You were the one who said, 'I don't mind. It's not like any meat disappeared,' right?"   Hiro grunts before he finally digs into his meal. He raises his eyebrows before saying, "Oh, this is still pretty good. Marin's cookin' skills are amazin'!"   "I'm glad you like it…because well… I don't want you feeling bad…for tomorrow," Marin says.   I smile and chuckle. Sitos says, "Hiro, if you strike us out two times, I am going to squish you like you did to that bird."   "It's not goin' to happen. I'm confident in my physical abilities!"   I ask, "What if you weren’t allowed to use your physical abilities and you have to use magic?"   Hiro stays silent. "Hiroster, if you need any help with the keyword test after the tournament, let us know now."   "I don't need help! Ask Kai, he's already witnessed my magic!"   "Yeah I witnessed it alright. The first time you used the keyword fireball for a water-based spell. He corrected it afterward, though, so we're safe."   "Ya didn't hafta mention that first part…" Hiro mutters. "What 'bout y'all?"   "We are not idiots like you. Everyone probably has at least a couple of keywords made already," Sitos infers. Judging by the silence, I assume that it's true excluding me. I only have two keywords made, not including the keyword I used to learn Fire bonding.   "Ya'll have it easy… Ya can't do anythin' with Water magic other than wet the target!"   "That is perfect… Wet them for me and then I will electrocute them with my magic. Playing support is a fitting role for you," Sitos says while chuckling.   "I don't like the sound of that."   "Well, if they are still conscious, you can use that ridiculously retarded strength of yours to knock them out. Even with your accuracy, you can hit them after they eat a dose of electricity."   "Oh! I like that!" Hiro exclaims. We continue chatting about the impending tournament tomorrow as we eat our meals. I head to my room after we finish chatting and eating. I lock my door, brush my teeth, undress, and then lay in bed. I play around with my Mana, eventually expelling it all before I fall asleep.

She grabs my hair. I bring her body closer to me in a cuddle, pressing her firm, petite breasts against me. My tongue wraps around hers inside her mouth as I rest a hand on her neck. I stick a leg between hers and then press my raging erection against her leg.  Her tongue pushes mine back into my mouth. I swallow as her tongue lunges toward my throat. She pants and moans softly. My heart pounds rapidly, and my palms are sweaty.   I grab both of her breasts while pushing her on her back, my mouth never leaving hers. Suddenly, she turns her head away, pushes me back, and squeals quietly. The blanket covering us falls off at the same time. I open my eyes. Only two small pieces of clothing cover her bare body. A breeze chills my warm body. I scoot closer to her and then grab one of her hands with both of mine. I stare into her eyes and ask, "Luna, what's wrong?"   She doesn’t answer immediately. She looks away and then back at me. "Sorry, Umm…"   She looks away again. Her face is flushed red. She looks into my eyes and asks, "Do you wanna…do it with me?"   Her eyes sparkle. It takes me a moment to process her question. My face burns up gradually while my heart pounds harder. I let her hands go, force a smile, and then answer, "N-no! Of-of course not!"   I force a laugh but then stop. Her facial expression doesn't change. My eyes lock on her breasts where my hands were and then back on her eyes. I relax my facial expressions and then gulp. I want to look away, but I keep eye contact. "Yeah…"   "Do you love me?"   "Yeah. I love you, Luna."   She smiles and then says. "If you love me forever, then I'll do it with you…"   I clench her hand tighter and respond, "I'll love you forever. No matter what happens."   She grins. "Then, it's okay."   She lies back on the bed sideways. I gulp before lying down too. I slowly slide my fingers across her back. Her skin is soft and silky. She doesn't resist as I unclasp her bra. I flare my nostrils as I drag it off, revealing her bare breasts. I bring my head closer to hers. I stop when she tugs on my shirt. "Oh, right."   She giggles. Oh, shit… I said that out loud…   I blush and take off my shirt. I move closer to Luna as I drape the blanket over us. My lips lock with hers again. Our tongues mingle. Lightly at first, but it grows intense. My hand moves over her breasts. Her nipple is hard. I grab her breast with a hand while sliding my other hand across her inner thigh. She squeezes my hand with her legs. I slide my fingers across her underwear. I don't know why it's wet. Every time her moan resounds, it adds fuel to the growing fire inside me.   I sit up and then grab her underwear with both hands. I slide it off her legs. She rests the back of her hands on the bed next to her head. I pant as my eyes linger on the most sensitive part of her body. I gulp before moving a hand closer to it. She squirms a little and moans softly as my finger slide across. I slowly insert a finger inside her to satisfy my curiosity. She closes her eyes. Her lips slightly parted with faint, fast breaths resounding. Her legs squeeze together as my fingers moved inside her, eliciting soft moans.   I can't hold it anymore. Immediately, I take off my briefs and then position my body on top of hers. Our eyes meet, but neither of us says a word. She spreads her legs apart. I gulp and then slowly drop down. My heart feels like it's about to explode. Suddenly, someone bangs on my door. I stop moving.   "Hey, Kai! Wake up!" Hiro shouts. I click my tongue and turn my head to the door.   "What do you want?!"   "Sitos' here! We can finally go on a mission!" He tries to open the door, but it's locked.   "Can't you wait like an hour?"   "No! I can't wait anymore! We still need to find Luna! Just take a nap later!"   Just take a nap later, he says… I frown and turn back to Luna. Quietly, I say, "Let's continue."   "If ya don't come outta there within five minutes, I'll bust it down!" His footsteps resound away. My eyes lock on Luna, but it feels like the mood we built up is completely gone despite that our bodies are inches apart. She giggles.   "Don't worry," Luna says and pats me on the head. "We'll continue tonight."   I sigh. "Yeah…"   I get off her and then put on my clothes. "I need to get my things from my room. I'll meet you in the lobby."   "Alright," I respond as I start to put on my armor. She opens the door and then leaves. I finish equipping my armor and then clip on my sheaths. I leave the room and then go downstairs. Everyone except Luna is waiting there.   "Finally, he's here!" Hiro exclaims. "Let's hurry up and find Luna. Marin said she left early to go shoppin'."   Marin smiles. Footsteps resound down the stairs. Luna appears out of breath. "Sorry, I'm late."   A small spiked mace is clipped to her belt. Hiro asks, "Luna, where'd ya come from? I checked your room, and ya weren’t there."   Hiro turns to Marin and then asks, "Didn'tcha say she went out to go shoppin'?"   "Yep," Marin replies. "She must've returned earlier than I thought."   "That's strange. How'd we miss her? I was waitin' here this entire time."   "That is because she did not go shopping," Sitos blurts out and then looks at me. "She was in Kai's room this entire time. Right, Kai?"   My face burns up as everyone's gaze shifts to me. I mutter, "Uh…yeah…"   "Marin, ya lied to me!" Hiro exclaims. Marin stays quiet. "What the hell was Luna doin' in your room so early for, Kai? Luna, why didn'tcha answer when I pounded on that door?"   Sitos smiles and says, "Yes. Enlighten us."   Luna smiles, blushes, and says, "Well, if you really wanna know… We were—"   I cough loudly. "More importantly, didn't you mention we were going on a mission? Does your dad finally have a mission for us, Sitos?"   "No, he is still occupied with the same thing."   "What?! I thought ya came here because he finally has somethin' for us after a week of nothing! Hiro exclaims.   "You jumped to conclusions too early, Hiro. Sitos told us while you ran up the stairs," Drugo says. I frown.   "So you're telling me I came down here for nothing…?" I ask and then sigh. I start to walk back toward the stairs.   "It does not look like my dad will resolve his problem anytime soon. Stop being a little bitch and look for a request with us," Sitos suggests. I stop.   "Yeah! That sounds like a good idea! Let's go!" Hiro exclaims and then runs out the door. We follow him at our own paces. I stay in the back with Luna.   I gaze at her weapon and say, "By the way Luna, I see you finally bought yourself a weapon."   "Yep! Because you said I needed one just in case."   "Isn't that too heavy for you?"   "I can handle it if I use both hands."   "I see. Don't be too reckless. It's a last resort."   She smiles and says, "I know. Are you worried about me?"   "O-of course I am… Did you have to make me say it?"   "I wanted to hear it from your lips," she explains and then clasps an arm around mine. I try to pull back, but she doesn't let me.   "Careful. What if someone sees us?" I ask as I look in front of me. Hiro and the others aren't in sight. I sigh. "We're in luck. They’ve already gone ahead."   "What're you so afraid of?" Luna asks. "They've known for a while now."   I cock an eyebrow and interject, "Huh?"   Luna stops walking and turns her head around. I stop walking and look behind me too. I rear back, finding the others are smiling closely behind us. "When did you guys…"   "Even I noticed there had been somethin' between ya two the past few months," Hiro says. "I was playin' dumb this whole time."   I skeptically curl one side of my lips upward. Right…because you need to pretend…   He continues, "Ya don't hafta be so secretive 'bout it anymore. Especially after last night."   I knit my eyebrows and ask, "Last night?"   "Like I said, ya don't hafta hide it anymore. We know ya two slept together last night. That's why you're like this now, right?"   I frown, thinking back to last night. I can't tell him that nothing happened despite that we were in bed together… It only came close this morning when Luna suddenly jumped on me.   "Yeah, we did sleep together last night," I admit.   "Yep, we did!" Luna exclaims.   "Is that all you wanted to say?" I ask. "Let's hurry to the Adventurer's District."   Before I have a chance to turn back around, Sitos says, "Now is the time to come clean of anything else you are hiding."   "Huh? What else would I be hiding?"   "You tell us."   "There's nothing. Let's go," I say and then turn around, bringing Luna with me as I walk forward. We enter the Trade District a few minutes later.   "Hey, the couple over there. Come over here for a second," an old man sitting behind a stall on my left says. We walk up to it, the others behind us. "How would you like to try this game of luck? If you win, you'll win the prize of one gold coin. It costs one silver coin to play."   There's a stack of scratch cards on the stand. I've seen this type of business before in the Residential District in the past. Emdos told me that I should never waste money on it. I walk away and say, "Not interested."   Only a few seconds pass before Hiro asks, "How do ya play?"   I sigh and then go back. "It's simple. You take a coin and use it to scratch off the circular coating. If you match three W's in any direction, you'll move on to the next stage."   "Alright, I'm in!" Hiro exclaims and then hands the man a silver coin.   "Good luck. You're free to take any card you want," the man informs. Hiro takes the one from the top.   "Hiro, you shouldn't waste your money on this type of thing…" I say. He ignores me as he scratches off all nine circles. There's a line of three W's on the bottom.   "I won!"   "Wow! The chance of winning was only one out of twenty! You got past the hard part. The next part is easier," the man says and then puts three cups on the table with the brim down. He shows a rock in the palm on his hand. "I'm going to hide this rock under one of these cups. You have to guess the right one."   "Got it," Hiro says. The man takes a cover from the ground and then puts it on the table. It blocks our view of the cups. A few seconds later, he removes it.   "Okay. Pick a cup."   "Hmm… I want the one on the right!"   "Okay. I'm going to give you another opportunity right now. For only ten silver coins, I'll reveal one of the cups that are empty." I knit my eyebrows.   "I'll do it," Hiro says instantly. He hands over ten silver coins. The man removes the middle cup.   "Now you have a fifty percent chance of winning one gold coin! If you want to change to the cup on the left, that's fine with me."   "No, I want the one on the right!"   "Alright," the man says and then lifts up the cup on the right. There's nothing under it. "Too bad."   The man lifts up the cup on the left a second later, revealing the rock. Hiro puts another silver coin on the table. He takes another scratch card and exclaims, "I'll play again!"   "Sure," the man says and smiles. "Don't worry; you just got unlucky."   "I won again!"   "That's some amazing luck you have there! Alright, let me set up part two again," the man says and then puts up the cover. Seconds later, he removes it.   "I'll take the middle one."   "For ten silver coins—"   "Yeah, yeah. I'll do it," Hiro says and then drops ten silver coins on the stand. The man takes it and then reveals the cup on the right to be empty. Both of the man's hands are behind the stall.   "Do you want to change to the one on the left?"   "Nah, I'll stick to the middle one," Hiro says.   "Wait, you should try changing to the one on the left," I suggest.   "What, why?"   "Just a hunch."   "Fine, but if I lose… It's your fault. I'll change to the left."   "Sure." The man brings up his right hand from under the table and then lifts up the cup on the left. It's empty. Hiro grunts and turns to me.   "Damn! This is your fault!" The man brings up his left hand and then lifts up the cup in the middle.   "Tough luck. This time it was the correct decision to stay with the middle. You're on a roll, though. You should play again. You can still win more than you lost if you keep playing."   "Fine!" Hiro puts another silver coin on the table and then takes a scratch card.   Hmm… Is this old guy doing what I think he is? The next time he takes out those cups, I'll make sure…   Hiro scratches out all nine circles, revealing that it's not a winner. "So close. You only needed one more match to win. Don't worry; you still have a lot of chances to win!"   Five minutes pass of Hiro never making it past the first stage. Hiro stomps the ground. "Damn! This one ain't a winner either!"   He reaches into his pouch but doesn't take anything out. "Crap… I didn't bring any more money with me. I'll run back to get some!"   I grab his arm and say, "Don't bother. Let me try winning your money back for you."   "Oh, you'll do that for me?"   "Yeah, no problem. How much did you spend so far?"   "Uhh… I'm not sure."   "84 silver coins," Marin answers.   "I see," I say and then take my arm back from Luna. I put a silver coin on the table.   "Well, it's the youngster from earlier! You've decided to play have you?" I lift up the top half of scratch cards and then put the bottom half on top. I take the first one and then scratch it off with a coin. I don't win. I repeat this for several more scratch cards. I finally have a winner.   "Congratulations! With the odds of one out of twenty, you won after only five tries!"   One in twenty, my ass. I shake my head as the man prepares the cups. The moment he reveals the cups, I say, "I'll take the middle one."   His hands are behind the stall. "Sure. Do you want to spend—"   "Sure." I put ten silver coins on the table. He reveals that the left cup is empty.   "Now, do you want to change to the one on the right?"   I unsheathe one of my swords and then point it toward his face. "Don't move."    Hiro shouts, "Kai, what the hell are ya doin'?!"   A few people in the streets stop to look at me. I ignore them and say, "Put both of your hands on the table palm up."   "Wh-what's this about? The guards will have you arrested," the man says as he lifts both of his hands palms up. There's nothing in his hands.   "Lift up both of those cups."   "Yo-you can only choose one…"   "I don't care. If one of them is a winner, you can keep the money." He turns pale. After several seconds, he finally picks up both cups. The rock isn't under either of them.   "What the hell?! Where's the rock?!" Hiro exclaims.   "He probably dropped it before revealing his palms," I deduce. I stare into the man's eyes. "Now who's gonna call the guards? You're the one who's gonna be arrested now for fraudulent business."   "Let me beat up this guy for cheatin' me!" I grab Hiro's arm to hold him back.   "Th-there's no need to be hasty… I'll give you youngsters all your money back and the one gold coin prize."   "I want all your money," I say.   "Excuse me?"   "You heard me. Either you lose all your money, lose your business, and get arrested…or lose all your money."   "What is going on over there?!" someone exclaims. A guard is running toward us. I sheathe my sword. The guard stops in front of the old man. "Sir, are these people threatening you?"   I glare into the old man's eyes before he turns to the guard. He answers, "No… It was my fault. He won the jackpot, and I refused to give him the money. Sorry for the trouble."   "I see. Do not let this happen again," the guard says and then leaves. The old man sighs. He takes out a pouch of coins and then drops it on the table.   "There. Take it and leave." I take his pouch and then toss it to Hiro.   "You can carry this," I say as I pick up my ten silver coins. "Can we skip the mission now and go back? What we just raked is probably worth more than the mission…"   "No way! I'm not doin' it for the money. I'm bored! How much is in here anyway…"   "Count it later. Let's get going already," I say and head toward the Adventurer's District. Luna smiles and clasps her arm around mine again.   "As expected of Kai! How did you figure out what he was doing?" Luna asks.   "I didn't. I just had a hunch he was doing something based on where his hands were. He seemed awfully enthusiastic about potentially losing his profits too. It rubbed me the wrong way," I respond.   "A hunch? If you were wrong, you could have gotten all of us into trouble," Sitos says. "You did not tell us what you were going to do that. Is that not irresponsible?"   "Yeah, you're right… Sorry," I apologize.   "Wait," Sitos says. I stop walking, free my arm, and turn around. "Sorry? You are fucking sorry? That is not going to cut it for me. I want you to get on the ground and apologize."   Luna frowns and asks, "Why does Kai have to do that? You don't have to be so uptight about it because he figured it out before you did!"   "What? That does not have to do with anything," Sitos replies.   "Wow! There're at least four gold coins in here!" Hiro exclaims. Luna crosses her arms.   "Doesn't it? You're always competing with Kai," Luna answers.   "And you are always taking his god damn side. If Hiro or I pulled what he did, you would reprimand us."    "Only because you'd fail."   Drugo walks between them and then asks, "Sitoster, it turned out fine this time, so can't we move past this?   Sitos shoves him aside and then says, "Stay out of this Drugo. You usually take a neutral stance, but now you’re taking Kai's side too."   "Drugo didn't do anything wrong, so why're you being aggressive to him?" Luna asks.   Sitos has been acting strange lately… Maybe family pressures have him on edge.   "Okay, I'll do it," I say and then drop to my knees.   "Kai, get back up. You don't have to listen to him…" Luna says.   "Nah, it's okay. It's not a big deal," I say and then place my palms on the ground with my head down. "I'm sorry. Please forgive me."   "Hmm… Alright, I will forgive you," Sitos says. I stand back up, finding that he's smiling.   "Hmph!" Luna interjects and turns her head away from Sitos. She grabs my hand and says, "Let's go."   We continue our way to the Adventurer's District, eventually arriving at the Adventurer's Hub. There aren't that many people here compared to a week ago during the uproar over an S ranked request. We walk toward the bulletin board for E ranked requests.   "I don't care which one we accept. Just take one and go," I say.   "All of these sound borin'… Let's try a D ranked request!" Hiro exclaims.   "I'm not sure that's a good idea. We only graduated two months ago. We should probably wait a while longer before we try a D rank," I say.   "Bah! The E ranks we've done weren’t that difficult. I'm sure we can handle it. A D rank can't stop Hiro the Great."   "There's no harm in checking what requests are available for D rank," Drugo says. Sitos is already at the D rank bulletin board.   "Did you find something, Sitos?" I ask.   "This one might be good," Sitos says while pointing to a request. "We need to collect three Albino Flying Squirrel pelts. The reward depends on the quality of the pelts. They are found in any forest area, but it recommends a place just south of Drymo. We have been there before."   "Yeah, let's take that one!" Hiro exclaims. "There's nothin' wrong with that one, is there Kai?"   "It's up to everyone else. Does anyone wanna stick to an E rank request?" I ask. No one answers. I sigh. "Looks like we're hunting Albino Flying Squirrels."   "Yeh! I'll go take it to the lady right now!" Hiro exclaims, takes the piece of paper from the bulletin, and then runs to the receptionists. We follow. He slams the paper on the counter. "'Hiro the Great and Company's gonna take this request."   "Sure. We need to check all of your licenses for verification," the lady says. We hand her all of our licenses. She takes them and the request. "I'll be right back."   She goes through a door in the back and closes it behind her. I still have a hard time accepting that as our team name…   Two minutes later, she comes back. She gives us our licenses back and the request. "You all are set. Have a safe trip."   We leave and head toward the Transportation Center nearby. We verify our identity and collect our key. We go to our garage in the building and then unlock it. I suggest, "We should hire a driver this time. I'll pay for it."   "I don't understand how you can blame Hiro for wasting money on gambling when you're like this," Luna says. "It's because it's your turn next, right?"   I smile and answer, "You know me best."   "You shouldn't waste your money like that, Kai. At least Hiro's mindset is earning additional wealth, but your mindset is just losing money," Luna says.   "I don't mind driving the caravan again," Drugo says.   "Are you sure, Drugo? Don't force yourself. It's better if Kai wastes his money instead," Luna says.   "It's not wasting money!" I exclaim.   "Yup, I'm sure. It doesn't bother me that much," Drugo answers.   "Thanks, Drugo," I say and then walk into the caravan. The others except Drugo follow. The caravan starts to move soon afterward.   "We should look in the Drosera Monster Codex to learn more about the monster we're hunting," Luna suggests.   "Good idea," I say and then approach the book we left on the floor. I pick it up and then open it. Luna stands next to me looking down at the book. I flip to the pages covering D ranked monsters. There's nothing about Albino Flying Squirrels. "That's weird. It's not here."   "Maybe we missed it. Try flipping through it again," Luna suggests. I flip the pages in reverse slowly. There's nothing. Quietly, she says, "Was it categorized wrong? Try checking the E ranked monsters."   I flip through the pages covering E ranked monsters, eventually finding the Albino Flying Squirrel. I whisper, "Oh, here it is. Is this actually an E ranked mission after all?"   "No, look. It says that this monster's elusive and nocturnal. It's not strong, but it's hard to find and catch. When in danger it can release an odor that attracts all nearby monsters."   "I see. So that's why it's a D ranked request. Hiro might be tempted to do something stupid if we tell him about the odor, so let's not tell him anything."   Luna smiles and then says, "He might not be happy about hunting an E ranked monster either. He's gonna be unhappy regardless."   "Did ya find it?" Hiro suddenly asks from behind me. I close the book in a panic.   "Uh, yeah. It's a really tough monster to kill," I say.   "That's great to hear. I can hardly wait!"   "Marin, what's wrong?" Luna asks. She walks toward Marin, whose head is tilted down. "Marin?"   Marin looks up and then says, "Oh, sorry. What'd you say?"   "Are you worried about your parents?" Luna asks.   "Yeah…"   "Don't worry! Your parents are strong! They have 28 other S ranked and A ranked adventurers with them too!"   "I know, but…it's been a week. Something might've happened..."   "Something definitely happened," Sitos says. "Some random no name shows up offering 15000 gold coins to explore a cave he found in the 'Cursed Territory.' Even my family does not have that much money lying around. Sounds fishy to me."   Marin's eyes quiver. She buries her head between her legs in fetal position. Luna exclaims, "Sitos, that wasn't necessary!"   "What? There is no sense in holding onto false hope. She should prepare for the worst."   "False hope? We don't know for sure that something happened to them! Their group's the strongest out of all the groups in the past to explore the 'Cursed Territory.'"   "Then how do you explain them not coming back after one week? They had a guide who knew exactly where he was going. I find it hard to believe that it would take that long to explore a cave."   "I don't know! I'm sure there's a reason."   "You say there's a reason…but you yell at me because I said something definitely happened. Are you stupid?"   "Hiro the Great versus Albino Flying Squirrel!" Hiro exclaims. He swings his hammer around. Luna frowns and points her eyebrows downward.   "No, you're the stupid one! Can't you tell that you're hurting Marin with your words?"   "The Albino Flying Squirrel's dead! Hiro the Great's the winner!"   "That is her problem." Luna steps in and then slaps Sitos across the face. I run between them.   "Luna, that was a bit too much…" I say skeptically.   "You're a jerk!" Luna exclaims.    "That hurt, you stupid bitch. You are always against me no matter what the situation."   "Sitos, you too… Let's calm down…" I say with a forced smile. "How's Sofiel do—"   "Because you're always wrong! You weren’t always like this, so why are you doing this now? Because I rejected you?"   I widen my eyes. What…?   Sitos scowls, snarls, and then pushes me down. I drop the book. He takes a step toward Luna and then slaps her in the face. It resounds louder than the previous one. She falls.   "Hey!" I exclaim and quickly stand up. I push on his armor against the wall. "What the fuck do you think you're doing, Sitos?!"   "She said something completely unrelated and unnecessary," Sitos says and then shoves me away. He walks to the opposite corner of the caravan. I turn to Luna. She stands up with a hand on her cheek.   "Luna, are you okay?" I ask while holding her with an arm. Luna puts her hand down, revealing a red mark on her cheek.   "Yeah. Thanks, Kai. Sitos, you're a sore loser! Kai wouldn't act like that even if I rejected him!" Luna exclaims and then hugs me with her face on my body. Sitos is sitting against the wall.   "Luna, you really shouldn't provoke him anymore…" I say quietly. This happens the moment Drugo isn't in the picture. I should've insisted on hiring a driver after all.   Hiro swings his hammer around and exclaims, "In round two, Hiro the Great—"   "Hiro. Shut the fuck up," Sitos says. Hiro stops swinging his hammer and then sits against the wall opposite to Sitos. I sigh and then sit against the wall near me.   I guess the only thing to do now's to take a nap… I put my arms around Luna and close my eyes.   …   The caravan comes to a halt. I open my eyes, finding that I'm on the floor. Luna's next to me. I yawn and stand up. Drugo opens the door and then says, "We're here."   Everyone wakes up, and we go outside. No one says a word. "I heard everyone yelling earlier. Did something happen?"   "Nothing," Luna and Sitos say simultaneously facing opposite directions. I sigh.   "What're we waitin' for? Let's go hunt these D ranked monsters!" Hiro exclaims. "Where do we find 'em?"   I ponder for a moment whether I should tell him the full truth. I end up informing everyone about the monster we're hunting. We come up with a strategy, and then we go into the forest.   I climb a nearby tree to the top. There aren't any tree holes. I slowly climb down while looking in various directions. I spot a tree hollow a couple of trees over. I point and shout, "I found one over there!"   The others run in the direction I point to. Luna points to a tree and asks, "This one?"   "No, it is this one, stupid," Sitos says, pointing to the correct tree. I quickly slide down the tree and then join up with the others.   I force a smile and then say, "Sitos' right."   "See? Stupid."   "Stop calling me stupid!" Luna gives Sitos a glower and grunts. Drugo steps between them.   "We shouldn't fight amongst ourselves. Why not solve your dispute peacefully? You can have a race to see who can find the most Albino Flying Squirrels."   "That is fine with me. But if I win, you will get on the ground and give me a heartfelt apology for everything you said against me today."   "Fine! And if I win, you'll apologize for hitting me and stop trying to pick fights with everyone!"   "Sure, but that is if you win. Do not hold a grudge against me when you lose," Sitos says and then walks away.   "Hmph!" Luna interjects and does the same. I sigh.   "Well, I guess I'll check that tree hole myself," I say and then climb the nearby tree. I look into the tree hollow, but there's nothing there. I slide back down. Hiro's slouched over, and his head is tilted down.   "Ugh…" he interjects with a sigh. "When do I get to do somethin'?"   "We already discussed this. You'll have an active role when we find the monster," I say. Luna runs back toward us.   "I found one! Follow me!" she exclaims. We follow her to the indicated tree. She points up the tree and says, "It's up there."   "Okay, you and Marin are up," I say.   "Finally!" Hiro exclaims and then drops his weapon. Marin drops her quilt and bow to the ground. The two climb up the tree on opposite sides. Marin creates a wall of wood that covers up the exit of the hole. I know there's an opening at the top. Hiro puts a hand over the top of the wall Marin created. Water rushes out of his palm. A second later, a loud squeak resounds. Water flows out of the tree cavity. Hiro pulls his hand back and then water stops leaking from the tree.   "Okay, I sealed it up!" Marin exclaims. The two of them climb down the tree.   "That was it? That was so easy...and boring," Hiro says.   "Well, it's different than what you usually do. Isn't that enough?" I ask.   "Yeh, but… I wanted to hit it with my hammer."   I sigh and then say, "I'm sure you'll have a chance, eventually, except it won't be an Albino Flying Squirrel. We'll let you get the initiative of any other monsters we encounter."   "Awesome! Ya can't take that back anymore. How long do we have to wait here?"   "I think a few minutes are enough for it to drown," Luna says. "I'm gonna go look for another one!"   Luna runs off. A few minutes pass. Marin starts climbing the tree and says, "I'll go grab its body."   Some water flows down the tree as the wall Marin made disappears. Marin reaches into the hole with her hand and then pulls out an Albino Flying Squirrel. She comes back down. The monster is about two feet from head to tail. It's covered in white fur. A strange smell lingers in the air. It's neither pleasant nor disgusting.   "What's that smell?" Hiro asks.   "Probably the gassy odor released by the monster. It's probably in your Water magic," I respond.   "Oh! Does this mean monsters are gonna chase us now?!"   "I hope not," I answer. "It might not attract any monsters because it got mixed with the water."   Hiro clicks his tongue and then says, "Damn, boring."   "I found another one!" Luna's running toward us. She leads us to another tree. We repeat the same process as before.   "I wonder where Sitos went?" I ask.   "He's not going to be too happy when he comes back…" Marin says. "Luna already won."   "You're right… Luna's about to find our last one while he hasn't found a single one," I add. "I'm just glad this was an easy D ranked mission."   "Hey look! There's a monster over there!" Hiro exclaims and points to a direction. A Yellow Striped-tailed Mongoose is walking toward a direction where we just were. I look around.   "Looks like it isn't the only one," I say. There's a Horned Rabbit over there too. I gesture my head toward it. It's going in the same direction as the Yellow Striped-tailed Mongoose.   "I'm gonna go kill 'em!" Hiro exclaims and then starts to run toward the Yellow Striped-tailed Mongoose.   Immediately, I yell, "Wait! Luna's about to come back, and we need you to take out the last Albino Flying Squirrel!"   Hiro stops running and then walks back. "Damn. Ya can't do anythin' without Hiro the Great, can ya?"   I frown. I wonder where those monsters are going… I thought the scent wouldn't work if it mixed with the water…   Luna returns to us shortly later. We collect the second body of the requested monster and then move on to the final one. We continue as before. Marin and Hiro climb down the tree after filling the tree cavity with water.   "Hey! Where is everyone?!" Sitos yells.   "Over here!" I shout. Sitos pants as he regroups with us. He smells weird. "Where the hell have you been? Luna already found three Albino Flying Squirrels."   "What?! That is not fair!"   "You lost, and now you're being a sore loser again? Typical," Luna says with a smug smile.   "No, I mean I found one a long time ago! But I could not find you all. So I just tried to catch it myself and…" Sitos' voice dies off and then he looks down.   I raise my eyebrows and then say, "Don't tell me… You failed, and it sprayed you with the odor…?   "Yeah… Something like that," he answers. I slap the center of my face with a hand.   "Nice, goin' Sitos! Now I can finally cure my boredom! Kai, I can initiate, right?"   I sigh and then respond, "Yeah, just don't stray too far when they come. We don't know what monsters are in the area."   "Oh, I see a Yellow Striped-tailed Mongoose! I'm off!" Hiro exclaims as he runs off.   "Well?" Luna asks while facing Sitos. "I'm still waiting. Not only did you lose miserably, but you're also gonna bring a horde of monsters over to us!"   Sitos looks at her with narrowed eyebrows and a frown. "I will stop picking fights, but I am not going to apologize. You just got lucky."   Sitos crosses his arms and turns away. "What?! You sore loser!"   I hold Luna back from doing anything that might worsen the situation. "Luna, can you let this go for me? At least until we get back to Drymo."   Luna smiles and then responds. "Okay!"   "A Horned Rabbit's coming this way!" Drugo exclaims and then stands in front of the Horned Rabbit's path. It's about a feet long and has a six-inch horn on its head. I unsheathe both of my weapons. It leaps with the horn pointing toward Drugo. The horn impacts with Drugo's shield. I attack it while it bounces off. My blades slice through the Horned Rabbit. It lands on the ground and then leaps toward me. I stab it through the mouth using its own momentum. It twitches a few times before going limp. Something squeals in the direction Hiro went.   "That's strange. Horned Rabbits aren't hostile, but it attacked us," I say.   "It must be a property of the gassy odor emitted by the Albino Flying Squirrel. It didn't say in the book," Luna says.   Hiro's running back toward us. "Help!"   A large group of Yellow Striped-tailed Mongooses chases after him. There are nine of them. Two of them are biting their snouts on the bottom of Hiro's legs. Luna exclaims, "I'll take care of the ones behind him!"   Marin shoots several arrows toward the monsters on Hiro's leg. One of them falls off after two hits on its body. The other one is out of her crosshair. Drugo runs toward the side where the last monster remains. "Flame pillar!"   Flames in the shape of a circle cover the ground directly behind Hiro. Instantly, fire erupts directly upward. The seven other monsters behind Hiro take a direct hit. A few of the Yellow Striped-tailed Mongooses walk out of the ongoing pillar of fire and then fall on their sides. Smoke rises from their fur. "Get this thing off me!"   Drugo slashes his sword a few times at the monster stuck to Hiro's leg. It falls after several blows to its body. Luna's magic disappears after about four seconds have passed since they appeared. I look around and then ask, "Where's Sitos?"   "Oh, I told him to grab the Albino Flying Squirrel right after Hiro was running back," Marin informs. Sitos comes down the tree with the monster in hand. Luna is carrying the other two.   "We need to bail before more monsters show up," Sitos says.   "But I wanna fight more monsters!" Hiro exclaims.   "You already got injured. Haven't you had enough?" I ask.   "Bah! This is just a flesh wound."   "Alright, if you find a monster by itself on our way back, you can take it," I say and then start running back to the caravan. The others follow.   "Alright!" We run for about thirty seconds before Hiro exclaims, "Look!"   I stop running and turn around. Hiro's pointing to something. "Ain't that an Albino Flying Squirrel? It's just sittin' there starin' at us!"   It seems exactly like an Albino Flying Squirrel. I knit my eyebrows. I thought they were supposed to be asleep…? The book said they normally avoid attention. It clearly isn't attracted to the odor, and it isn't attacking. It doesn't make sense.   I notice its eyes are red instead of yellow. It gives me a creepy feeling. Hiro runs toward it and shouts, "I won't be satisfied until I kill one of these with my hammer!"   "Hiro, wait! It might be dangerous!" I warn. Hiro continues running toward it with his hammer held high. He strikes down his hammer on the monster. It doesn't move and takes the hit directly. Blood splatters around its body. It doesn't move as a puddle of blood forms. Hiro turns around with a grin.   "What're ya worried 'bout? It's only an E ranked monster. Hiro the Great wins against Albino Flying Squirrel!" I sigh.   "Alright, you had your fun. Let's get outta here," I say. Hiro starts to walk back. I knit my eyebrows as the body of the monster isn't in sight anymore. The blood stains are still there. A shiver goes down my spine. "Hiro, get outta there! It's still alive! It's not on the ground anymore!"   Hiro turns around and says, "What're ya talkin' 'bout?"   I widen my eyes as the monster drops from above. It happens too fast for me to warn. The monster lands on his head and then stretches out its limbs, wrapping around Hiro's head for a moment. It jumps back into the air. Hiro drops his weapon and falls.   "Hiro!" numerous of us scream.

This is no good. The villagers are tired already. Despite my attempts to motivate them, their postures are drooped and each swing is half-assed. It’s like there’s over a dozen of Kamas. There’s no point training them. They’re not motivated and bound to quit in the end. Why does General Nero want us to train these villagers? It’s not like they’re in any danger while enclosed in these walls.   General Nero said that we just had to give them some general tips and help them train. I’ve done that. Don’t have to be perfect. I’m sick of these errands that he’s sending us on for the past few weeks.   “Okay, stop! Take a short break. I’ll let you know when to start again,” I say. The lot of them drop their training swords and collapse on the ground. I wonder how Luke’s group is doing. I’m not sure if I got the bad half or they’re both bad.   As I walk over to where he’s stationed, two young children catch my attention.   “Take that, bandit!” A young boy swings one of the smaller wooden swords and hits another boy on the head.   “Ow!” he interjects and covers the top of his head with both of his hands. “Stop that!”   “No, you’re the bad guy!”   “I don’t like this game!” the boy exclaims and runs.   I ignore them. I’m only here to assist in training, not anything else. Someone else can reprimand that boy for his behavior.   “Hey,” Hina says.   “Oh, hey,” I respond.   “I saw that. I wasn’t sure before, but now I am. You’re ignorin’ everythin’ except the mission, aren’t you?”   “Yeah, what’s it matter to you? It’s not like I’m the only person here that can stop that kid from playing with weapons.”   “It’s not just this time. I’ve seen you ignore other incidents too durin’ our joint missions. You’re actin’ strange.”   “Look, I just don’t wanna do anything unnecessary. I don’t wanna be held accountable for anything that goes wrong outside of my orders.”   “So if you witness someone about to be killed by someone else right in front of you right now, you would let it happen?”   I pause a moment before answering, “Of course not.”   “Are you sure? Somethin’ tells me you would’ve ignored it even if that kid was playin’ with a real blade.”   “You’re crazy. I wouldn’t let anyone die in front of me if I can help it.”   “What if someone’s already dyin’ by the time you would notice? You’d ignore it, right?”   I’m pretty sure I would help in that situation, but I don’t answer.   She continues, “Of course you’d ignore it. You’re afraid of failure and becomin’ the scapegoat.”   “Hold up… I’m not afraid of failure. I just don’t want someone reporting me that I’m not doing the job I was assigned to do.”   “It’s the army’s job to protect the people. To keep them safe. You don’t need a direct order to do that. I’d help no matter what because it’s the right thing to do. If that person was Marin or Ruby, you’d help without a second thought. The same thing if you were only ordered to protect the village, you’d never disregard Marin or Ruby’s safety.”   “Right.”   “I heard about what happened half a year ago from Marin. You killed someone you shouldn’t have durin’ a mission.”   “It was an accident and I was framed. What’d Marin tell you exactly?” I ask. Marin believed me, so it’s weird if she’s telling other people different things.   “Maybe I forgot the details, but I recall you were blacklisted afterward. Marin tells me you changed after that. Not takin’ on multiple requests anymore or involvin’ yourself in other people’s business as often. Does that have anythin’ to do with how you’re actin’ as of late?”   “Yeah, well. I can’t have Marin and Ruby take the heat for my mistakes anymore. I’ll avoid anything that could get us blacklisted. Back there with those kids playing around. If I had helped, word could’ve reached to General Nero somehow that I was slacking off. That I wasn’t training the villagers, instead playing around with kids. That could end in a situation where we’re blacklisted or given punishment.”   “You’re too paranoid. You were only blacklisted for a day or two for failin’ multiple requests at once because you had other achievements due to takin’ risks. Why’re you afraid of somethin’ goin’ wrong with scoldin’ children? If you’re only strictly followin’ orders takin’ risk-free decisions, it’ll be forever until you become a Lieutenant.”   “There’s no point in becoming a Lieutenant if Marin or Ruby have to suffer for it. I can’t imagine the scenario where we don’t have achievements to balance out the negatives,” I reply. I never want them to go through what I did that day. “I’ll become a Lieutenant eventually, small steps at a time.”   “You know, my platoon has been blacklisted too. My superior officer roasted me when I pissed off a group of villagers. We ended up blacklisted for a whole week for that minor incident. But your platoon got off easy for a caliber of that mistake.”   “Wow, really? What’d you do to piss them off?”   “Well, tha-that’s not important.”   Hmm. Now I’m curious.   “Anyway, my point is… You don’t need to strictly follow your orders and ignore everythin’ else. As long as you’re fulfillin’ your main duties, anythin’ you do outside of that could be bonus points, you know? If we’re goin’ to be workin’ together a lot, I don’t need another mindless guard around here.”   I chuckle. “Right, I know what you mean.”   Hina laughs.   “So how’s the training from your end? The villagers learn how to use magic?” I ask.   “No way, but with the help of a magical item, they pooled their Scrap Mana into a Magic Scroll.”   “That’s impressive. They managed to release Scrap Mana in just a few days?”   “Nah, it looks like they had the help of those magical items for several months. Remember those things on the side of the Academy? Those things.”   “Oh, yeah,” I answer. I think of something that I thought in the past, but not completely. I can’t quite put my tongue on it. It’s been years since I’ve seen one of those things, but even now, I don’t know how it works. “I know what you’re talking about…but do you know how those things work?”   “Of course, how can you not know?” I cock an eyebrow. “Magical items always contain a Mana Crystal and a Glim. Some of them have an Affinity Crystal too.”   “Okay, where’d the Glim come from? And how does it promote our Scrap Mana to come out?” Hina doesn’t answer. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”   “So I don’t know. But it doesn’t matter. This is just a part of our life that we have to accept. These magical items are a result of hundreds of years of research and design.”   “Wow, the role-model perfect student back in the Academy just wants to accept that it’s just magic. You sound like a mindless guard.”   “Shut up. It’s not like I’m not curious. Why don’t you ask Moria? He’d probably know.”   “Probably. I wonder why he didn’t teach us everything back at the Academy. There are so many things that he didn’t mention to us. Like how everyone can use Enhancement magic.”   “You’re weird,” Hina says with a smile.   “Huh?”   “Here I was, tryin’ to stop you from bein’ a mindless guard, but instead you’re makin’ me question our society. There’re so many things I’ve chalked off as bein’ the way it is and simply accepted. We were too cocky after graduatin’ from the Academy.”   Nostalgia hits me. It feels like I’ve come to this conclusion before. I ignore it. “Yeah, but I’m glad. The Academy bored me quickly because I learned everything so fast. There’s so much more out there. It excites me. Though it sucks that I have to pay for it at seminars.”   “You’re missin’ the point. I think Moria wanted us to discover it for ourselves. He taught the basics and fundamentals of magic. The first magicians never had anyone to teach them, but here we are.”   “You’re right. That guy I accidentally killed… He learned magic without going to the Academy. He showed me impossible things like making cold fire and making soft rock.”   “What? It’s possible to change the special property of Fire and Earth magic?”   “I know, right? I said the same thing. But it’s true. He was able to do those things all on his own. I wanted him to teach me, but before I could, I… I’ve been trying to do things on my own since then, but can’t figure it out.”   “Do you think Moria lied to us about that? Purposely teachin’ us wrong things.”   “Lie? That you can’t change the special properties of Evocation magic? Why would he lie…?”   “I don’t know. It was just an idea since we already know he didn’t teach everythin’.”   “Yeah. I trust Moria. He must’ve had a good reason to if it was a lie.”   “I trust him too. I’ll have to try it for myself later. Changin’ the properties of water…”   “Changing the properties of water? What does that even mean?”   “I’m not sure. Makin’ it thicker or heavier for one. I still can’t believe it’s possible.”   “Well, good luck with that, I still haven’t been able to make cold fire and it’s been half a year. Not to insult you or anything, but if I can’t do it, you can’t either.”   Hina frowns. “How rude. You don’t need to remind me. It’s true you’re very talented with Mana manipulation, but I could be more talented with figurin’ out things for myself. It’s all about creativity.”   I chuckle. She doesn’t know about my Void magic. I can figure out things on my own too. Like the one-sided portals and how I turn invisible. But it was Marin who found that invisibility thing… There was no way I could’ve figured that out on my own.   “What’s funny? Mr. I can only make a ball of fire,” Hina says with a smirk.   I frown and reply, “Shut up. I’ve never needed to make anything else, but I could if I wanted to. I don’t have high Affinity for Fire magic unlike, your Water magic. Miss cram all my Water Affinity into a wave of water. That’s really creative.”   “You’re just jealous of my great talent. I’ll have you know I have much more tricks up my sleeve since the tournament.”   “Oh, really? Prove it.”   “I’d be glad to. As soon as we get back to the Castle.”   “What’s wrong with here?”   “We’re in the middle of a village…  Can’t exactly go all out here.”   “True…” I answer. We can’t leave the village either. Someone will definitely report us for slacking off. “How much longer you think the villagers need to use magic?”   “What about you? Do you think they’re combat ready?” Hina asks as she points her head toward the group of villagers I’m in charge of.   “Ugh. No, but we can’t be here every step of the way. I’ve already shown them how to train and strengthen their muscles before sparring. I can’t do anything else. General Nero can’t be expecting more than this. Magic’s different though, right? They have the keyword. That’s all they need.”   “Yeah, but they still need to learn how to control the flow of their Mana. I’ll also have to educate them on how to use magic if somethin’ happens. It’ll be a disaster if they don’t know how to use their newly acquired weapon. Friendly fire’s a risk.”   “General Nero didn’t tell you what all this training’s for either, did he? We don’t know if we’re helping them prepare for future monster attacks or bandits. All of this is weird to me. They’re surrounded by walls and are completely safe.”   “He didn’t,” Hina answers. She looks down and wraps her arms around her body. “But I might be able to find out from Captain Citrio if you really want to know.”   “What do you mean?”   “I’ll tell you after we get somewhere warm with some food.  I can’t stand this weather.”   “You didn’t buy any armor warmers?”   “Of course not. We have to save all the money we can for the seminars. Can we go?” Hina asks, shivering.   “Well, I don’t wanna keep you here. I probably spent too long talking to you anyway. I’d better get back to it.”   “Wait.”   “What?”   “I’ve already asked Simon to take over for me today for an earlier dinner break. Luke will do the same for you if you ask.”   “I don’t know I—“   “Like you said, you can’t do anythin’ else. It’s just for appearances at this point. If you really hate talkin’ to me that much and rather stay out here, I’ll leave you alone.”   I take another look at the group of villagers I’m training. They still look exhausted despite the break they had. I sigh. Retiring a bit earlier today shouldn’t be a big deal. I’m a bit more hungry today too. There’s no meaning to starve ourselves for the sake of training the villagers. Hina’s right. I don’t really need to be here.  I feel bad for leaving Marin out of this. No one can sub for her because she’s the only one here that knows how to use a bow.   “Alright. I’ll join you. Just gotta...” I cut myself short when I notice Luke walking toward us.   He waves and says, “Hey Kai, I know we decided on splitting them into two groups, but…”   I cock an eyebrow. His eyes linger away from me for several seconds. I look behind me. There’s only Hina in that direction, still shivering from the cold.   He continues, “But I can take over your half if you want to eat dinner earlier today.”   “You sure? I don’t mind hanging here for a bit longer if you want to grab dinner with Hina instead.”   “No, no, no… I just saw you with Hina and thought you might be a bit modest in leaving your job duties to me. I know you take it seriously.”   “Hmm, alright. Thanks,” I say and then turn around. He’s a weird one. At least there won’t be a line since everyone’s training right now. “I don’t know where you’ve been going to for food, but I like the food they serve at the inn I’m staying at.”   “Someone recommended me a place yesterday. They specialize in soup. They’ve got a lot of weird flavors like—“   “You had me at soup. Let’s go.”   With that, Hina leads the way. I follow her, eventually arriving at a small diner.   The place is empty as expected. We sit at a table for two across each other.   “Welcome to the Hodgepodge,” a woman says as she walks toward us from the backroom. “Oh… Sergeant Hina and Sergeant Kai? Isn’t it a bit early? ”   I’m surprised she knows us, but then again, everyone in the village must’ve been present when we introduced ourselves a few days ago. Hina answers, “Sergeant Kai and I took our break earlier today.”   “Well, what can I get you today?”   “I’ll have the melon soup and the special of the day,” Hina says.   I grimace. Melon soup? That sounds horrendous. Hina did say that there were weird flavors, but that’s a bit much. I ask, “Is there a menu?”   “There isn’t. I make delicious soups out of any ingredient. I can give you a list of ingredients I have on hand and—“   “Just give him today’s special and the assortment of soups you gave me yesterday,” Hina says.   “Alright, I’ll have that out momentarily,” the woman says and then walks away.   “I hope the special is something a little more appetizing than melon soup,” I say with a frown.   “It tastes better than it sounds. The melon soup was my favorite of the assortments she provided yesterday. Just try it. It’s all on the house too since we’re here to provide trainin’.”   “Fine. Beats any food served in the Castle anyway. Is it just me or the food quality has worsened since the days we first enlisted?”   “Not just you. I’m not a picky eater, but the stuff they serve has gotten inedible. I use the cookin’ station whenever possible.”   “So you’ve been using extra money to use the cooking station and buying your own ingredients, but you won’t buy armor warmers?”   “Who said anythin’ about spendin’ money? It’s all about who you know.”   “What?”   “Well, unlike you, I’ve been meetin’ other platoons and talkin’. Seminars are a luxury most people can’t afford. So, I’ve been teachin’ people for free. They’re more than happy to let my platoon reap the benefits of amenities like the cookin’ station.”   “I see. So you’re wasting your time training mindless guards instead of training yourself.”   “I’m still trainin’. It doesn’t hurt to have more friends. Things aren’t the same as from the Academy. You have to adapt to the environment.”   “I don’t see the point of training people who won’t make it far. Besides, in the end, they quit and give up. Now you’ve wasted all that time trying.”   “Not everyone’s like that. Don’t give up because of one bad experience.”   “Nah. I need all the time I have to do my personal training. It won’t matter how much I train someone else if their own motivation’s lacking.”   “That’s why it’s part of your job to inspire them. Train alongside them. Show them the effort you put in and the results of your trainin’.”   Training alongside them is impossible. Not that I can tell Hina why that is. There’s no way I can show my magic in open sight. I say, “Not really my style.”   Hina sighs. “Well, I won’t say any more then. I’m just worried as your friend that you’re not adaptin’.”   “Aren’t you just worried about your reputation? Because of these joint missions, we spend a lot of time together.  Besides, like you said. It doesn’t hurt to have more friends. You probably just wanna call in a favor when you need me for something. That’s why you insisted on inviting me for dinner.”   “What…? That’s not at all true…” Hina says and looks down. Seems like I hit the mark. “I would’ve liked spendin’ time with you here despite the joint mission. You’re really only here because comin’ here with me is more preferable than trainin’ the villagers?”   “Yeah,” I reply.   Her eyes glisten as if they were tearing up. I didn’t think she was this sensitive considering her huge ego. Thinking back to the Academy days, she only bore hatred for me.  We only became acquainted because of that incident during the tournament. She looks up and asks, “You don’t think of me as your friend?”   Maybe I was wrong about her. Still, thinking back, I don’t know what about our interactions signaled that we were friends. I haven’t done anything for her, but she saved me back during the attack and put me back on track when my mind was hazy afterward. I answer, “I thought we were more like acquaintances. It was only because of our shared experience of something happening during that last game in the tournament.”   “You’re right. Before that, I never would’ve thought there would be a world where we wouldn’t be enemies. But, I’m glad it happened even though our team ended up losin’ for it. I don’t know exactly when I considered you my friend, but I think it was since that incident because we shared somethin’ in common no one else would understand.”   “Just because of that?”   “Yeah. Is that wrong? A friend’s someone who’s on your side, right?”   Hmm. I never thought of it that way. Maybe I was thinking about it wrong this whole time. I was content with my first group of friends and never wanted more. I feel bad being so cold to Hina when she was only being nice to me. “Well, I’m sorry for the misunderstanding.”   I smile and continue, “From now on, let’s be friends.”   I extend my hand out for a shake. She only stares at me blankly. I ask, “Can you shake my hand?”   “I don’t want to.”   “Excuse me?”   She looks away and responds, “Well, if I shake your hand…that means I acknowledge that we weren’t friends before when I thought of you as my friend this entire time.”   I sigh and then correct myself, “I’m sorry for not considering you as my friend before, but from now on, I’ll consider you as my friend.”   I shake my hand in place to signal that it’s her time to reciprocate. She only looks at it. I ask, “What’s wrong?”   She stares at me blankly for several more seconds before bursting into laughter. I frown and pull my arm back. She says, “I can’t believe you apologized twice. It’s too embarassin’ to shake your hand after that.”   “You little rascal…” I mutter. “You’re the one who made me apologize twice.”   “Your food is ready!” the cook exclaims. She walks over carrying two large trays. She lays one in front of each of us. I knit my eyebrows. “Well, enjoy.”   The woman walks away. I look down back at my food. There are six very small bowls of liquid with one big one; each with their own spoon. They’re all sorts of different colors which confuses me. Some of them are steaming hot while others seem cold. Hina scoops some of her orange soup into her mouth.   “This is so good. Try some,” she says while pointing toward the orange colored liquid in one of my six small bowls. The bright orange color reminds me of carrots. Gross.   I reluctantly spoon up some of this melon soup into my mouth. It’s sweet. I don’t know what ingredients are in this, but it’s good. It’s nothing like the ordinary soup I’ve had all this time.   “Good, right?” Hina asks with a smile.   “Yeah, I guess,” I say, conceding.   The thick brown-colored soup is really creamy and thick. It honestly reminds me of how that time I was punished. I close my eyes, wiping my thoughts of that day. I scoop it up into my mouth. A rich taste of mushrooms permeates my mouth. I never thought that soup this thick could be good.   This next small bowl has a dark-blue color to it. I sip a little into my mouth unsure how it would taste. Completely different than the last one. Another sweet one, but cold. Cold but it also burns the back of my throat. A sweet alcoholic soup is nonsense. Nothing like I’ve ever had, but it’s good.   The remaining soups aren’t to my liking. The milky one reminds me too much of that prank Emdos pulled on me on my first day of school. The one with pieces of bread inside had poor texture and made me want to gag. Then there’s the other version of the melon soup with pieces of melon inside but also meat. A really nasty combination of sweetness and saltiness.   The special of the day is more consistent with the soups I’m familiar with. It has thick noodles soaked in a rich fishy broth.   I finish my meal as does Hina. Now, with food out of the way, I ask, “So what were you saying before? You said you could find out what this training’s mission for, right?”   “Yeah…” Hina answers with little energy. “There’s somethin’ else I want to bring up first.”   Based on her tone, it feels like this is something serious. I say, “Go ahead.”   “Well… A few months ago, Captain Citrio…” Hina says and then takes a deep breath. “He-he…ki-kissed me.”   Kissed her? Seeing how she’s having a hard time telling me, I assume that she didn’t want it. To do something like that when it’s not mutual is not okay. I don’t know the circumstances around this either. I’m not sure how to respond.   She continues, “I shoved him away and told him that I’m not interested in him that way. He told me that I’m his type and would do anythin’ to have me.”   “Wait, how’d any of this happen? Where was this?”   “He’s my superior officer that I report to for my missions. He did it out of the blue one day I was turnin’ in my report for a request. We were alone.”   “What the hell, Hina. Did you tell anyone about this? General Nero or anyone else?”   “No… you’re the first.”   “Why not? This is serious.”   “Because he told me to not tell anyone or he would make my life miserable. It’s also his word against mine. I don’t have any proof. I don’t want any negative impact on our platoon.”   “Why’d you tell me?”   “I trust you.”   I’m happy that she considers me that trustworthy, but at the same time, I don’t think it’s a good decision. For all she knows, I could rat her out for bonus points on my end. I can’t exactly help her situation either. There’s also still that earlier point she brought up. “Why’d you say that you could find something out from Captain Citrio?”   “Because… he’s been makin’ suggestive remarks every chance he gets. He’s been lookin’ at me like a man looks at a woman. He scares me,” she says with her arms around her body, shaking.  “But I could play along for a bit to find out what I need to know.”   “No, you don’t need to do that. It’s not that important to me to know why we were told to train these villagers,” I say. I don’t know why she would go through the trouble considering her fear. Her problem is that her superior’s making unwanted advances on her. Her boyfriend’s gone so maybe Captain Citrio thinks she doesn’t have a good reason to refuse him. But he doesn’t have to know that. I suggest, “Have you thought about having a fake relationship with someone to stop Captain Citrio from going after you? Like with Luke or something.”   “No, but I don’t want to make things awkward between me and my platoon or my friends. Besides, I would have to tell them what it’s for and they would find out about what Captain Citrio’s doin’. They’d want to leave the army if it isn’t resolved. I don’t want to ruin what we’ve built already.”   Her unwillingness to involve other people in this worries me. She was suffering like this for months, alone. What if Marin or Ruby comes into a similar situation in the future? Or has it already happened? It’s hard to think about what has happened or what could happen. I really hope no one tries to make a move on Ruby. She would go insane and blow up them up. It could end up where she’s executed or something. We’d have to run and it would just ruin everything. Or would she comply and submit to all their demands…?   I block those outcomes out of my mind. I have no idea how she’d act. It should be fine now, though. I’m the only person who reports our missions. There’s no reason for her or Marin to be singled out for now. Things could change when I’m promoted to Lieutenant, but I’ll cross that bridge later.   “Well, has he done anything else to you? Things aren’t getting worse, right?” I ask.   “No…it’s the same…but I’m scared. I’m scared even though we’re all the way out here near the border. I’m scared thinkin’ about what he might do in the future.”   I sigh. I don’t know what she wants from me. I wouldn’t be much of a good friend if I can’t help out somehow. I doubt General Nero would help much either. He’s probably the reason why the food’s getting worse. Regardless, I suggest, “We both could go to General Nero together to talk about what Captain Citrio has been doing. I’d testify that there’s no way that you would lie about this. Someone as righteous as you is impossible. Moria would say that about you too.”   “No, I couldn’t do that to you. You’d be takin’ a huge risk. I don’t really want to bring more people into this. I just want someone…to make me feel safe.”   “I’m sure Luke, Simon, and Dennis would make sure of that, but you would need to tell them first.”   “No, I want someone who’s there with me all the time…like at night…sleepin’ next to me.”   Oh, that’s what she meant… I don’t know what to suggest to her at this point. Her situation’s different than mine. She doesn’t want to make things awkward between her and her team. There’s really only one choice for her. I don’t know if she still has feelings for her deceased boyfriend. I don’t want to bring it up either because she might still be sensitive on that matter.   “You’re really dim,” Hina suddenly says. “Dimmer than that loud monkey at the Academy.”   “Huh?” I interject.   She looks away and blushes. “I’m askin’ you. I want you to be there next to me.”   “Huh…?” I interject again. My mind is blank. She’s asking me to be her boyfriend? I don’t know what’s happening right now. I regain a sense of reality and ask, “Wh-what about your old boyfriend? You don’t have any feelings left for him?”   “I still think of him…but I have to move on eventually. Isn’t that what you’ve done with Luna?”   Is that what I’ve done with her? I mean... I still care for Ruby, but they’re not the same…  Luna’s dead. Even though they’re really similar. That’s because some traces of her are still there. Regardless, the real issue here is that I’m with Marin now. Since we keep it a secret, I’m cornered here.   “Unless you still have feelings for her?” Hina asks, making eye contact with me.   “No, not exactly…”   “What is it then? You hate the idea of bein’ with me?”   Of course not. She’s actually pretty cute. If I didn’t have Marin, I might have obliged. But I have her. I shake my head.   “No, it’s not that… It’s umm… I have someone already,” I confess. Thinking back, I thought that Hina knew already. She found us outside of that inn.   “You…have someone?” Hina asks, clearly confused. After several seconds, her eyes widen. “Marin…?”   “Yeah,” I nod.   “I thought you guys had a fling and that was it…”   “Yeah, but…it became something else.”   “Does Ruby know?”   “No, and no one else knows about this. We keep it a secret.”   “I see…” Hina says with a tear dripping down her face. She forces a grin. “Well, I’m sorry for makin’ things awkward.”   “I hope this doesn’t change anythin’ between us,” Hina says and then stands up. She extends a hand out. “Friends?”   I stand up, I smile, shake her hand, and answer, “Yeah.”   “I hope you have a good night. I’m headin’ back to my inn.”   “You too. Thanks for showing me this place. The soups were good.”   She smiles one last time before leaving. I need to head back to the inn too, but I don’t want to make things more awkward by keeping us close together. I feel bad I can’t do anything more for Hina despite that she went through the trouble of telling me everything.   After waiting for a brief minute, I head out. It should be that time already; the end of the training for the day. But it looks like they’re still going at it. It’s still noisy at the edge of the village. Two hooded figures are standing in front of a window in a red house across from me. It feels like they’re looking at me. Several seconds later, they step out of view. I head back to the inn before it’s crowded.   A few people here, but that’s normal. Just normal adventurers or travelers passing by.   “Soup again, sir?” the old man asks behind the bar.   I sit down at the bar and answer, “Nah, I ate already.”   “How about a drink?”   “No, I shouldn’t. I’m still on duty.”   “What are you talking about? You have finished training for the day. It’s good to relax. Now, what can I get you? Beer, wine, liquor, or cocktail?”   I guess he’s right. “I don’t know. I’m not much of a drinker. I tried some beer before, but I don’t like the taste.”   “Don’t like the taste? Sounds to me you had a bad batch of beer. I’ll get you something better,” he says and grabs a stein from a cupboard. “This stuff is a bit more expensive, but it tastes great.”   “I don’t have that much money on me.”   He walks over to the corner of the room with the horizontal barrels and then stoops down. “It’s not a problem at all. The training supplies you brought to the village is way more expensive. You’re also taking the trouble of training us.”   Training supplies huh. There were at least a hundred Magic Scrolls along with other magical items. Then there are the weapons. Even if we take the magical items back, the Magic Scrolls are used and the weapons they’ll most likely keep. I can’t imagine how expensive it adds up to. Meanwhile, they couldn’t invest more money into the food they serve at the cafeteria?   The old man comes back and puts the stein on the counter in front of me. “Try this.”   The same white foam at the top of the beer like the first time I tried it. The color is much darker this time, though. I pick up the stout and then drink a few sips. The taste is stronger and a bit burnt. Surprisingly, has a good flavor.   “So how is it?” he asks.   I take another sip. I nod and reply, “Good.”   “Glad to hear you like it. Let me know if you want a refill.”   “Say, why does this village need training?” I ask.   “Hmm? You don’t know?”   I cock an eyebrow. “No?”   “That’s strange. We were told we would receive mandatory training for free. All men and women fit enough to hold a weapon are required to undergo training. I don’t know more than that. But the training will definitely help us deal with some troublemakers passing by or stay safe hunting outside these walls.”   “I see. It’s fine if you don’t know,” I say and then take more gulps of this beer. So the army is forcing them through training. The village didn’t request it. Sounds fishy. Is this the only village that’s receiving training or are there other ones too? I don’t know what Ruby is up to while we’re stuck here. She, Jetia, and a few from Hina’s platoon could be doing something similar.   Before I know it, all the beer in the stein is gone. Where’s everyone at? I thought training should’ve ended by now. I say, “Hey, refill.”   “Coming right up,” the old man says. He takes the stein and then comes back shortly with the foam practically spilling out of the brim.   I take more gulps. Feels like the taste improves with every sip. Wait a minute. If pretty much everyone in the village is required to undergo training, what were those two people doing back at their house already? Hmm. I guess they could be old. Couldn’t really get a good look at them with those hoods on.   I feel really relaxed for some reason. My body feels a bit heavier but my head lighter. My beer ran out again. “Refill!”   “Sure,” the old man says.   “Kai, did you wait long?” Marin asks and takes the seat beside me. I look around. People are already starting to flood in here.   “I’mna sure,” I respond.   Marin cocks an eyebrow and asks, “Kai, are you drunk?   “No, I’m not.”   “Here you go,” the old man says and sets the stein in front of me. I take it immediately and take several gulps. “What can I get for you today, miss?”   “Meatloaf and salad,” Marin answers.   “I’ll have it for you shortly.”   “Kai, you’re not eating anything today?” Marin asks.   I set the stein down and burp. “I already ate with Hina. Yeah. Went to this place called the…umm… Hodge…Hodgepodge.”   “Oh… I see… Just the two of you?”   “Yep… I became friends wither.”   “You weren’t friends already?”   “Oh… Hina said I was her friend but I was confused ‘bout it so I became friends with her. Also… She wanted me by her side all the time. Like in bed ‘n’ stuff. Like be her boyfriend.”   “Oh, really?” Marin asks with little interest. I thought she’d be more shocked.   “You don’t sound surprised.”   “Well, I knew that she liked you already. She was asking me your favorite foods and stuff about you a while ago.”   “Ohhh…”   “How’d you answer her?   “Answer who?”   “Hina, she said she liked you, right?”   I grin. “Ohh, yeah.”   Marin frowns. Wait, no. Why am I smiling right now? I’m giving her the wrong idea. I clear out my thoughts and relax. Maybe I’m a little drunk right now. I clear my throat and continue, “I rejected her of course, even though she’s cute. Told her that I already had you.”   Marin’s silent for several seconds but she finally asks, “Oh, you told her about us?”   I smile and say, “Yeah. Don’t worry she’s good at keeping secrets.”   I stare at Marin. From her fingerless gloves, to her arms, her armor, her face, down to her legs. I take a deep breath. I want all of it. She turns her head toward me and gives me look. She wants me to do something. I know that look. I grab her hand and pull it toward my face. I take a big whiff starting from her hand, quickly moving up her arm.   She suddenly jerks her arm away from me and asks in a whisper, “Kai, what’re you doing…?   “Smelling you,” I respond and then take more gulps of this beer. “Delicious.”   “I think you’ve had enough.”   “I’ll never have enough of you…”   Marin blushes and looks around. She turns back to me. She whispers, “Kai, you can’t be acting like this. We’re trying to keep us a secret, remember? Not to mention, you’ve been paranoid about people thinking you’re slacking off, right? What about now? What’ll people think?”   “Bad… I think,” I say while nodding my head. I raise my stein to take more gulps, but Marin stops me.   “Give me that,” Marin says and rips my beer out of my hand. She chugs the last few gulps, sets down the stein, and then coughs. “That’s really strong beer. Tasty, though.”   “Right? Taking it all for yourself, greedy,” I say and grab her hand. “But you’re mine now.”   “What?” she interjects. I stand up and pull Marin toward me. To the bedroom, we go. “Kai, wait.”   My body feels really strange. It doesn’t feel like my body is moving exactly when I move it. But a bit delayed. Marin suddenly jerks her hand away. I lose my balance, falling. I don’t feel the impact of the fall as much as I thought I would.   Marin pulls me up. What the hell? She pushes me down and now she’s pulling me up. Which does she want? She tugs me along all the way up the stairs to our room. She closes the door behind us.   “God… That was so embarassing…  Kai, just stay here while I eat, okay? I’ll be back soon.”   “No,” I say and lift her up. I walk over to the bed and toss her on top of it. She tries to get up but I push her down again.   “Kai, jeez… I won’t leave. At least let me clean up, okay?” Marin asks as she stands up from the bed. “Wait for me.”   Marin takes off her armor. My heart pounds rapidly as she takes off her last pieces of clothing one by one. She goes into the bathroom and closes the door. I gulp. I take off everything and drop it on the floor. I crawl into bed face up. I wish she’d hurry it up. A shower shouldn’t take longer than five or ten minutes. I can wait that long.   This bed is really comfortable, though. A lot more than the last few days I slept on it. It’s like heaven. I’ll close my eyes just for a little bit.   …   The bed creaks rhythmically. I open my eyes but it’s still blurry. Someone’s moving on top of me. I ask, “Marin?”   I groan. “Yes, Kai… Gimme everythin’. All of yer seeds.”   That’s not Marin. It sounds like her voice, but not her. I rub my eyes. My vision clears up. The room’s dark but it’s clear enough to see her body. The length of her hair, her shape, and curves. It’s all Marin, but her eyes… It’s bright red. Even though it’s dark in the room, her eyes are practically shining. I gulp and then ask, “What’re you talking about?”   “I want you ta make a baby with me and I’ll let you fuck Hina. You said she’s cute right?” she asks while panting. “You can fuck ‘er and me at the same time. A threesome. Maybe Ruby wants ta join too. That’s fine. Wouldn’t you like that?”   “No… I only want Marin,” I say. “Who’re you? You’re not her.”   “That’s rude, Kai… I am Marin,” she says with a grin.   The next thing I know, it’s bright in the room. Argh…my head…   I sit up and rub my forehead. It’s throbbing with pain. Marin’s next to me asleep. What a strange dream, though. It was like when I first met Ruby. It gives me the chills just thinking about it. Especially that grin at the end. The way she said it gives me goosebumps. It echoes clearly in my head, “I am Marin.”   “Kai, you’re awake?” Marin asks, sitting up too. She’s naked. I remember waiting for Marin to finish her shower, but don’t remember anything else.   “Yeah… What happened last night?”   “Well, after I took my shower, you were asleep. You wouldn’t wake up no matter what I did. So I got dressed, ate dinner, came back up, undressed and then went to sleep.”   “Oh,” I interject. I think about the dream and the outrageous idea of having a three-way with Marin and Hina. Maybe the dream was a sign and Marin’s actually into that thing? It would also help Hina. “By the way, what do you think of letting Hina join us in bed?”   Marin stares at me blankly. She slowly knits her eyebrows and says nothing. I don’t remember if I told her the circumstances revolving around Hina so all of this might sound out of context. I quickly explain, “Look, um, well… Basically, yesterday Hina told me about how her superior was making unwanted advances on her against her will. Then she went on about how it scares her and that she wants someone to keep her safe and all that. Someone that sleeps next to her at night. It’s not like I want her over you or anything, but I want to help her in any way that I can.”   “Hmm… I see… So you want her to lay there and watch?”   “Umm… She’d probably join too… And publically we’d be a couple to protect her from Captain Citrio. But really my heart lies with you.”   “So you want to go public with her, but not us? Isn’t the whole purpose of our secrecy is to not let Ruby know? What’ll she do if she finds out about you and Hina? I don’t even know how she’ll act if she ever finds out about us…”   “She won’t ever find out. And if it’s Hina, I’d be able to make up something or be honest about it. How it’s all to protect Hina from Captain Citrio.”   “I’m okay with letting Hina join,” Marin answers. Seriously? An answer I didn’t expect. “But are you really willing to play around with her feelings?”   She continues, “I know you want to do this to help Hina deal with her superior making unwanted advances on her, but she also likes you. You’re giving her false hopes for a real connection. She might be okay with it for a while, but she’ll realize that she’ll never have you. That’ll make her really sad. It’s like if you’re only with me because you pity me or something and don’t actually love me.”   I sigh. “I guess you’re right. I could make it really clear to her what to expect from the beginning. I just wanna help her in any way I can.”   “I know you do. You can try asking, but I don’t think she’ll do it.”   “Hmm… You’re right. I’m better off not asking. Well, I’d better get ready,” I say and head into the bathroom. I take a shower, get dressed, put on my armor, and clip on my scabbards. Marin’s already dressed.   We head down and eat breakfast. When it’s close to the start of the training time, we go our separate ways. I happen to run into Luke.   “Morning,” I say.   “Morning, Kai,” he says.   “Thanks for covering for me yesterday. I’ll cover for you for lunch break or something today if you want.”   “Nah, I’m good.”   I recall a part of my conversation with Hina yesterday. Now’s a good chance to ask Luke what Hina did to get them blacklisted. “By the way… What’d Hina do exactly to get you guys blacklisted a while back? Something about pissing off villagers?”   “Oh…” he interjects and looks behind him. “Yeah, come here.”   He gestures me to follow him, so I do. We go to the side of the building nearby. He continues, “Hina’s still in there, so I don’t want her to know that I’m telling you this.”   “Right, go on.”   “Well, basically Hina took on a request to collect taxes from Beltan when they haven’t paid for months,” he explains.   I widen my eyes. That’s where Ragnar and Ariane…   He continues, “Well, we thought it was strange she would take on a request like that, and it became clear when we arrived. Apparently, she heard something from Marin about your involvement in two deaths. Marin also told her about the death threats that you constantly receive from the village as well. So she gave them an earful. Saying that you wouldn’t do anything like cold-blooded murder. That you had a reason that no one else would understand.”   I’m amazed Hina believed my side of the story despite whatever Marin told her and understood my situation. Is it because of our shared experience of what happened during the tournament? Something that no one else would understand other than us. So she was blacklisted for my sake…   “In the end, the villagers were so angry that they wouldn’t hand over the overdue tax money anymore. So, Hina threatened that she would drown their crops if they didn’t hand it over.”   “Did she do it?” I ask, even though I probably know the answer. Hina said it was a minor incident. Although I’m not sure how threatening a village counts as minor.   “Nah, she figured that they wouldn’t hand it over to us no matter what. We left after that. Captain Citrio was pretty pissed. He had to go to Beltan himself to diffuse the situation afterward. So, we got blacklisted for a week.”   “I see.” The blacklist was longer than us because ours was simply a misunderstanding that was cleared up. I still can’t be too lax about this mission. “How’s training progressing from your end?”   “Looks pretty good. They have potential,” he says.   Potential? I seriously doubt he means that. I saw nothing in my group of villagers.   “They just need more time. Looks like we’ll be out of here today, though. Hina and Simon’s handling the last batch of villagers who haven’t used a Magic Scroll yet.”   “Good. Let’s get this over with,” I say and walk toward my designated training area.   The villagers arrive shortly. I drill them through the same training exercises as before for several hours up until lunch break. Hina and Simon inform us that they’ve used up all of the Magic Scrolls, so we prepare to leave.   Our ride back to the capital is just as long as our journey to the village; at least six hours. The five of us report to General Nero immediately. Hina and I give him the rundown.   “Good work. Everyone leave the room for a moment while I speak to Sergeant Kai and Sergeant Hina,” General Nero says. “I have another task for you two.”   Marin, Luke, and Simon leave the room silently. He continues, “I’ve received a report about some suspicious individuals residing in Aramore. I want you two to investigate immediately.”   Fuck you. I frown and clench my fists. We just traveled practically half a day from that village and we have to go back immediately without a break.   “Yes, sir,” Hina says.   “You have something you want to say, Sergeant Kai?” General Nero asks.   I relax and reply, “I think we deserve a break. Can’t we leave in the morning instead of now?”   “Normally, that would be acceptable, but, this is urgent. We’re shorthanded right now and I need you two to go there. You’re also familiar with the villagers already.”   “Urgent? Wouldn’t it be better if we all went?” I ask.   “Yes…very urgent. The fewer people the better for this matter. We don’t want to attract too much attention. I have a different task for the other three.”   “What’s urgent about it? You told us the training mission was urgent as well, but we don’t know why. I think we’d have a better grasp of the situation if you told us.”   “It’s classified information. I can’t tell you. All you need to do is follow my orders. I assure you, we’re all working toward the same goal; the safety of our kingdom. Now, hurry along. The client will be waiting in the place called the Hodgepodge,” he says and hands us the signed request.   Hina and I look at each other briefly before answering, “Yes, sir.”   We leave the room, passing the others waiting outside. We say our goodbyes before walking back to the stables. We request two horses and a wagon. We begin our journey to Aramore once again.

I grimace as the odor of urine and feces enter my nostrils. Hiro exclaims, "Gross!"   "Shh," I interject loud enough for him to hear. "What if they hear you? We don't want them to know we're here."   A stream of yellowish water containing lumps of poop flows down the middle. We run toward the downstream, down the dimly lit pavement on the side of the passage. The passage splits into other paths. I knit my eyebrows. I point at the intersection and then say, "Look. They're flowing in the same direction."   "You're right," Drugo says.   "I'm not goin' over there if that's where we're goin'," Hiro says.   "Where do you suggest we go then?" I ask.   Hiro faces a passage right next to where we came. "Let's keep goin' this way. We don't hafta jump over this nasty sewage."    "That's the problem?" I ask and then sigh. "We're leaving you here then."    I jump across the stream and then Drugo does the same. "I can't believe Hiro the Great's scared of jumping over some water…"   "What?! I'm not scared! Watch me!" I ignore him and run down the passage. "Hey, didja see that? Hey!"   We continue following the downstream for several more minutes, jumping over the stream when necessary. We ignore a ladder we discover. Something flickers brightly in the distance at the next intersection. I knit my eyebrows and slow down my pace to a walk. I straighten my palm vertically toward the two behind me. We quietly walk toward the light. I straighten my back on the wall and peek out with my head.   The stream flows into a hole emitting tons of smoke. There isn't anyone in sight. I walk in and look around. There seem to be seven separate streams flowing down into the hole in the middle. I presume there's an eighth stream behind the pillar of smoke rising from the middle. I gag when I'm a few feet away from the hole. I hold my breath.   The sewage flows down in a separate opening from where the smoke rises. I can't make out what's at the bottom of the hole, but it's warm and bright. I figure they're flames. I put my hand into the smoke, feeling a draft of air flowing upward. It goes into an opening in the ceiling. I jump across several streams to check out the blind spot I can't see. I widen my eyes.   "Luna!" I exclaim as I leap over the remaining streams. Luna and Marin lie on the ground near the entrance to the room on the other side. They aren't moving. I take out the key to the cuffs in my pocket and then unlock the cuffs on Luna. I take them off, grab her arm, and then shake her body. "Hey, Luna!"   I put a finger on the pulse on her neck. It's still beating. I sigh. Marin's also still alive. I unlock her handcuffs too and then toss them aside. Drugo catches up with me. He immediately picks up Marin and then dangles her over his shoulder. He says, "We'd better get outta here while we can."   I look around. Where'd they go…?   I don't think about it anymore and then pick up Luna. I hang her over my left shoulder and then say, "You're right. Let's get outta here."   I turn around. Hiro's slowly jumping over the streams. After Hiro catches up, we exit through the closest opening ahead of us. I smile as Luna's scent cancels out some of the rancid air lingering these passages. We continue for several minutes, and I stop when Luna moves a little. I set her down on the ground. She rubs her eyes.   "Kai…?" Luna asks and then looks around. "Where're we…? Wait… I remember. We were following those people, and they discovered us. I was running away when suddenly I lost all my strength... Oh! I woke up with rope binding my limbs. I burned them off, but they threw some kinda ball on the ground. I think I lost consciousness again after that…"   It appears she doesn't remember anything else, so I don't ask about the possible men that carried her here. Drugo sets Marin down and then she wakes up soon after. We explain the situation as we understand it.   "Yeah… I think I got it… Can we get out of here as soon as possible?" Marin asks with a frown. "It smells horrible here…and I'm still covered in this mess."   She lifts up her arms, emphasizing the blood and sludge covering her body. Hiro pinches his nose and then says, "Yeh that's really gross… Smells bad too."   Marin frowns, narrows her eyebrows, and mumbles something I can't make out.  I twist one side of my lips and shake my head. Hiro's barking up the wrong tree…    I jump across the stream and then say, "Well, let's go then."   We continue for several more minutes, when finally, there's a ladder in the distance. I exclaim, "I see an exit!"   I wait for the others to jump across the last stream. Hiro still hasn’t jumped over. I sigh and then say, "What's taking so long, Hiro the Great?"   "I'm preparin'…" he says and then starts a sprint. "Yah!"   Suddenly, a rock appears and then lands on Hiro's head right before he jumps. He falls into the stream and then the rock disappears. I jump back before some of it splashes onto me. Marin's smiling. Hiro stands up immediately, the water reaching up to his knees. He spits out some murky water. There's brown residue in it. "What—"   A green-yellowish liquid spews out of his mouth as he gags. My eyes lock on Marin, who is looking away. I shake my head and then turn back to Hiro. "What're you doing?"     He pants for several seconds before exclaiming, "Didja see that?! Somethin' hard hit me on my head!"   "I didn't see anything. Did you guys?" I ask and then turn toward the others. Drugo is apparently already climbing the ladder. I smile and chuckle.   "I didn't notice anything. What about you, Marin?"   "Nothing here either. You probably made a mistake and fell. Please don't come near me. You smell awful," Marin says and then heads up the ladder. Hiro grunts.   "I'm not lyin'! I'll find it!" Hiro closes his eyes and then dives into the water. I grimace. A hand resurfaces first. There's a clump of poop in his hand. He resurfaces completely afterward and exclaims, "I found it!"   I shake my head and turn around. I follow Luna up the ladder. "Gross! I picked up the wrong thing. I'll prove…"   His voice dies off as I climb all the way to the top. I find myself in a very cramped room. The only thing in it is the ladder leading down into the sewers and a door. There are footsteps on the other side of it. I whisper, "I'm gonna open the door."   After everyone nods their heads, I turn the knob on the door and then pull, but it doesn't open. Pushing the door doesn't work either. Someone nudges me from behind.   Marin says, "Kai, let me try."   I stand aside. Marin puts a fingertip on the keyhole on the doorknob. Nearly 15 seconds pass before she pulls her hand back, revealing a stone key in the lock. She turns the key and then something clicks. The stone key fades away and then she opens the door. We find ourselves in a spacious hallway. There are fancy paintings along the wall and vases atop miniature stone pillars.  Someone exclaims, "Intruders!"   Several armed guards run over to our direction. I draw my weapons. More guards in the distance run toward us. They surround us.  I raise my eyebrows and then sheathe my weapons. I put my palms in front of me and then say, "Wait, there's a misunderstanding…"   "You broke through that door which means you came through the sewers. There should only be three entrances, and all of them are closely guarded by us. What's your motive?" one of the guards says.   "What's all the ruckus over here?" a familiar voice asks.    "Oh, General Zarus! You came at a good time. A group of kids broke through the sewer doors…"   "I'm retired, remember? Just Zarus is fine."   Zarus…? The guards make way for someone behind them. I raise my eyebrows. It's the old man from before.   "Oh, aren't you Kai? What're you and your friends doing here?" Zarus asks. "Hmm? It seems two of you are missing."   "Gen—Sir Zarus, you know these kids?"   "Yes, there's no need for alarm. Continue your routine patrol."   "Yes sir!" a guard exclaims as he salutes him. The guards disperse afterward. We explain everything that happened to us. Hiro rejoins us midway.   "Hmm… I see. Don't worry about Sitos. If they're looking for money, they won't hurt him. I'll pull some strings with some people I trust. For now, I advise you five to hurry to the Castalia residence. The culprits are probably still there," Zarus says. "I'll show you the way."   With that, he escorts us out of the castle. He points to a direction and says, "You'll reach it if you keep heading that way and take the first right."     We follow this direction, eventually finding ourselves in familiar territory again. We arrive in a few minutes. There's a crowd of people in front of Sitos' house. We walk closer. There are over a dozen guards in front of Alios and Sitos' older brother. Opposing them are Sitos' kidnappers. There are 13 of them. Sitos is handcuffed and has a blade on his neck. I exclaim, "Sitos!"   The lot of them turns over to us. Sitos looks at us and then turns away. Alios smiles and the culprits turn pale. One of them says, "Wha-wha-what are yo-you kids doing over there…?"   "It seems our deal has fallen apart. It was all of them or nothing," Alios says.   "Shut up! We still have your son!" a man exclaims. "We'll fall back on our previous offer. 200 gold coins."   Alios stops smiling and then says, "Fine. Give him the money."   Sitos' brother picks up a bag next to his feet and then throws it over to them. Many coins clang inside the bag. One of the culprits picks up the bag. He looks inside the bag and then says, "Ve-very well… After we've escaped the city, we'll let him go…but only until then."   They start running, dragging Sitos along with them. An arrow comes out of nowhere and soars through the air. It completely pierces the back of a man's head. He happens to be the one carrying Sitos. He falls forward instantly and drops Sitos. The other men are still running forward. I widen my eyes and run toward him.   "Wait! We just lost the kid! Get him back!" one of them exclaims. They run back to where their comrade fell. I point my right elbow toward them   "Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!" Balls of fire appear out of my elbow in succession. I spread them out evenly across them. They stop their advance and run to the side. Sitos rolls along the ground toward us. I take out the key for the handcuffs and then yell, "Sitos! Face your back toward me!"   I quickly unlock Sitos' cuffs when I reach him. The culprits stop their advance and stand still. They drop their weapons and then put their hands up. The guards nearby surround them. They walk them back to Alios. I look in the direction where the arrow came from. There's no one on the roofs nearby.   "What should we do with them?" one of the guards asks.   "Take them to the castle. I will let Zarus know what happened," Alios responds.   "We already met with Zarus. We told him everything," I mention.   "Excellent. I will just let him handle it."   "Wait!" one of the culprits exclaims. He stops walking despite guards pulling him. "If you're going to take us there, please keep an eye on us!"   The guards pull harder and then drag him away. "Keep an eye on us! Please!"   The ramblings of the man goes on until his voice dies out. We report everything that happened again to Alios. He compliments, "You have done well. Kai, if not for your efforts, we would have suffered a 1500 gold blow to our funds."   "It wasn't much… I just did what I could…" I say while looking away. Sitos is looking down.   "No, no, no. You have really outdone yourself this time. If only Sitos had a shred of your talent." I force a smile. "You and your friends should join me for dinner tonight. You may also use our luxurious bathhouse…"   "I-I appreciate the offer, but I promised to meet someone…"   "That is a shame… I will take those keys off your hands before you go." I take out the cell keys and handcuff key and then hand it to him. He hands them to Sitos' brother. "Go check it out."   "Yes, father," he says and then leaves.   "Sitos, we are going to go have a long discussion."   "Yes…" Sitos says with a frown and then starts to follow Alios into the mansion.   "Hey!" I exclaim. "We're gonna visit Emdos. Do you wanna come?"   Sitos stops walking and then glances at me. With an expression devoid of energy, he answers, "Nah…"   I cock an eyebrow as he turns back around into the mansion. After all those years of him asking me questions about Emdos…   Afterward, we head to Emdos' place. I introduce everyone. Apparently he has already prepared a huge meal course. My stomach growls. We take our seats at the dinner table and then eat. I explain everything that happened for the fifth time, but I haven't grown tired of it.   "Sounds like you've had quite an adventure today. Save some room for the soup," Emdos says as he points a thumb behind him. I look up while continuing to chew my food. "It's your favorite. Harpy soup with carrots, potatoes, broccoli, milk—"   I spit out my food and then cough. Horrible memories resurface from my mind. Luna asks, "Oh, is that the soup you fed him on the first day? He's told us that story before!"   Hiro laughs and then says, "I remember! He suddenly woke up and then puked everywhere! I almost couldn’t stop myself from laughin'."   Emdos scoots his chair away from Hiro. I look down at the table while a sour feeling stirs in my stomach. Emdos asks, "Kai, what's wrong?"   I knit my eyebrows and frown at him.    "What's with that look?" he asks and then laughs. "I'm just kidding. It's just some ordinary beef stock soup with things you like."   "I-I've heard that one before…" I mutter.   "Oh? You don't believe me?" Emdos asks and then stands up. He takes out a bowl and then serves the soup in the pot. He places it on the table in front of me with the spoon already in it. I widen my eyes and then smile. I immediately take the spoon and then enjoy the soup.   "Emdos, I just remembered," Hiro says. "Ya were called Glacius, right? The teachers at the Academy said ya could use Ice magic! Is it really Water magic?!   Emdos laughs and then puts his finger in Hiro's glass of water. He freezes it in a second. "You mean like this?"   Everyone lets out sounds of amazement. I'm still slurping my soup. Hiro exclaims, "Yeah! I always thought my Water magic was weak… Could…couldja tell me how to do it?"   He puts his finger on top of the ice in Hiro's glass. A moment later, it turns into water again. He laughs and then asks, "What's the fun in that? It is indeed Water magic."   Marin stands up and then says, "I think I'm going to head back. Thanks for the meal."   Luna and Drugo stand up too. "I'll come with you, Marin! Thanks for the meal."   "Come on, Hiroster. Let's go."   "What? But I wanna ask Emdos more questions!"   "Ask him another time," Drugo says as he drags Hiro away. "See you later, Kaister."   "Damn… Fine."   I wave and say, "Yeah, see ya guys later."   The front door opens and then shuts. I smile as I finish eating my soup. They didn't get to have any of this delicious soup…more to myself.   "So… What was it you wanted to tell me?" Emdos suddenly asks. I stop smiling as the atmosphere in the room intensifies. I gulp.   "Oh, yeah… Uhh…" I say while mentally preparing myself. I raise my eyebrows. "I wanted to tell you that I'm the last hope…according to my father."   "Oh? You met him?"   "No…it was written in the book you gave me. I didn't bring it with me."   Emdos smiles and then says, "Because you lost it, right?"   My heart skips a beat, and a shiver goes down my spine. My mind stops. As my face gets hot, I burst out into laughter. Emdos doesn't laugh and continues to stare at me with a creepy smile. I continue to laugh. Suddenly, he laughs too.   With my heart pounding rapidly, I say, "That was a good joke, Emdos."   "I couldn't trick you this time. You've improved."   "So, did you know what my father meant by that?"   "Hmm… Perhaps he meant that you're the last person left with your parents' genes. It's up to you to pass it on," Emdos says and then smiles. "It seems you really have matured since the last time I saw you… I never taught you how to seduce women."   My face flushes red. "What the hell are you talking about?"   "You fancy that girl, right? Her name's…Luna. You'd better hurry before she swims away."   Droplets of sweat form on my face. I pout and mutter, "N-no…"   After several seconds, I relax my facial expressions. "You were adventurers with my parents, right?"   "Yeah, I've told you that before."   "Were you famous? Did someone hold a grudge against you guys?"   "Why do you ask?" I think of my meeting with Hina, but I refrain from mentioning it. I raise my eyebrows.   "Yo-you said my parents died in an accident, right? I thought maybe it wasn't an accident…and you just said that because I was young."   Silence follows. Several seconds pass before Emdos responds, "Yes, we were well-known…and there may be some people who didn't like us. But, your parents were not killed out of hate."   "So…they were killed by someone? What happened?"   "I can't say. Your parents didn't want me to tell you until you're older. I'll tell you when the time comes. For now, how about you demonstrate me your progress on the book?" Emdos asks with a smile.   Oh, shit… I smile before replying, "Su-sure…"   I stand up, prepare my Mana, release it, and then activate it. A purple portal appears behind me and in front of me. I walk into the one in front of me and then appear in the one behind me. I end in the same position I started in. Emdos' eyes are widened with his lips slightly parted. He smiles before saying, "Very good… What else have you learned?"   My mind races as I've run out of ideas, but an epiphany hits me. I smile. "What's the fun in showing you everything in one go?"   He cocks an eyebrow and says, "What?"   "You won’t have anything to anticipate the next time I visit!" I exclaim and then laugh. He laughs too after several seconds.   "You got me. You have a fair point." My purple portals fade away.   "Well, I think I'm gonna head back. I've had a long day," I say as I walk toward the exit. Emdos follows. I open the door and then turn back. "See ya later, Emdos."   He smiles and then says, "Yeah. Sleep well."   I run back home, finding everyone's doors closed. I go to my room and then attempt to take a shower, but it doesn't work. I open up the lid on the shower and then take out the Mana Crystal. I press the button on it. Mana comes out of the other side. I put back the Mana Crystal, take out the Water Crystal, and then toss it in the trash. I go into the main room. I open up the chest containing our supply of Crystals. There isn't a single Water Crystal here. I sigh. I guess no shower…   I go to my room, undress, and then hit the sack. I wake up the next morning and then get dressed. I guess I'll stock up on our Water Crystals.   I head to the main room. "Morning, Kaister."   "Oh, hey Drugo," I say as I walk over to the chest containing our money. I take a handful of silver coins and then store it inside my pocket. I take an empty bag from the chest too.   "Going to the Trade District?"    "Yeah. My Water Crystal ran outta juice," I answer as I head for the door.   "I'll go with you. I was thinking about visiting the orphanage ever since I got back from Emdos' place yesterday."   With Hiro's door closed, I ask, "Don't you wanna wake up Hiro?"   "Nah. It sounded like he was beat from yesterday. I'll let him sleep in." We head out for the Trade District.   "Do you have anyone you're visiting in particular? It's been over five years. Couldn't you see most of them here at the Academy?"   "Not everyone decides to attend the Academy…and you've seen some drop out. I know a lot of the younger kids too, so it's almost that time they would enroll into their first year. The director has been good to me as well."   "I see." We arrive at my destination. Apparently they're out of stock too, so we wait for them to check out their storage. We lean against the building. Across from us is a toy shop. There's a barefoot kid dressed in tattered clothes standing near it. He swipes something from the shop while the shopkeeper isn't looking and then walks away.    I cock an eyebrow as Drugo jogs toward the kid. He catches up to him and then grabs his arm. I can't make out what he's saying, but his eyebrows are narrowed. They appear to be yelling at each other. After about a minute, the kid looks down and frowns. Drugo walks back to me and says nothing.   I've never seen him like that before… I ask, "What was that about?"    "He reminded me of my old self… I couldn't ignore it," he answers. I raise my eyebrows as I look back at the kid, still standing in the same place.   "That kid was you at some point? I find that hard to believe…"   Drugo laughs and then says, "I'm sure everyone at the orphanage would have a hard time believing too."   "What happened?"   "Not much, really. The orphanage was poor, despite having to support so many of us. The meals they served us didn't satisfy me, so there were times I tried to take food without anyone noticing. I got caught several times. The director scolded me and told me not to do it again, but I didn't feel bad because I was hungry. I did it again, and again, and again. One day, the director threatened me that he’d hit me if I did it again."   He smiles before continuing, "Soon enough, my stomach growled during the night. I went into the kitchen and ate until I was full. The next morning, there wasn't enough to feed everyone. It was clear someone had eaten the food overnight. He looked at me with an angry expression and asked if I ate it. I didn't wanna be hit, so I said no. A lot of the kids gave me a nasty look."   "Then suddenly, someone said, 'It was me. I ate it 'cause I was hungry. Does anyone have a problem with that?!' Everyone's expressions lightened up. The director still took him to a room and gave him a spanking."   "Wow, that guy who covered for you sounds like a great person."   Drugo laughs and then says, "Yeah he is. You know him very well."   I knit my eyebrows. I know him very well…? Wait…   I raise my eyebrows and exclaim, "That was Hiro?!"   "Yep. After that day, I became good friends with him. He gave me portions of his meals too. I decided I wouldn't be dishonest anymore. I'd give everyone the benefit of the doubt."   Hiro… I'll see him in a new light. Soon after, the shopkeeper notifies me that he brought back the Water Crystals. I say my goodbyes to Drugo before purchasing a dozen of them. I store them in the bag I brought. Before I head home, I look at the scene unfolding on the other side of the street. The shopkeeper is yelling at the barefoot kid from before. He stops and then holds the toy the kid stole in an open palm in front of him. The kid smiles and takes it from his hand. I smile and then head back home.   As I'm about to turn the knob to the main room, someone says, "Sorry."   I quirk an eyebrow as silence follows. A few seconds later, someone else says, "I see."   Someone's footsteps resound toward the door. My heart beats rapidly. I turn back to where I came from and then run. The opening and closing of a door resound ahead. I walk back as if nothing happened. I find Sitos walking out with his head down. He's frowning.   "Hey, Sitos! You're back?" He doesn't answer and walks past me. "Sitos?"   "I am going to go train," he says quietly.    What was that about? I open the door to the main room and then go in. Luna's standing there.   She smiles and then says, "Welcome back, Kai!"   "What were you guys… What happened? I ask as I walk over to the chest with the Crystals. I open it and then dump the contents of the bag inside.   "Nothing. What do you mean?"   "Never mind." I take one of the Water Crystals and then store it in my pocket. I empty the coins in my pocket into the money chest. I stare in the chest while thinking about something. I close it and then head for the exit. "I'm going out again."   "Why don't you stay here for a bit while everyone's still asleep or gone? I'll make you some food…"   I stop and look at Luna for a moment. It's tempting with her smile, but I answer, "I'll be back later."   I head out, closing the door behind me. I run toward the training room we frequently use for training. Sitos enters the room. I catch up to him in no time. The room is empty. Sitos turns to me.   "Kai, you came at a good time," he says as he unsheathes his weapons. He smiles. "We have not had a serious duel in a while… Fight me."   I cock an eyebrow. He sounds normal again… I guess I'll play along.   "Sure," I respond as I take out my weapons. We ready our stances and then stare at each other like we usually do. I look at him in one spot, never letting my eyes waver away. I analyze his stance. Hmm… Is that an opening or a trap?   I charge forward and then attack him in that possible opening. He attempts to block, but it is too late. One of my swords cuts him on the arm. It doesn't bother him as he abandons his defense and switches to offense. He launches a fury of slashes at me with a wrinkled nose and narrowed eyebrows.  They're unrefined attacks, unlike his usual self. I dodge half of them while parrying others. I cut him lightly on the arms and body when I dodge. He jumps back.   The gap between us is only a few feet, but we have our staring contest again. I look at him at a single point as before. He's showing the same opening as before. Is he not in the right mind today…? No, wait…   I lunge forward and prepare the same attack I used earlier on his opening. I snap my arm forward as before, but I plan to stop my arm midway. I smile as he suddenly changes his stance, revealing his feint. He attempts to attack me with a counter attack, but I've already seen through it. I counter his counter, flinging his sword out of his hands. I point my other sword at him and then say, "It's my wi—"   "Lightning!" A yellow bolt of lightning comes out of the palm without a sword. I widen my eyes as it hits me in the arm I used to knock his sword out of his hand. My arm throbs with pain as it shakes uncontrollably.   "Sitos, what the hell? We never used magic—" He knocks the sword out of my weakened arm. I jump backward. He changes to a two handed grip and then follows with a relentless assault of slashes. Most of them break through my last ditch guard and cut me around my entire body. "Sitos, wait a se—"    He draws his arm further back. I hold my sword with both hands too. I attempt to block his attack, but it has too much power. The force knocks me on my back. I knit my eyebrows as a wave of murderous intent seeps out of Sitos. He jumps toward me and then stabs his sword downward. I widen my eyes and roll sideways. His weapon is stuck in the floor. He takes it out and then faces me again. He's still frowning with narrowed eyebrows.   I click my tongue and then grit my teeth. I clench my fingers on my grip. He runs at me with his sword in the air. I block the first blow and then follow with slashes that parry every one of his attacks. It feels like I'm putting all my strength into every blow. This carries on for several minutes until I finally knock his weapon out of his hands. I knock him on the ground using the blunt edge of my sword. I step over him and then point my sword at him. Panting, I say, "I-I win."   He doesn't say anything. I sheathe my sword and then hold my hand out in front of me. "Good match."   He slaps my hand away and scowls at me. I stare at him with a blank expression. After several seconds, he relaxes his facial expressions. He looks down and in a tone devoid of energy, he says, "Sorry. It was a good match. You have really improved. I will admit it. You are better than me. You win."   I'm not sure how to respond, so I don't say anything. I only frown. He looks up at me and then asks, "Hey Kai…are you hiding something?"   "Wh-what do you mean?"   He smiles and then says, "It is nothing. I want to be alone right now."   He presses a hand over his eyes. A few tears seep through. I pick up my other sword before turning to the exit. I figure any words of praise or pity won't do him any good. "I'll see ya later then."   I head back home. Sitos doesn't come back even after several days pass. A messenger notifies us to report to our usual place for our mission briefing. We arrive there where we find Alios waiting for us as usual. A bow and quiver are on the ground next to him. Marin runs over to them.   "Oh, you found my equipment!" Marin exclaims.   "Affirmative, we found them exactly where Kai said they would be."   "Did you arrest those other guys we left there?" I ask. Alios doesn't answer immediately.   "No, we did not."   I cock an eyebrow and then ask, "Why?"   "Because they are dead. All of them, except one of my men who said a kid with a hammer suddenly attacked him," he explains as he looks at Hiro. I knit my eyebrows. Hiro looks away and whistles.    "Wait… I didn't kill anyone, right Drugo?" I ask.   "Yup. Those people dressed as guards were still breathing when I checked. We didn't fatally wound any of the other people either."   Alios sighs and then says, "Well, no matter. You will not be penalized for killing them. They are better off dead. Zarus has informed me that those men I sent to him committed suicide. You can rest at ease."   I don't say anything else, feeling that he won't believe me. I change the topic and ask, "Where's Sitos?"   "He is taking care of something else right now. You will continue without him for now."   "But we've never done a mission without all six of us…"   "With your skills and teamwork, I am sure you will be fine." We continue the mission without Sitos, but something feels different. It's lonely without him.   Nearly two weeks pass since the disappearance of Sitos. We're eating lunch in our home during one of our free days. Someone's turning the knob on the main door. I raise my eyebrows and stand up. "Sitos' back!"   The door opens and then Sitos walks in, but someone else does too. They're holding hands. She looks a little older than us. She has long, black hair and wears an elegant white dress. "Everyone, I want you to meet my fiancée, Sofiel."   "Fiancée?!" all of us exclaim.   "Good afternoon. My name is Sofiel," she introduces with a bow. Something feels off. Sitos' eyes have no shine to them, despite the smile on his face.    Our days resume back to normal now that Sitos has returned.    Post Academy Frame:

"Kai, it's almost time. We need to start heading to the castle," Leila cautions as we follow Irene, who is happily skipping in front of us. I sigh.   "Finally…" I say void of enthusiasm. Leila sighs.   "I suppose Irene was the only one enjoying herself…"   I chuckle. Sorry about this, Leila… I'll pay you back eventually.   "Hey, let's go to this place next!" Irene exclaims as she faces us while walking backward, pointing toward a nearby structure.   "Time's up, Irene. We’ve gotta get going to the speech."   "Ehhh…" she interjects, pouting afterward.   "Haven't you bought enough? All of this…" I say while gesturing my head toward everything Leila and I are carrying. We have so many bags in each hand that when we move each leg forward, it makes us feel awkward as it collides with something. "Besides, you'll probably have another chance to go exploring again as long as you live here."   "Fine…" Irene yields. "Which way do we go?"   Leila guides us toward the direction of the castle. The number of people and rowdiness of the streets increases as we get closer to our destination. It takes around ten minutes to reach the center of the city, where all the districts intersect in the large city square. Despite its size, it's not enough to fit everyone here. We're stuck at the edge of the square while Irene's shopping bags sandwich us in between an already dense crowd. Irene is stuck in front of me. Maybe this isn't so bad…   I leer at the back of Irene's head, taking deep whiffs of her scent. Knowing that she probably can't feel it, I let myself get excited as I play out a fantasy in my head. It ends prematurely, as the screaming around us grows louder. The screaming transforms into chanting at some point. Everyone around me raises their arm in the air in rhythm. "Osmir! Osmir! Osmir!"    A figure comes out of the castle, gradually making his way toward the top of the ramp in the square that leads to the castle. Luckily, since we came from the shopping area, we aren't as far away to the castle than we could be if we came directly from Bolt's Inn. Osmir raises his hand in the air. The chanting in the area gradually comes to a halt.   "My fellow citizens, as many of you already know, my name is Osmir. In the last couple of months, many of you have lived in fear. You feared for the day when you could not afford to pay the taxes anymore…or the moment when one of your precious family members is taken right in front of you… Unfortunately for some of you, those fears became reality. The unluckier ones are no longer with us and exist only in our hearts.   "Have you thought about why? Why did this happen? What did I do wrong? Did I deserve this… Did we deserve this?" The people around me tilts their head down. He pauses for a moment before continuing, "Why do you look so grim? As if you have really done something wrong? Raise your heads with your shoulders high!"   Everyone around me raises their head. "Let me tell you this. You did nothing wrong! That is right, absolutely nothing! Never think to yourself, 'What if I did something different? What if I found a way to pay the taxes and then not have to lose anyone?' Just forget it all! What happened was an unfortunate chain of events that none of you had control over. Everything was Velyn's fault! I repeat. None of you have to hold responsibility for anything that has happened!   "Soon after Velyn resorted to violent methods of collecting taxes from villages, I decided that I would not sit by and watch my fellow citizens suffer. I decided to fight back against Velyn and his corrupt underlings. Eventually, I rallied enough people, and we were able to fight head on with him throughout Xantho. We stopped some of the impending raids on villages that were so poor that they could not even eat… but then I thought, how long must this continue? How long must I watch everyone suffer, slowly decaying to nothing? It was then that I decided, I would launch a full frontal assault on Velyn's headquarters, the castle standing behind me. The rest of this story, many of you already know.   "It was quite disappointing to find that Velyn escaped before we could capture him. It disgusts me that he fled before we even raided the castle while leaving his underlings to die. It disgusts me that he ever served our country as king, but you do not have anything to fear now. Even though he is still alive somewhere; he will never inflict fear upon you again as long as I stand here. He can bring another army, but I will defeat him again!   "Never again will you endure sleepless nights fearing for the worst! Never again will you suffer and be punished for reasons you were never at fault with! Never again will you lose your loved ones! The storm has passed, and you have waited long enough! Tradition said that only those of the royal bloodline can declare to be king, but I say, why do we have to follow his traditions? Why must we conform to his rules? He, who inflicted suffering upon us. My answer is, to hell with tradition! I declare officially as of this moment, to be the new King of Xantho!"   Screams and cheers explode everywhere around me. I grimace as the roars of the crowd pierce my eardrums. I'm unable to cover them since I'm holding onto Irene's baggage. The noise dies when Osmir raises his hand again.     "I declare as my first act as the King of Xantho… Taxes are abolished entirely! For the time being, I will use my funds and the money found in the castle to help those living in poverty. I will give everything back to the villages robbed by Velyn! However, this process will take me a day to sort out, so be patient, my fellow citizens. Remember, never regret, and keep your head high while looking forward to this new chapter!" Osmir exclaims and then heads back into the castle. The crowd bursts into intense cheering again. I look at Leila, who is facing me as well. I signal my head and eyes on our next move. She nods her head.   "Irene," I say, but I can't even hear my own voice among the noise. I place my mouth next to Irene's ear and then take a deep breath before exclaiming, "Irene!"   Despite using the loudest voice I can muster, I barely hear myself and wonder if Irene heard me at all. A moment later, Irene finally turns around. I gesture my head toward a direction. Afterward, I force myself through a path. Some people curse at me as I do, but I ignore them. I head toward one of the streets adjacent to the castle.   About five minutes pass before we can freely walk without bumping into someone. I find an alleyway and head in, resting against the wall. As I rest Irene's baggage on the ground, I sigh and then sit against the wall. Irene and Leila do the same with the wall in front of me. Expecting a negative response, I ask, "So…what did you think, Irene?"    Irene frowns and says, "Mm… I don't think he's a bad person, but I'm not sure…"   "I see… Well, we're gonna go meet him in person once the crowd disperses. So you'll know for sure soon enough," I mention.   "Okay," she responds without making a fuss. I cock an eyebrow.    Strange… After how much Osmir bad-mouthed her father… And she came all this way to supposedly help him… I turn my head toward the street. People are coming from the direction of the square. I rest quietly, like Leila with my head down. At some point, I dose off a little and then fall asleep.    …   "Kai," Leila says. I open my eyes finding Leila and Irene standing in front of me.   I stand up, grab Irene's bags, and ask "How long's it been?"   "About an hour. Let's go before there's no light left," Leila suggests as she walks toward the street. Irene and I follow after her toward the castle. When we reach the city square, we find that it's practically empty compared to an hour ago. We head up the ramp that leads to the gates of the castle. There are two guards standing by the open gate.   "What do you want at this hour? Didn't you hear Osmir? He'll announce tomorrow how he'll distribute the money," one of the guards informs.   "Ah, no, we're not here for that… We're here on the behalf of General Dae," I answer, correcting him. The guards exchange a few looks of confusion.   "We have no idea what you're talking about…"   "We didn't receive any orders expecting you guys."   "Can you get Osmir?" I ask. "I think he's acquainted with Dae."   "Can't this wait until tomorrow?"   "Can you just notify him that we're here? It's urgent…" I insist. The guards look at each other and then whisper. A few seconds later, one of them runs toward the castle entrance.   "What's with that getup anyway? Don't tell me you're spies for that traitor, Velyn…?"   "If that was actually true, why would we admit that?"   "Hmm. Good point. Well, you guys don't look that menacing to me anyway, compared to some of the subordinates working for Velyn."   I cock an eyebrow and then ask, "What do you mean? Weren't you a subordinate yourself?"   "No, I'm actually one of the new guys. I joined Osmir's company when they raided the castle two days ago. I'm from Gaizor, one of the villages Osmir defended from Velyn a few weeks ago. I was grateful for what he did for us and aided him during the raid. When I engaged hostiles in the castle, I noticed their skills were rough and unrefined, like those of bandits. Real nasty bunch."   Footsteps resound rapidly from beyond the gates.    "E-emergency!" the guard from earlier exclaims as he runs toward us. "One of them's a special guest Osmir has been expecting! Let them through immediately!"   The guard from Gaizor steps aside. "Go ahead."   I glance briefly at Leila and Irene before continuing forward. I walk forward while looking around, taking note of the outer walls that surround the castle; they are about 20 feet tall. The amount of space available is comparatively larger than the Academy in Drosera. There's a stable on the right side with at least a dozen carriages idle next to it. I knit my eyebrows. Everything seems to be in good condition, considering this was a war zone two days ago…   "Kai," Leila says. I look behind me while still walking forward. "In front."   I face forward again. Osmir is standing by the entrance to the castle. I keep my eyes narrowed on him up to the point we're only five feet apart. He appears to be a man in his late 20's. He walks toward me while holding his right hand out. "I've been expecting you…"   I smile as I hold out my right hand. I stop smiling and then cock an eyebrow as he walks past me.   "Lady Irene, your father requested your presence. Thank you for coming," he says as he kneels in front of her while holding her left hand. He gives the top of her hand a quick peck. Irene's arm twitches as he does, and her face flushes slightly red.    "What? You met with my father?" Irene asks in a surprised tone.   Osmir stands back up and then answers, "Yes, I have… Let us talk more inside. You must be hungry, right? I was just about to eat dinner. You and your escorts can join me, and I will explain everything."   He begins to walk inside while holding Irene's hand. Leila and I follow. I narrow my eyes on Osmir and whisper to Leila, "Are you buying this?"   "Not really… We need to strike when a chance arises," she whispers. There are staircases to my immediate left and right after we enter the castle. Both lead upward and appear to be symmetrical. The path in front splits into three different paths; left, right, and straight. We follow Osmir, who apparently takes the straight path in front of us. My eyes wander around, finding that everything seems to be undamaged and in near perfect condition. Osmir and Irene go into a room on the left side.    "Have you noticed?" I whisper.   "Yeah… There's a serious lack of personnel present with no signs of battle…" she whispers and then we enter the room Osmir went in. There are several small dining tables with six chairs to a table spaced throughout the middle part of the room. A variety of different foods is available on the large dining table on the left side of the room.   "Help yourself," Osmir says as he points to the large dining table. Then he points to a nearby table with a plate of food on it and says, "We will talk over there."   I leave Irene's luggage in the corner of the room, and Leila does the same. We each get a plate, fill it up with food of our choosing, and then sit down with Osmir. Before I start digging into my meal, I ask, "Isn't it strange you have all this food prepared, yet not a soul could be seen on our way here?"   Osmir laughs before responding, "I know, right? It seems everyone has retired early for the night! Well, enjoy the meal cooked marvelously by our chef before it goes cold! Let us save formalities for later."   Just as he suggests, we quietly consume our meal without any exchange of words. I'm slightly saddened by the missing presence of soup, but I'm too hungry to care; having not eaten since the bison soup at Neso. I settle for the slab of mystery meat on my plate. After a few bites, I find out that it's beef. It's marbled with fat, and the sauce has a tinge of sweetness to it. It definitely is one of the best meats I've had in my entire life. As everyone finishes up their meals, Osmir says, "By the way, I do not believe I heard your names yet."   "I'm Kai."   "Leila."   "Kai and Leila is it… Would you care to explain why you are here instead of Dae?"   "Dae and his group were attacked by bandits, and we happened upon them when it happened. Apparently they were weakened by a monster attack on top of that, so they didn't have the energy to safely escort Irene back. Well, Dae mentioned a reward if we completed his task in his place," I say and then smile.   "I see. We will discuss your reward later, but first, you need to promise me that you do not divulge any of what I am about to tell you to anyone. It is imperative that this remains secret. Of course, this will be reflected in your compensation too."   "Yeah, we promise. We're gonna be leaving Byzia after this anyway." Osmir closes his eyes and claps his hands on top of the table. He takes a deep breath and then opens his eyes.    "There are a couple of things Irene needs to know. The first one is that I know Velyn is innocent."   I knit my eyebrows.   "Yeah, of course!" Irene exclaims. "Where is he?"   "He is in hiding with Seirus and Aurora… It is a little complicated so let me explain. It began a month after your father began acting strangely. I knew something was wrong because I knew your father growing up… You see, Seirus and Aurora were my good friends from my academy days…" I exchange looks of confusion with Leila.   "It happened by coincidence, but after some snooping around Velyn found an opportunity to tell me everything. It was then I learned that he was being threatened by Jack, one of the two advisors close to him. Evidently, he had learned about some magical item located in a vault accessible only by members of the royal bloodline last year and had been working a plan ever since. By the time he coerced Velyn into raising taxes six months ago, he had already converted the ranks working under Velyn to his side. Jack held Seirus hostage and threatened to kill him if Velyn did not do as he said. Apparently Velyn was suspicious about Jack even before that and told Seirus to flee, but he did not.   "He did not know what Jack wanted, at first, and he was forced to go alongside the army as they raided villages, as you may have heard people talk about. At some point, Velyn could not prioritize the life of his son over everyone else and refused to do anything more. It was then Jack offered an alternative, which was access to the vault. Velyn refused vehemently, apparently keeping whatever magical item that was in there locked up was more important than the lives of many. Luckily, Jack did not kill either of them knowing that he would have lost his goal for sure.   "Shortly after this was when I met with your father. He told me to find General Dae and to tell him what he told me. Well, the short story is that we worked out a plan and carried it out. It is all an act to not draw suspicion from Jack who thinks we were legitimately just rebelling against the army. We have not apprehended him yet, so we are not revealing Velyn's innocence just yet in case he tries to target his life again."   "So…he's okay, right?" Irene asks with a worried expression on her face.   "Yes."   "To be honest, Osmir, we've been digging around for information about you…" I say and narrow my eyes on him. "And people have been saying that you've never been to Byzia until two days ago. What do you say about that?"   I quirk my eyebrows when he laughs. He grabs his hair with his fingers and says, "It is the hair."   "Huh?"    "I have lived here pretty much my entire life, but I have always had long hair. Part of the plan was to cut my hair short and change my name. My real name is Reid."   "How's Irene play in all this? Why'd Velyn want her to come? I recall Dae saying Irene coming would help Velyn in some way…"   He smiles and then says, "Well, that is not exactly true. The truth is that Jack found out about the existence of Irene and Velyn was afraid he would get to her. A month ago, I learned that Jack switched from threatening Velyn to threatening Seirus. Apparently, Aurora, who had fled the city months before, was found by Jack. He used her to get to Seirus, who eventually divulged everything. Any other questions?"   He smiles broadly. A tinge of doubt still lurks at the back of my mind despite everything he said. I verify, "So, Irene will stay here in the castle until things die down with Jack?"   "Yes."   "Considering everyone has retired early for the night, that battle that was two days ago must've been enormous, right?" I ask and then smirk. Reid's lips drop into a frown, and he doesn't say anything for several seconds.    "I have been politely answering your questions so far, but why do you need to know any of this?" He asks and knits his eyebrows. "Your job was to escort Irene safely here, and you have done just that. For your information, there were not many of Jack's foot soldiers stationed here when we attacked, fortunately. Now, instead of this pointless chatter, let us talk about your reward."   I look toward Leila again, and she nods her head. I face forward again before saying, "We're interested in taking a look at the library located in this castle."   Reid cocks an eyebrow. "What?"   "The library. I've heard the only library in Byzia was in the castle, and we wanna take a look." I repeat. He closes his eyes briefly and shakes his head.   "Oh. Yes. Right. Follow me," he says awkwardly while standing up and walking toward the hallway.   What was that about…? We get up as well and follow him. I whisper to Irene, "Irene, what do you think of him now?"   "I think he's a good person. I'm certain he's not a bad person." I frown and keep my eyes on the back of Reid's head.   So he's not lying…? We head up the right staircase we passed by earlier. We find ourselves in a spacious open room containing at least 200 books after several more turns.    "Here it is. Now, if you will excuse me, I have another matter to attend to," he says and then runs out. His footsteps fade out.   "Irene, are you sure you feel comfortable staying here?"   "Yeah, I'll be fine! Reid is a good person!"   "I see… We'll have to part ways soon," I say and frown.   "It's okay, though; you have Leila!"   "That's true. But you'll be alone…"   "I'll be fine! I'll become good friends with Reid!"   "Kai, help me look through these books, would you?" Leila asks from across the room.   "Ah, sure," I reply and then head toward her. I pick up a book from the shelf opposite of where she's checking. This book, in particular, doesn't look like it contains the history we're looking for, but I flip through some of the pages to make sure. I repeat the process for all the books on this shelf and then later move to a new shelf. Over an hour passes by the time I check 70 books. I yawn. "Hey, Leila. How many have you checked so far? Did you find anything?"   "About 100 so far and nothing, but come look at this, quick!" Leila exclaims from across the room. I run over to her. I raise my eyebrows at the large vault inside the wall.   "This must be the vault Reid was talking about."   "Yeah, but look… How do you open this?" she asks with knitted eyebrows. I look closer on the vault. There are no handles, keyholes, or locks. Nothing. I wander my eyes around the vault, but there is not even a switch. An item of interest is the clear circle in the center of the vault. I peer through it with an eye, finding some kind of crystal inside.   I knit my eyebrows and then ask, "Is that a…Glim?    "That's what I thought too, initially, but I think it's different… I already tried passing through my Mana, and nothing happens."   "Oh, that's right. Let me try." I release some of my Mana through the circle, but nothing happens.   Leila sighs and then says, "It was worth a shot."   I head back to where I was still checking the books when footsteps resound from the hallway, growing louder with each step.    "Excuse me!" Reid exclaims and then pants for air. "You are still here? I am going to have to ask you to leave now."   "What's the hurry?" I ask.   "The hurry is I am sleepy, and I cannot just leave you here unattended. On top of that, look. Irene is falling asleep too," he says as he points to Irene, who barely has her eyes open. "Look, you might not have found what you were looking for so take this."   He takes out a small pouch from his pocket and then tosses it to me. "It contains 50 gold coins; surely that is enough, right? I will escort you out."   I look toward Irene, who reciprocates it and then smiles. I walk toward the exit where Irene stands near. "Well, this is it. See ya—well I guess I don't know when I'll see you again, so…goodbye, Irene."   I smile softly.   "I don't want to say goodbye!" she exclaims. "It's not like we won't see each other again. You'll visit, right?"   She pouts. I laugh before agreeing, "Yeah, you're right."   "Stay well, Kai," she says and then smiles. I smile too before Reid leads us out where the two guards stand.   "Thanks again for escorting Irene…but it would probably be best that you do not visit again until we have subdued Jack… Guards, it is time to close the gates and retire for the night."   Afterward, the guards close the gate and head toward the castle after Reid. I stare blankly at his back, feeling like something isn't right. "What's with that look, Kai? Don't tell me you're still having doubts? Irene said it herself, right? That Reid was a good person."   "Yeah, but I still feel like something's off…"   "In any case, our presence is required at the hideout. Let's hurry," she suggests as she takes out the map from her backpack. She takes a quick glance before storing it back. I walk alongside Leila, letting her lead the way. She asks, "So? What's bugging you?"   "Well…a couple of things. First, how did Reid immediately recognize Irene to be Irene? When I think about that, it must mean that he recognized her based on the pink dress. Given how careful he is about his movements, why would he plan for Dae to leave the castle with the pink dress in hand? If the information broker knows…then this Jack person must know too. I'm sure he can put together that he was going for Irene."   "It must've been to bait a move from Jack. Since Reid already knew that Jack knew about Irene, he could bait Jack to make a move and find where he's hiding. He probably had a plan of some sort."   "What plan? Irene was taken right under our noses in Neso… Jack was probably the one responsible for that. She would've been gone if we didn't take her back. Also, why does he want Irene to stay in that castle? He even said himself that Velyn, Seirus, and Aurora were in a different hiding spot because returning to the castle was too risky, yet he wants Irene to stay…"   "Well, I'm sure he has his reasons… Maybe he doesn't want to reveal the hiding spot of Velyn and the others."   "Or maybe he's lying about everything!" I exclaim. "Why would Velyn even tell Seirus about Irene?"   Leila sighs and then answers, "I don't know…maybe to inform him that he has a sister? Kai, we've talked about this. You need to let her go. We have more important things to worry about."   I sigh. "Yeah, you're right… Sorry."   I drop all my thoughts on the matter for now. Leila asks, "Was your search also fruitless at the library?"   "Yeah, I found nothing, but there were still some books we didn't check. You think we would've found it there?"   "I don't think so…"   "What about Elbar? We haven't checked the library there yet…"   "It probably won't be there, either. Xantho is the oldest Human country so if it's not here then…"   I gulp and then say, "Then your suspicion was true…"   "Yeah, the Humans didn't record 'The Selection' event found in the books of other races."   "But what's that mean? Maybe they just didn’t bother to write it down…"   "I don't see why you would exclude it… It was a dramatic event that killed off a large portion of every race. All the other races have some record of their experience with this, but Humans…it must mean that they didn't experience it."   "How's that possible? We must've just missed something in those books we didn't check…"   "That possibility still exists, but you noticed too, right? There is a common thread tying all the books we checked together."   "Yeah. The farthest events date back is about 1900 years ago, right? Maybe someone just got rid of all the books beyond that so 'The Selection' was never mentioned as a result."   "That's another possibility… We're going to need to head back to that castle after all. We don't have any other leads."   We continue making our way to the hideout. We take the west exit and go through a forest. A couple of monsters appear as usual that we easily take care of. Following Leila's directions, we end up in an area between a mountain and a forest.    "It should be somewhere around here…" Leila claims. "If I remember correctly, the entrance should be right here."   I note nothing suspicious on the wall at the base of the mountain. "Kai, allow me."   She walks over to where I am and puts her hand on the wall. Only a few seconds pass before she announces, "I found it. It's over here."   She walks a few feet over with her hand still on the wall. She stops walking in front the same wall. Suddenly, I feel like something is behind me again. It feels similar to what happened at the underground information broker. I quickly warn, "Wait, someone might be following us…"   "Are you sure?" Leila whispers.   "Yeah, this feeling… There's no doubt about it," I say quietly and then gesture my head toward the suspicious tree, but not being obvious about it. "I think whoever it is; he's on that tree somewhere."   "Someone from that information broker's network?"   "I think so. Let's charge him at the same time so he doesn't escape. On three, we'll go." Leila nods her head. "One…two…three! Haste!"   "Swiftness!"   We immediately charge toward the tree. As soon as I start running, I aim my right palm toward the tree. "Fire bolt!"   Fire shaped like a fat arrow appears that flies in a straight trajectory toward the top of a branch in the tree. Something sizzling resounds, indicating that my magic hit something, but no movements resound.   What…? They're not gonna react…? It all becomes clear when we reach the tree. We find a scorched owl standing on top of one of the branches. I stare blankly at the owl while frowning and knitting my eyebrows. I relax my facial expressions when I sense murderous intent from Leila.   "Kai…"   "I'm sorry!" I apologize and bow my head. Leila sighs.   "Forget it… Your senses are probably just hypersensitive right now…"   I giggle, feeling strange how I can mistake an animal for a person twice. "Maybe…"   Afterward, I follow Leila, who reveals the entrance to the hideout with earth magic. She shifts a stone wall the size of a door down to the ground, and I continue to follow her inside. We find a wooden door with a small opening in the middle; the same door used in all Cascabel hideouts.    "Kai and Leila, I presume?" a man asks. A glimpse of his face is shown through the opening.   "Yes. We have proof of Dae's death," Leila replies. The man opens the door.   "Cebum's waitin' fer ya in the room furthest back."   We head in and go through the passageway. There is only one path to take, so we don't get lost. I only notice a couple of people loitering around some of the rooms we pass by. At the end of the last passageway, we find a door. Leila opens it, and then we head inside.   "You're finally here," Cebum says and turns around. "Show me the proof."   Leila takes out the Alrath in her backpack. She opens it and then takes out Dae's head that is in the same condition as I last remember it. She sets it on the table next to Cebum.   "Excellent work. I have great news for you two… Xedeus told me to let you know that he'll be coming here tomorrow to personally deliver you your next mission."   I raise my eyebrows. "Are you serious?"   "Aye… He recognizes the great work you two have been doing and wants to express that in person. He'll probably be here around 3 PM tomorrow, don't be late. Until then, you're dismissed," Cebum says with a smile. With that, we leave the hideout. Leila covers up the wall before we start to head back to Byzia.   "This has been a ridiculous day…" I comment, smiling broadly afterward.   "Tell me about it… Are we really going to do it?" Leila asks as she turns her head toward me.   "Yeah, we already discussed this… That we would assassinate Xedeus the next chance we get. I didn't think it would come this soon, but it’s a chance we can't afford to miss."   "We'll need to arrive an hour early to set up the ambush."   "That's not a problem. I'll pick up my armor from the blacksmith in the morning, and we'll still have some time to make a plan. I suppose we're headed back to the castle now?" I ask and then sigh.   "I thought you'd be happier about that. You'll get to see Irene again."   I laugh lightly and say, "We're gonna be trespassing… Well, we probably won't even get caught considering that there's hardly anyone stationed in the castle, but we can't let Irene know we're there."   She laughs too before replying, "That's true."   We eventually make our way back to the castle gates that are now closed. I look around, making sure that no one is watching before releasing my Mana. "Open!"   The usual portal appears in front of me. I go through it while holding onto Leila's hand and appear above the closed gates. As Leila lets out a quick burst of air from her feet, I say, "Close!"   Afterward, we walk towards the entrance. "I just realized how reckless that was… Someone might've seen us through one of those windows up there…"   "I wouldn't worry about it. No one would be expecting us to come in that way, and they should all be asleep, right? Besides, the hallways were completely empty; you're worrying too much."   "I guess you're right. Do you remember how to get to the library? I may have forgotten…"   "Jeez, it's because you were too worried about Irene. Well, I remember, so just—"   A loud scream resounds from the castle. We immediately look at each other and then sprint toward the entrance. "Haste!"   "Swiftness!"   I clench my jaws and my fists as I'm running. Irene…!

“First, I will evaluate each of your performances. Josh, your spearmanship is decent, but you are too hasty and you lack proper defense. It is said that a spear starts with a thrust, and ends with a thrust. But despite decent technique, your haste breaks apart your flow. Your defense is also rather lacking leaving many openings. I would focus on defense while occasionally dishing out strong single attacks.   Eric, I’ll be frank. The sword is not for you. Not only do you lack the skills to use a sword, your usage of the sword is more like a spear rather than a sword. If you plan to continue in the way you are doing now, you might as well switch to a spear.   Alexander, to be honest, your close-combat ability is almost flawless to an extent. You have good variability, good defense and good offense. If there is any flaws in your ability, I would say it has to do with the fact that you give up too easily on things you feel will not succeed. Which means if an opponent figures out your fighting style, and you don’t invest into making openings, your chances to win becomes zero. You need to experiment more and learn to deal with unpredictability to a better extent.   Now Shiro, your techniques are all over the place. While you may have tremendous ability, your control over it is poor and your synergy is off. Not to mention, you seem to completely fall apart when things don’t go according to your plans. When in reality, you need to focus even more when that happens. You also need more practice synchronizing your techniques for better efficiency.   So here is what we do, for the next hour I will pair you up and I want you to fight each other and gain experience fighting different opponents.   Josh will fight Eric and Alexander will fight Shiro” Zack announced.   We divide up the training area and I face towards Alexander. Personally speaking, I thinking I’d rather face the other two as this guy seems really strong. Though maybe he has some techniques for me to snatch, as he is the only one I actually benefited from. With that in mind I prepare in combat position.   “Hmph! To get stuck with a lowly beastkin, how insulting” Alexander mutters.   And I am reminded again why I dislike humans! Maybe I should really beat the shit out of him to vent off some stress?   I activate [Charge] and dash straight towards him! Then activate [Thrust] aiming one of my daggers straight at him while preparing the other one for defense.   He moves slightly to the right dodging my attack, so I swing my other dagger right at him but fail to reach him as he moves away... As I try to stop my momentum, I find myself lacking in ground….ha? Suddenly I noticed it wasn’t that he was moving away, but the one moving away was me! Soon after, I topple on the ground.   Looking back, I notice his foot was sticking out and what happened was that he tripped me mid charge!   “You foolish beastkin are as stupid as ever I see” Alexander ridiculed.   Grrrrr!   I glare back at him with full killing intent, only for him to shrug and make a bemused smile.   While I feel quite humiliated due to all this! It wasn’t all lose...   You have acquired a new skill [NA][Evasion] Level 1   This guy has quite a lot of skills for someone his age… Not only that, the weird thing is that his non-combat job is blurred out somehow. While I can see its level, I can’t see what it is.   The other thing I noticed was the weakness of the [Charge] skill, which I did not pay attention to before. Since [Charge] makes my legs move a lot faster, it normally would put a huge strain on my legs. To prevent that, when [Charge] is used, my legs become temporarily numb. So in the case someone trips me or something attacks my legs during that period, if I don’t pay attention, it will go unnoticed!   Alright lets try something else. I activate [Sprint] and start running around in circles. Then I [Jump] right at him! As long as I am not doing back-flips in mid air, it is not a problem.   He dodges yet again, but this time I activate [Charge] from almost point blank range while paying attention to my feet. This forces him to block and he gets pushed back. Of course I don’t particularly give him time to rest as I continue attacking non-stop with both my daggers.   At first, he blocks my attacks with leisure, but with every swing of my blades, my mastery over my skills continue to improve exponentially. It seems that combat skills like [Blacksmithing] and [Smelting] have variations, and just picking up the skill without actually knowing anything is not good enough. Of course having a high skill level still provides a solid base, thus as the person uses the skill, their ability would eventually coincide with the skill.   This makes sense to an extent, kind of like how two swordsmen can have the same skill level, but different sword styles. Just by getting the skill may mean your swordsmanship is on par, but it does not mean you magically create a style and experience out of scratch. What I lack now is my own style. Of course there is another reason for my rapid improvement in skill. That is due to my [PER] stat exceeding 100. Now things I could never perceive normally are becoming much clearer to me.   After about 20 minutes, I begin pressuring him due to my superior speed. Which prompts him to switch from mostly defense to offense. He takes a step back, and lets out a punch. To which I block and try to aim straight for him during that small opening. Though to my surprise, I got flung back due to the punch!   You have acquired a new skill [NA][Punch] Level 1   How many skills does this guy have?!?! He is only 14 and he is loaded with skills…   That said, I can’t get distracted and have to focus! I have an advantage in speed, but due to his higher level, he seems to have an advantage in strength. So I need to be careful about taking on his attacks head on, especially ones imbued with active skills. While taking caution, I charge back into the melee.   After about 30 minutes of sparing, my skill improved tremendously. While I can’t say that I have reached the true power of [Dagger Mastery] Level 3. I am at least able to show [Dagger Mastery] Level 2 or so. Evidence being that I could fight him head on at equal grounds in both offense and defense. Unfortunately, I simply lack the oomph to make a deciding blow.   I really want to sucker-punch this jerk! But I am at my limits and breakthrough is unlikely within the remaining 10 minutes… It can’t be helped, I’ll show a bit more of my skills. I wait for a good opportunity, and then charge straight at him while seemingly putting down my guard. As I see him take the bait with a smug grin, I awaken [All-Observing-Eyes] and time starts to slow down.   As I observe his on-coming punch via slow motion, I adjust my daggers to deflect his fist at an ideal angle causing him to slightly lose balance and locking him in place. Then with help of [Close-Combat Mastery], I slightly bend myself at an angle, and knee him in the solar-plexus while its imbued with [Bash]!   After which I deactivate my [All-Observing-Eyes] as I watch him be flung backwards and land on the floor, then clench his stomach in pain as he spews saliva out of his mouth on the floor. That’s what you get for belittling me asshole!   “You bitch! I’ll get you for this!” Alexander yelled.   Unfortunately for his plans of revenge...I timed it perfectly at the end of the hour.   “That’s enough! Everyone take a half an hour break and we will resume right after” announced Zack.   I then show my tongue to Alexander while no one else is looking, infuriating him even more as I make my way to my corner feeling rather accomplished.   Wait a second! Why am I feeling accomplished over something like this! My goal here is to figure out how to get the [POW] stat and time is ticking!   As I was coming up with ways to get the skills from the trainer, half an hour passed. Thus leaving less than 4 hours remaining.   “The next thing we will do is as follows. I will do individual training for each one of you every 30 minutes. The other 3 will fight each other in a 2-vs-1 formation, 2 will attack and one will defend, rotating every 5 minutes. After 15 minutes, you will take a 15 minute break and then resume with the next swap. Remember for the attacking side, it is important to not only win, but also win efficiently minimizing the use of Stamina.   We will start in the order we fought in the beginning. I will train Josh first, and Eric will act as the defender, then after 30 minutes, I will train Eric and so on.” Zack declared.   Heeding his words, Josh went up to Zack as me and Alexander faced off against Eric. Of course my focus was more on Zack and Josh to see if Zack will use any other new skills. Either way, there is no way I would team up with Alexander anyways, I’d be more likely to get back stabbed! As we were wary of each other, our attacks against Eric were rather casual.   After 5 minutes, we switched and Alexander became the defender. While it was tempting to give him a second beating, my priority was keeping an eye on Zack. So while Eric attacked relentlessly, my attacks were more casual from time to time.   Lastly, the final switch happened. And somehow I got a really bad feeling as 2 humans stared at me with hostility. Yikes!   This time around, I had no leeway at looking at Zack, as I desperately defended for my life. My only saving grace was that I had superior speed, and Eric who has now taken up a spear lacked proficiency. So with Alexander lacking long range attacks, and Eric’s poor spearsmanship, I was somehow able to avoid taking any serious damage for 5 minutes.   Finally making it out alive, I took a look at Zack yet again paying attention for the remaining 15 minutes. Frankly put, I got nothing as far as skills go. It seemed that Josh was less interested at training at this point, and more interested in “getting a hit in”. So he spent the entire 30 minutes continuing the fight from before. Aka, it was a big exercise in futility. The best I managed to get out of all this was paying attention to Zack’s style to see if I can gain any insight.   And like that, the next swap happened as Eric went for training with Zack. Me and Alexander were again put up together to fight against Josh and like before we kept the exchange at rather casual pace due to our hostilities, thus I also used the opportunity to continue watching Zack. The big issue happened when it came to my turn. Unlike before, Josh had decent spearsmanship and covered long range without issue, while Alexander had a lock down on short range. I was eventually unable to escape as I was beat down to the floor mercilessly. Luckily they were not allowed to attack me while I was on the floor at the very least.   After finally my 5 minutes passed, I turned back to looking at Zack while dwelling in pain. It seems that Eric’s focus during his training was mostly getting tips on spearsmanship, so again I came out with virtually nothing.   Then came the one I was looking for the most, with exception of my own, as Alexander went up to Zack for training. To my dismay, most of the training seem to dwell in theory rather than actual fighting. They spent 25 minutes chatting, and only 5 minutes in actual combat, what a disappointment! Luckily the combination of Josh and Eric was rather simple to deal with, despite their overall higher stats. By taking advantage of my [Close-Combat Mastery], I kept close distance dodging their attacks, and most of the time Eric got in the way of Josh due to his own inexperience.   Finally, after all this time it was my turn! When this 30 minutes private training ends, there will only be 2 hours left and I am not sure I will get another chance like this one!   “Shiro, based on what I saw earlier, you seem to have improved tremendously. Honestly speaking, I am not sure if I can believe my eyes really. I hate to say it but considering your age and skill, you’ll probably surpass me with ease. That said, you shouldn’t let it get to your head. You still have a long way to go.   Now then, what would you like to train? Personally, I recommend taking up a style. Since I am a rogue, I can teach you a variety of styles using daggers” Zack informed as I came up.   Frankly speaking, learning a style would be great. But there are some downsides to that approach. First of all, I don’t think I can pick up an entire style in 30 minutes, even with my [Dagger Mastery] at 3. The other issue is that I still have not decided on what my primary weapon will be, or how I plan to fight. So there are plenty of demerits in spending my 30 minutes learning a style.   Which is why I came up with the most efficient method to gaining what I need most.   “Uhm...while a style would be nice, there are other things I think I need, which are more important at the moment. My defense is terrible, as seen by the beating I got back there. Is there any sort of defensive skills I can learn?” I inquire.   “Hmm...defensive skill ha? I guess your defense does need quite a bit of work. Out of all the defensive skills, the two that work best for a dual wielding dagger user would be [Deflect] and [Parry]. Though [Deflect] may be a bit too difficult for you...so let me show you [Parry]. Try attacking me with all you got, though don’t try anything fancy like last time” Zack insisted.   I want to retort saying that any skill is easy, as long as you are willing to show it. But I know better than that, since frankly put, I lack time to learn everything, as mortifying as it is.   I get into position, and [Charge] at him with my to daggers pointing at him. Only to have my daggers and [Charge] easily stopped in place.   You have acquired a new skill [NA][Parry] Level 1   Excellent! My first defensive skill! I know I got [Evasion] prior but I consider that more of an avoidance skill. There was also [Shield Mastery], but that is only considering if I use a shield.   Of course I am not done just yet! As I continue my barrage of attacks non-stop. And Zack easily blocks them all using [Parry]. Even though my skill acquisition is on cooldown, I still pay attention to Zack’s style and his use of [Parry] to try to gain more insight. After another 5 minutes, I got another dialog.   Your skill [NA][Parry] has become Level 2   Though I don’t stop and continue on attacking, only after 15 minutes pass do I become convinced that I reached the limit. Of course there is a possibility that he is holding back, but somehow I find that unlikely and I am running out of time anyways.   “I think I got the gist of it, now can you try attacking me and I’ll try to use the skill? Though... I also have a special request for when you attack. I would like to see if there is a skill that improves power slightly but uses little stamina.” I query.   “Hmm… alright, I’ll see how well you do in learning the skill. As for a low stamina skill that increases power...How about [Slice]? It is similar to [Slash] but focuses more on accuracy and penetration over power, and takes up significantly less stamina. Does that sound good to you?” Zack questioned.   “Sure, that would be great!” I concur.   With that, Zack switches from defensive to offensive as he activates [Slice] straight at me! To which I counter with [Parry] without much issue.   You have acquired a new skill [NA][Slice] Level 1   “Oh? You really are fairly talented” Zack complimented while staring in wonderment.   “Again please! I want to get both skills down the best I can!” I request.   “You shouldn’t be too greedy, just getting one of these skills down would be a huge boon for you” Zack reprimanded.   He continued to use [Slice] at me for another 5 minutes,   Your skill [NA][Slice] has become Level 2   at which point I asked him.   “I was wondering, is your [Slice] at level 2?” I inquire.   “I am surprised you noticed. Yes, my [Slice] skill is at level 2. It is a great skill early on due to stamina limitations, but as you gain more and more stats, other skills become far more efficient in the long run” Zack explained.   Now that it has come to this, it is time to conclude my plan. While there are still skills I’d like to learn, as he said I can’t get too greedy. I have a main priority at this point and I need to focus on that first, the rest can be gained later during the remaining 2 hours.   “I have a rather odd request...” I hesitantly ask.   “What is it? If its related to training and within my ability, I will do my best to fulfill it. It is your private training time after all” he assured.   “You said that [Slice] has great precision right? Would it be possible for you to use all your strength and attack me with [Slice] without killing me? Considering my overall small frame, it is often that I am likely to receive attacks that overwhelm me. And I want to get experience dealing with them the best I can in training rather than meeting up with them in real life… Is that possible?” I plead.   At first Zack seems to be completely taken aback by my request, but then puts his hand on his chin and starts contemplating for a bit.   “Hmmm… I understand where you are coming from... But are you sure about this? While I can guarantee your life, you will most definitely get injured. This isn’t a maybe or an if, you being injured is virtually guaranteed. In worst case it might even be a serious injury. So unless you are 100% resolved, I would really suggest against it. I will also note, neither I nor the guild will be held responsible for it. So think carefully before you answer” Zack urged.   * gulp *   While feeling a bit taken back and somewhat scared. I still pull together my resolve as this is still the safest route I can take to get stronger.   “I am fully resolved!” I insist while taking up a defensive stance.   “ * sigh * If you insist...” muttered Zack while taking up an offensive stance. Though it could clearly be seen that hesitation was all over his eyes.   “I will confirm this one last time, are you ready?” Zack questioned seemingly wanting me to change my mind through pressure.   “I am ready!” I respond with confidence as I activate my [All-Observing-Eyes].   “...Here goes!” exclaimed Zack as he seemingly gives in to my resolve, and releases his [Slice] at devastating speed.   Even with my rather high speed, I was only barely able to make it in time to block his attack with [Parry]. And even then I have a feeling he made it easier to block on purpose.   “Eh?!?!”   Suddenly, I feel a sharp pain from my left shoulder, while a dull pain from my hands as my weapons flew out... But upon closer inspection, it wasn’t that my daggers flew out in reality, more precisely, they were split in half! The next thing I notice, Blood began to burst out from my shoulder.   You have taken 342 damage. You are critically injured and severely bleeding   ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?! ARE YOU FREAKIN’ SERIOUS?!?!?   This is utterly ridiculous! The training weapons are made of sturdy but soft wood, but they are not sharp at all! Not to mention, the edges of the weapons are coated with an extra layer of rubber like substance limiting their cutting ability even more! Factor in that [Slice] pays an extra penalty the duller the weapon, add to it that I used [Parry] to mitigate some of the damage and have [Toughness] at level 3! And lastly consider he did not hit at me directly but at only my shoulder! Did I say this is freakin’ ridiculous?!?!?   I mean sure, Zack is a Rank C adventurer. But the difference is far larger than I could ever dream! I fell to my knees in utter shock. I was “this” close to death!   “Are you okay?!?! Sorry about that, I may have attacked a bit too hard. They don’t make these training weapons as sturdy as they used to...” Zack franticly apologized.   Sturdy my ass! If I did not [Parry] it or did not have [Toughness], I would have most definitely been killed here and now!   While I was fuming with rage and helplessness, at same time I felt a little bit relieved. Not only from surviving a near death experience, but also due to the new strength that now filled my body.   You have acquired a new skill [CP][Trainer: Strengthen] Level N/A Due to a special action, a new special [POW] stat has been unlocked   Due to all the strain, I fell to the floor and little by little began to lose consciousness.   “Shit! Due to your skills I totally forgot about your overall low level...Shit! Hang in there! I’ll get some help!” yelled Zack as he picked me up and rushed upstairs.   During this time I fell in and out of consciousness overhearing words here and there.   “I am sorry, we do not have any potions in stock at this time. The Alchemists Guild selection is coming up and they emptied out all the herb reserves in preparation” said some lady’s voice in the background.   Soon after I lost consciousness again as I felt being moved yet again.   ...   When I barely came to again, I heard yet another voice in the background as I slightly opened my eyes to see Zack and an old man standing there conversing.   “This is the one right? Fear not child, everything will be okay... [Light Magic: Holy Light]!” murmured the old man.     You have acquired a new sub-skill [NA][Light Magic: Holy Light] Level 1 WARNING: [Light Magic: Holy Light] is a Level 4 Light Magic. Efficiency shall be reduced!   Due to a special action, you have acquired a new skill [NP][Light Magic] Level 1 Due to a special action, a new special [Ƥưȑȇ Ṁḁṋẫ Ấẜḟḭṅḯṯỷ] stat has been unlocked   For a moment... I felt like the entire world lit up in some strange color lights all around. But soon after they disappeared and a sense of warmth overtook my body as I fainted.

When we arrive at the guild, I go to the counter to sell herbs and cash in my quest only to find it closed. A bit confused I then head for the reception desk instead.   “Hi, I would like to cash in the repeatable Rank G herb collection quest” I say as I place my bag on the counter.   This time the receptionist is a rather tall 34 year old man. I am inwardly glad it isn’t that lady…   “I am sorry, today is a night day. During night days the herb collection ends early and is sent to the alchemist shop by the supply officer. If you want to cash in your quest, you would either have to wait till tomorrow or go to the alchemist shop before it closes to receive proof.” he informs.   Noticing the opportunity to acquire a production skill, I gladly chose to go to the alchemist shop. After asking for directions from the tall man, we quickly head there taking up only about 10 minutes to reach the shop.   The alchemist shop was located at the edge of town in a small two floor building. We entered the shop and saw a bunch of shelves with all kinds of ingredients, in there was a man wearing an official guild uniform standing there with multiple bags of herbs. Besides the guild official, sitting on the floor was an old man who was silently grinding some herbs on the floor.     You have acquired a new skill [NP][Herb Processing] Level 1   Production skill get!   Though I was more hoping for alchemy skill, is it maybe divided into multiple skills?   I come closer to the duo and turn to the guild employee in the shop who is already looking my way.   “I was told by the guild to bring the herbs here for cashing in my Rank G herb collection quest...” I explain to the man.   “Hmmm...that should be fine, give it here and I will inspect it” the man responds.   I hand over the bag of herbs and he looks over the herbs carefully. After he finishes inspecting the herbs he places them in the bags. Then he stretches his hand forward and a part of his hand disappears. It then reappears with some copper and iron coins and a piece of paper which he then hands over to me.     You have acquired a new skill [NA][Item Box] Level 1   Now there is an unexpected gem! But I can’t let myself wallow in excitement just yet, I need to confirm something important.   “Mister, what was that? Is it some sort of rare ability?” I inquire.   “Hm? Ah this? It is called [Item Box], it is a heritage skill. So it could not be learned through regular means. It allows a person to use something similar to space magic with much less difficulty and mana cost. Of course this skill is not exactly magic despite the similarity. There are a few [Item Box] heritages in the world, and one of them is owned by the guild. It is a requirement for the guild master and guild supply officer to learn this skill for the safe transportation of documents and items” he explained.   Perfect! Now I have a safe way to store stuff without anyone knowing!   “Thank you very much mister!” I exclaim with a double meaning.   Unfortunately at level 1 I am only able to store about 1 cubic meter of stuff. So things like my spear is a no go, but I should be able to retrieve my dagger and store it as well as fit in a few herbs. It would be nice if I could get him to use it again in 5 minutes to see if I can get another level in both skills or pickup other alchemy related skills. While I was thinking that…   “Come on! We are done here, lets go back before the boss gets angry that we are late” Kuina insisted.   I hesitate at first but without much of an option, I reluctantly agreed and we left the shop and headed back to the guild. There is always a next time I thought.   After I showed the paper to the receptionist, he processed the request and marked it as complete. Making this my first ever quest completion, and placing me 1/20th way there towards ranking up to a Rank F adventurer.   Once we got credit for the quest, we naturally headed back to base. Today has probably been the best day so far! I got registered in the guild, 2 combat skills, a level up, production skill and the famous [Item Box]! Things are finally going my way!   We arrive as it started to get darker due to the setting sun and are shown inside by Ryo to the Boss.   “You are late, you better have completed your assignment without excuses” the old man grumbled. With a displeased face   “S-sorry...we g-got d-delayed. I-I got all 15 herbs...” I hurriedly replied fearing punishment.   “I see...very well then show me the guild tattoo information” he asks while looking somewhat in a better mood.   I show him the tattoo information which he reviews carefully and then a condescending smile appears on his face.   “Now then, hand over all the money and herbs you got. This is an [Order]!” he exclaims.   I get a little startled but hand over the coins I got as ordered while somewhat perplexed…He looks over the coins, counts them and turns back to me.   “Very good! Very good! You are at least smart enough not to try to steal things behind my back while I ain’t looking...or maybe in your case it might be more accurate to say your too retarded to even think about it? Regardless, it is time to issue standing orders to you. From now on, during gathering days, you are required to get 15 herbs per day. You are required to cash in all herbs you pick to the guild for quest completion unless told otherwise by me. All money you earn is to be handed to me. This is an [Order]!” he announces.   Argh! You really had to take a complement and turn it into an insult?!?! I am really getting sick of this treatment! And just when I thought I got some freedom to tinker around I now have to an [Order] to deal with? Talk about ruining a good day...how can things possibly get any worse!?!?   “Oh, by the way. Tomorrow we are going on another subjugation. So you will be required to act as a tracker, I will be personally keeping an eye on you so make sure you do it properly..or else...” the middle aged man threatened.   I just had to ask…   “I-I u-understand! I-I’ll d-do my b-best...” I muttered while shivering.   With that I was dismissed and proceeded to have dinner, with the now slightly larger portions. It still tastes bad though…I also noticed that there were 2 new bunnykin during dinner. Most likely to replace the losses during the [Hell Boar] incident.   The next day, I was brought to the front of the base. Looking around I notice that I was the only non-dogkin there out of the beastkin. Which made me somewhat nervous that I would be used as bait again. Luckily my fear did not last long as the middle age man came in front and started briefing us with the details.   “Everyone is here I see, today we are going to be hunting a [Dire Bear], which should be a simple prey so we do not need any bait. This is what we would be using to track it” he said while taking out a piece of wood with a bear claw mark on it and letting everyone sniff it.   With the scent memorized we proceeded into the forest tracking the bear. Interestingly enough, the middle aged man’s companions did not come with us.   In about 2 hours since we left, the first ones to pick up the scent of the bear was me and Ryo. So we proceeded down to narrow down the bears location as we got closer the other dogkin also picked up the scent and it did not take long to track it down at that point.   When we arrived I saw a large over-sized bear prowling around. It did not take long for the [Dire Bear] to notice us and let out a roar as it headed straight for us.   “GGGRHAAAAAAAA!!!!”   “Step back” said the middle aged man as he stepped forward brandishing his spear. We quickly followed his advice and took a distance.   As the bear approached within a few meter range, the middle aged man pulled back his spear and putting strength into the spear he thrust it forward with great force while taking a step forward.     You have acquired a new skill [NA][Thrust] Level 1 Your skill [RP][Toughness] has become Level 2   The spear hit the bear straight in the neck going right through it and splattering blood from the other side. With that one hit, the bear died almost instantly.   “Annoying special requests, hardly worth the time...” grumbled the old man in a bad mood. Then added “Hurry up and drag it back to town” towards us.   Dragging the bear was no easy task, and it took us 6 hours just to make it back to base. It would have taken longer if not for Ryo who was way above us in level doing most of the heavy lifting.   With that, the day ended surprisingly uneventfully. I mean it does make sense that not every event has to end up in a life or death situation normally right? Either way I got the [Thrust] skill which should definitely help with wielding my spear and maybe my dagger. And increase in [Toughness] will help me survive, so other than the difficulty dragging the boar, today ended up relatively well.  

By next morning, I got permission to take advantage of the temporary quota adjustment. And as predicted, it took me the entire 2 days to smelt the [Iron Ingots]. Due to the detail instructions from Doran that I got, it did not take long for me to hit the quality score of around 5. Thus, I managed to net myself my first [Iron Ingot]. What’s that, you want me to smith you ASAP Mr. Iron Ingot? Guh! Stop tempting me!   Today marks the 14th day since I came to this town of Hallion. And my plan for today is to finally revisit the Adventurers Guild and earn some money.   When I came to the guild, I was notified that someone left a letter addressed to me. Which I found rather shocking…   I took a look at the letter and it seems to be from the trainer Zack.     Dear Shiro,   It is me Zack. You probably don’t exactly want to hear from me and all, but I wanted to apologize to you for what happened. Despite my warnings earlier and all, I still feel like I have failed you as a trainer. I seriously think you have tremendous talents, so much so that I almost got a level up in my trainer class just from you alone. Thus I did something stupid by trying to push you beyond your limits.   This short sightedness has blinded me, and I have failed as an instructor. I sincerely apologize and have decided to go on a journey to reevaluate myself. I originally wanted to speak to you in person prior to leaving, but you have not shown up in the guild since, and I did not know where you lived.   Attached with the letter is a 1 silver refund since I was not able to fulfill the entire lesson.   With deepest regrets, Zack   “...”   ...Okay...lets pretend I didn’t see any of it…   I mean why exactly would I hold a grudge against someone who gave me so much delicious skills? Sure being almost killed kind of stings just a little... But somehow, it is sad to say that I have been through worse…   Is it pathetic that I already think being almost killed is part of every day life these days?   * sigh *   If you are going to apologize for something, how about giving me more of those awesome skills? [Stealth] would be nice…   * sigh *   Yup, lets pretend it never happened! I put the silver coin in my [Item Box] and destroy the note, throwing it away as I head out of town to collect herbs.   I did double check just in case if there would be any replacement trainers or the like, but unfortunately got a negative for the time being...   The day went by rather quickly, and I managed to collect a total of 15 herbs, which was quite productive. Out of the herbs, 4 of them were [Dire Milkweed] which I stored in my [Item Box] for future potion making. I also kept a [Sleepy Jasmine] while cashing in the remaining herbs. Overall I managed to earn 45 iron coins with the reward, bringing my total savings up to 1 silver, 51 iron and 50 copper coins.   After dinner I retired for the day, and then went on to sleep.   ...   Thus started yet another new week. I started my morning with my new usual routine of smelting 2 [Bronze Ingots]. After barely pulling myself away from smelting, I head to eat breakfast and headed out. My target? The Builders Guild monthly selections!   Frankly, I think I managed to nab most of the skills back then. But you never know what shows up, so might as well make the best of it.   The crowd this time around was again larger than the Blacksmithing Guild, but it was not as large as the Alchemy Guild. I’d say maybe 100 – 150 people? This time around, the composition was made up of mostly dwarves and beastkin. Though I barely noticed a small batch of a new race. To note, the small descriptor was literal! The new race I just noticed were a few gnomes.   The area the Builders Guild had was pretty large, so all of us were quickly taken to the courtyard.   “Welcome everyone! My name is Rob, and I will be overseein’ the examination. This exam is fairly liberal overall, ya all are free to build whatever ya want in a designated area, showing off ya’r talents. The resources are all shared, so not only will we evaluate ya’r performance as an individual, but also as a group. Building things, unlike many other production oriented jobs is a team effort! Which often times involves dealing with people ya get along with and ones ya don’t. All these factors shall be evaluated! Ya have 10 hours and are free to start whenever!” announced the dwarf.   Hmmm...what should I build? It probably should be something I plan on using in the future, like maybe some traps? But first order of business... I should observe people and see if I can pick up some new skills. I am a bit concerned about running out of limited supplies by the time I actually start building something. That said, skills take precedence.   I decide to look around using [Identify] to find the top 5% in terms of level, or anyone who seems to have a non-combat job related to a production skill. From then on, my glare-athon began!   Your skill [NP][Carpentry] has become Level 3 You have acquired a new skill [NP][Sculpting] Level 1 Your skill [NP][Sculpting] has become Level 2   You have acquired a new skill [CP][Body Builder: Physical Endurance] Level N/A Due to a special action, a new special [END] stat has been unlocked [CP][Body Builder: Physical Endurance] Level N/A   Decrease the base stamina consumption of skills by 5% + 0.1% for every level in your non-combat class + 0.05% for every point of [END] Stamina consumption can not be reduced below 5%   That last one was pretty darn useful! But the most interesting thing as far as production skills go came from the gnomes.     Your skill [NP][Mechanical Engineering] has become Level 1 Your skill [NP][Mechanical Engineering] has become Level 2   Congratulations! You have completed the class quest [Creationist: Improve your production skills] +25 PER has been attained   Class quest [Creationist: Improve your production skills], has been reset.   I spent about 3 hours looking around and it seemed like that was the end as far as skill gains were concerned. So I decided to start up on my project at hand.   Maybe I should take advantage of both my blacksmithing and my new mechanical engineering skill and make something like a bear trap?   Looking around, there is a furnace I can use to blacksmith... There are no ores though, but there are copper metal scraps here and there. The quality is going to be abysmal, but its worth a shot for trial sake.   I start collecting the small pieces of copper lying around here and there, and then melt them down. With them, I managed to make about 5 [Copper Ingots]. Unfortunately, due to their quality being around 1.0314 – 1.1278, it wasn’t good enough for my class quest. Regardless, the fact that they were above the quality score of 1 in itself was a miracle.   Truth of the matter is, I don’t really know how to make a bear trap...but I should be able to reason it out with the help of my stats and skills to an extent.   How about something like this, I’ll make a spring and coil it around both ends of the trap. Then I will put a metal rod in the middle that will hold both sides from snapping together. Afterwards I will make a center platform with another spring. Which when stepped on would push the rod out of place, thus snapping the trap.   It isn’t much, but worth a try…   After 5 hours on working on the trap, with many trial and error, I finally managed to complete “something”.     Pathetic Excuse for a Copper Bear Trap   An abysmal attempt at making a bear trap out of copper. The chances of catching something is almost as good as injuring yourself setting it up. Assuming it even functions properly in the first place as there is a high chance of failure.   +12 ATK on activation Mobility is reduced by 10%60% chance of working 40% chance of activating when setting it up Durability: 20/20 Quality 0.3412/10.000   “...”   Is it just me or does it feel like the system is going out of its way to insult me?   Maybe I should try something a little bit more simple…   Lets see… what trap can I make in 2 hours? Maybe something simple like a giant mouse trap? Though it would probably still take me more than 2 hours to make…   In the end, I could not think of anything that would be so quick to make without any guidance. So I just spent the time comprehending what others were doing, especially the gnomes who were building some odd contraptions.   I didn’t even bother waiting for my entry to be evaluated since it was too embarrassing… Of course I remembered to disarm it prior to leaving lest some poor soul accidentally losses a finger...wait...I did disarm it right? I think I did...Oh well...what’s the worst that can happen?   When I returned to the Blacksmithing Guild, there was still 2 hours left so I used that time to smelt 3 [Bronze Ingots], my speed is definitely improving! I actually could have made more but I was pretty tired from building that trap.   The top priority for this week is to improve my speed without hurting quality and start making new gear. Maybe if lucky, see what I can do about tailoring as well.   On that note, I went to sleep.

This time around, my plan was a tad different. First difference was that I focused on hunting [Dire Foxes], my goal was to get all 5 [Dire Fox Pelts] and 10 herbs all in 1 day. Since my [Item Box] can’t hold everything, I decided to instead forgo most of the [Dire Fox Meat], only taking the most expensive portion of the meat. This way I should be fine. And since at this point I had little use for my MP, I used [Light Magic: Blessing of the Sun] to give myself a slight boost in stats here and there.   I also avoided any more level 10 [Dire Foxes]. I could beat them probably with ease as well, but no need to take any unnecessary risk if I don’t have to. I got the timing down perfectly for those using level 2 [Sprint], so killing them has been a piece of cake. By the time I headed back to the guild, I had 5 [Dire Fox Pelts] and 10 herbs in-tow. Unfortunately Mr. Level Up-san did not visit this time around.   Of course it is not all bad news… after handing in all the stuff, I managed to earn an astounding 2 silver, 57 iron and 50 copper coins! So now my total balance is 7 silver and 18 iron coins! So my daily earnings have increased by quite a lot!   The sad part to all this though is despite all that effort, even a belt made of bronze costs over 3X more than my entire savings! I don’t know if I should feel happy about my potential future, or upset at how much effort I put into it to get so little...   And like last time, I again sign up for the Church’s repeatable quest. This will be my last chance in a while to grab as many magics as I can!   Starting after tomorrow, I will once again receive my smelting quotas. And then, the following day, is my private lesson with an Advance Disciple. From then on, I probably won’t have much free time since I have to prepare for the competition which is right around the corner.   After the usual dinner and a good nap, the next day came and I again headed for the Church.   This time around, I came about 15 minutes earlier to see if I could manage something prior.   Surprisingly, Anderson was standing in the back yard, chatting with the dogkin Rex. Not surprising was the content of the chat. Though Rex seems to be actually revering Anderson looking at it from the side…   Anyways, time to tug my spell pinata!   “Hey there Anderson! Can you show me that awesome light spell again? But this time make it as bright as you can?” I interject in their pointless conversation.   Glad to show off, an enthusiastic smile appeared on his face at my request.   “No Problem! Something like that is easy for someone of my calibur ... [Light Magic: Light]!” he shouted as a ball of bright light appeared.   Your sub-skill [NA][Light Magic: Light] has become Level 2   Everyone should be like NPC Anderson!   He then continued his monologue bragging about himself over and over. Since Rex was there and eating up his words, I little by little slip out and watch something more exciting, like grass growing?   I wonder if he will fall for “that”. After waiting 5 minutes for my cooldown to wear off. I proceed with the plan.   You have taken 5 damage.   “Ouch! I injured myself… If only there was someone capable of casting a healing spell!” I exclaim with assist of [Voice Manipulation].   “Hmph! Have no fear, something like that is nothing for someone with my great abilities!” Anderson announced.   Must… resist… urge... to... start... laughing…   “… [Light Magic: Healing Touch]!” Anderson yelled as he touched near the wound on my hand.   You have recovered 1 damage. You have acquired a new sub-skill [NA][Light Magic: Healing Touch] Level 1   “...”   How… disappointing?   “Aren’t you glad someone like me was present?” Anderson gloated.   “...Yeah… Uhm...” I stumper in total confusion on how to respond.   Spells are nice, I am thankful NPC Anderson aka spell pinata. But wasn’t that a bit too pathetic? I mean seriously….   “You are definitely the greatest I have ever seen!” Rex complemented while wagging his tail.   “Of course I am! That was nothing! Hahaha” Anderson laughed.   … Yeah … I am just gonna make myself scarce… a bit more permanently this time around… It is a good thing I did not think of doing something stupid like slightly poisoning myself to see him use [Cure]… That would have definitely ended in total disaster!   In a few minutes, finally some salvation came.   “I see that everyone is here early today. The assignments today will be same as yesterday, Rex will handle the backyard. Alexa the laundry and Shiro will wash the hallways” announced Nun Lina.   We all then split up and took up our roles as Nun Lina dragged away Anderson so he would not interrupt.   I quickly wash the hallways as I began searching for new scents or presences to help locate the priest. Unfortunately there was no such luck…I could not find any scent that stood out from the day prior...   This time around it took only 1 hour to finish due to no distractions and my familiarity with the building. After which I went off to find Nun Lina again.   “I am done!” I exclaim.   “Already? Since your done so early, can you help Alexa with the laundry? There is more than usual this time around” Nun Lina proposes.   “Uhm… I can try… but I don’t really have any confidence in doing it...” I respond.   It isn’t like I haven’t done laundry before, but how I did laundry is using a washing machine. Even if I am a bit familiar with doing laundry without a washing machine due to my studying on adventuring, that still assumes that the laundry had labels explaining how to wash something properly. Last thing I want to do is damage the laundry and get blamed…   “That is no problem, Alexa will show you what to do” Nun Lina assured.   “Okay then, I’ll give it a shot...though...uhm...mind if I ask if the Priest is in? I kinda wanted to thank him for the other day...” I question.   “The Priest? He was suppose to be in yesterday night... But there was some delays. If there is something you want me to pass along to him, I can do that for you if you wish” Nun Lina informed.   “No, thats okay… never mind..” I respond and walk to the well where Alexa is doing the laundry.   That is quite a disappointment… I was so hoping to stock up on some more spells...or at the very least increase the level of my [Light Magic], not sure if I have to follow the same 10 spell levels policy or if I can just get it straight forward like everything else…but regardless, this was my last opportunity in quite a while * sigh *   After spending an extra hour doing the laundry with Alexa, I was finally let go with my completion slip and 1 iron coin.   From there, after buying and eating meat skewers, I hurried as fast as possible out of the city to hunt [Dire Foxes] and gathering herbs. By end of the day I managed to get the 5 [Dire Fox Pelts], though still no level up. On top of that, due to bad luck I was short on 1 herb so I had to take out a [Dire Milkweed] out of my reserve. My earnings this time around was 2 silver and 55 iron coins. Thus my total savings was almost at 10 silver coins!   I hurriedly went to get dinner at the guild and went to sleep in a good mood. Because tomorrow I get my new quota! It was hard to fall asleep due to the excitement, but I eventually let sleep overtake me.   ...   When I got up, right after breakfast I rushed to the counter to pick up my ores! And I managed to be one of the first to pick up my 10 [Iron Ores], 20 [Copper Ores] and 20 [Tin Ores] for my quota. From there, I started smelting them with bliss.   My abilities have improved quite a lot yet again, so much so that I was actually able to finish everything in just 1 day! It was a really blissful day! My only dread is the days of withdrawal to come after! But even I knew I’d probably have little time to worry about it then since I’d be busy preparing for the competition.   I picked up my reward of 1 [Iron Ingot] and 2 [Bronze Ingots]. But I did not have the time to make anything out of them as it was already time for dinner.   Tomorrow will be the big day! So after dinner I hurry off to sleep.   …

The next day was my favorite day of the week! Why was this day of the week my all time favorite? Because it is the day when I get to use my hammer! Thus that warm and fuzzy feeling comes back! Again, I am not addicted to it okay?   I end up smithing all the [Bronze Ingots] and [Iron Ingots] in one day with time to spare! This was also enough for me to finish one more [Creationist: Ingot Creation] quest! Thus getting me an extra +1 PER.   On the downside, that Unfortunately left me with not much to do for the rest of the day once I was finished...   So I had to endure till the end of the day… * sigh *   ...   The following day, I got up after a good rest and after breakfast headed again to the counter. Today was finally my last private lesson.   So I went to the Advanced Disciple ward and met up with Gregon, and from then on he began to teach me things as he worked.   While he was making something, I came up with a question to ask.   “I was wondering… is it possible to get to watch a Senior Disciple make something?” I inquired.   “What’s that missy?!?! I ain’t good enough for ya anymore?!?!” Gregon questioned.   “Hi?!?! That’s not it!” I respond frightened by reflex due to the sudden change in tone.   Getting my courage back together I tried to explain myself.   “I just thought that it might provide some insight and inspiration if I saw highest form of [Blacksmithing]...” I explained.   He stood there for a good minute pondering and not saying anything while holding his beard looking down, then after coming to some sort of conclusion he turns back to me.   “I may be able to manage something, but don’t get ya’r hopes up. Stay here” Gregon said then walked out the door.   After about 15 minutes, he came back.   “Here is the deal missy. I spoke to one of the Senior Disciples who I am friends with. He was an Advanced Disciple until he recently got promoted. In about an hour, at best he can spare about 10 minutes showing ya how to make a dagger with his skill. But that is about it.” Gregon says while somewhat grumbling.   “Alright! Deal!” I insisted feigning ignorance to his grumbles.   “* sigh * Ya better win the competition missy!” Gregon persisted.   After about an hour, we walked into the Senior Disciple area and met up with the Senior Disciple.   “So this is the talented student ya have been telling me about?” said the Senior Disciple.   “Yeah, yeah, lets get this over with Flam” Gregon retorted.   “Okay, then I shall show ya how I smith a dagger. I will only do it once so pay attention carefully” Flam warned.   “Thank you very much, I’ll make sure to watch as carefully as I can” I replied.   He then began smithing the dagger, and I activate [All-Observing-Eyes]. The smithing technique he used in both speed and quality was definitely the best I have ever seen. But equally impressive was what I was processing with my [All-Observing-Eyes]. Prior, I had to let go of many things because I did not have enough time to process them, but this time around the information that I could process increased dramatically. I obviously could not catch everything, but I still managed to catch a lot of things I missed before.   There was unfortunately a limit to how much I could use [All-Observing-Eyes], so I used it mostly during the most important junctures. The most worrying thing though was that 5 minutes passed, 6… 7… 8 but still no skill increase!   And Fam was already almost done with the dagger… 9 minutes passed and no luck…   Only just as he finished in the 10th minute did I finally get something.   Your skill [NP][Blacksmithing] has become Level 6   “So how was it missy, manage to get any inspiration?” Fam asked.   “Yes! Quite a lot actually!” I exclaimed.   “So if ya’r done we can go now?” Gregon grumbled.   “Yes, thank you very much!” I remarked as we made our way back out of the Senior Disciple area.   From then on, Gregon continued to teach me, though in a more sour mood than before. I feel sorry for Gregon as he has done quite a lot for me, but never the less I really needed that extra skill level to break through my limits.   When there was but a few hours left in the day, I began attempting a prototype of what I will make for the competition. This one will of course be far inferior due to lack of time and lower quality of the ores, but regardless it will net me some practice. So I spent the rest of my day smithing it.   After showing the prototype to Gregon, I said my goodbyes and finished my day as usual.   ...   Come morning, the whole place was in an uproar as things heated up for the competition. There was a lot of chatting and everyone was super excited!   After breakfast, all the Junior Disciples and Intermediate Disciples gathered around and waited. Shortly after, 3 Senior Disciples came by and one of them went up front.   “Today, we will finally start the quarterly competition! The winner of the competition will get a personal commissioned item and 3 hours of private training from the Grandmaster himself!” announced the Senior Disciple.   With that, loud cheers spread through out the whole complex.   “I will also remind the Junior Disciples that this acts as an examination for ya as well, if ya don’t perform well, ya will be expelled as a Disciple of the guild! And if one of ya manages to win the competition, ya will get promoted to an Intermediate Disciple! Now follow me!” he added.   The door behind him then opened and the crowd rushed in. The area the competition took place is the same area that they held the monthly selections, aka the Junior Disciple area due to it being more wider than the others. So I was fairly familiar with it. There were also Advanced Disciples standing everywhere keeping an eye out to prevent any sort of cheating.   Though technically speaking, there is only so many ways one can cheat when the system tells you who made the item. Not to mention, a skilled blacksmith can tell quite a lot just by looking at the complete item. Though there are shortcuts you can take such as bringing in a [Steel Ingot] instead of starting from scratch. There might also be other ways but I haven’t really put too much thought into it...   Unfortunately when everyone rushed in, I wasn’t able to keep up and ended up in the last spot. It doesn’t matter too much, but it means I have to travel further than others to get to the forge, thus losing some time here and there.   “Now then, ya have until 19 o’clock! Let the competition begin!” announced the senior disciple.   I took out my high quality [Iron Ore] and [Coal Ore] and began smelting! Due to the high difficulty, I spent almost 4 hours smelting them into an ingot. I knew working with materials of this level was not going to be easy…   After barely finishing it, I began to finally smith the dagger. The process was even more difficult and frankly put far beyond my abilities. Regardless, I still did my best to give it my all! It took me the entire 8 hours to finally finish it, and overall… I was a bit disappointed in the result due to all the quality that I have lost…   Congratulations! You have completed the class quest [Creationist: Weapon creation] +1 PER has been attained   Class quest [Creationist: Weapon creation], has been reset. [Creationist] Weapon creation Produce 10 tier 1 weapons with at least a quality score of 2 and/or 10 tier 2+ weapons with at least a quality score of 1.   Type: Continuous 2/10   Status: 0/10 Reward: 1 [PER]   With that, the competition came to a close, everyone put their item under the provided cover for suspense and the rankings began.   “Well then, lets get the show on the road! I, Senior Disciple Tagon will act as the judge for this competition. The first entry is from Junior Disciple Maron, we have here a [Bronze Dagger] with a quality score of 5.1! Congratulations Maron, ya are currently our top contender!” proclaimed Tagon.   The audience laughed and cheered at the obvious joke, but soon they were quited down and the grading continued. After going through a few Junior Disciples, it did not take long for an Intermediate Disciple’s turn. From then on, no Junior Disciple could compete as Intermediate Disciples showed off their Iron and Steel creations.   “Now then, next will be our last quarter champion! Let us see how the specialist class [Steelsmith] Algon has improved!” Tagon reported.   Steel Dagger of Greater Strength   An exquisite dagger made out of steel   +32 STR +160 ATK   Bonus: +3 STR   [Made by Algon] Durability: 1602/1602 Quality 8.0114/10.0000   “...”   * gulp *   The entire room gulped down in awe and were completely speechless… I was no exception… frankly put, I don’t think I currently have the ability to make steel with such high quality score, even if I was given materials with a quality score of 9 to work with. Not to mention in terms of combat stats, his weapon surpasses mine… I droop down my shoulders in disappointment.   “As expected of Algon the [Steelsmith]! Ya’r skills have pretty much doubled since last competition! I don’t think there is a disciple who grew even half as fast as ya did during these past 3 months! Or have ya been holding back on us all this time? Ya should definitely take an exam to become an Advanced Disciple already! At this point ya are just pickin’ on everyone else… I mean seriously… I just might have a chat with the Grandmaster about this!” Tagon declared.   From then on, he continued rating the disciples until he came to the last contestant… me. I tensed up due to all the pressure…   “Oh! The little catkin missy… I was waitin’ for ya’r turn. Old Gregon has gone senile and bet 25 platinum coins on ya winnin’. So I was wonderin’ what ya will have in store for us! I hope ya gave it a ‘good whack’...har-har-har” Tagon divulged with a laugh, followed by everyone suddenly staring at me...   WHA?!?! He is joking… right?   Not waiting for me to pull myself together, He then reached under the cover and looked at my dagger… soon after he frowned, but said nothing...   “S-So how is it?” I asked, quite nervous of the result.   With my beckoning, he pulls himself together and turns around towards the dwarf Advanced Disciple standing near by.   “Joran, Did the little missy really make this herself?” questioned Tagon.   “Uhm… I did not see anythin’ that could constitute cheatin’… So as long as the missy’s name is on it… it should be the case...” said Joran.   He then turns back to me staring intently.   “Did ya really make this?” Tagon asked.   “Uhm… Y-Yes… i-is there something wrong with it?” I replied shrinking back from the intense glare.   “What’s the matter?” asked another Senior Disciple as he comes in and looks at the dagger.   “...”   Holy-Steel Healing Dagger   An okay quality dagger made out of holy-steel   +7 STR +7 DEX +7 AGI +7 VIT +2 INT +2 WIS +159 ATK   [Healing Stream] +5 HP every minute (5 holy power is consumed per minute)   Bonus: +1 STR   Holy Power: 60/100   [Made by Shiro] Durability: 1274/1274 Quality 3.1854/10.0000   “This is...” murmured the Senior Disciple.   Not getting a proper answer of where I stand leaves me even more nervous. I understand my dagger is pretty good for a Junior Disciple… but it falls behind on combat stats. On top of that, they consider what materials you started with and the difficulty of said result… In the process of making this dagger, I lost over 4 quality score which is pretty major. In comparison, Algon’s result was beyond perfect as the result surpassed the materials and he managed to make it focus on 1 attribute, and even more, he managed an extra large bonus.   While my [Holy-steel Healing Dagger] is something that even I may have a 1/10 chance of repeating again. The dagger he made in terms of difficulty, my chance of replication at this point is 0...   Not being able to take it anymore with the silence and staring going on, I plead once again..   “S-So how well did I do? Was it not good enough?”   “How well did ya do? Are ya seriously askin’ this question missy? Do ya even know what ya did?!?!” queried Tagon.   Did I maybe do something wrong?   “Uhm… No...” I replied with hesitation.   “Missy, do ya even know what Holy-steel is or how it is normally made? In terms of difficulty it is harder to make than Enchanted-steel! The process of making holy-steel requires a pure environment to work in, that is because holy elemental mana is prone to corruption from other mana. So making Holy-steel is at least twice as difficult as makin’ Enchanted-steel if not more. But to make Holy-steel in this environment is… unheard of… Maybe the [Sacred Blacksmith] or a few others may be able to pull it off, but it has never been tried due to the ridiculous difficulty needed to do that, which borders on the line of impossible!” Tagon explained.   “Oh...” I mutter not fully being able to comprehend what just happened.   I mean it was extremely difficult and all… I spent every morning and night using [Light Magic: Holy Light] on the [Coal Ore] filling it with Holy Power. The process was pretty darn hard to do. Luckily my penalty only constituted for healing purposes, but using it to push the Holy Power seemed to work with little loss in efficiency. Then when I got here, I started smelting the ingot and it got even harder as the holy power threatened to escape. And I began to lose quality trying to keep the holy power in check. While I couldn’t exactly see mana, I used my [All-Observing-Eyes] and my senses to predict its flow and whack it back into place. This process got even more harder when it came to actually making the dagger as the mana felt like it wanted to explode and go wild! I barely managed to contain it in by paying a large price in quality.   But to say it is border line impossible is a bit overstating things… I don’t think what I did was that difficult, and someone who has a skill to see mana should have been able to replicate it or better with ease… It was more like a really hard game of whack-a-mole if you ask me...   Or could it be that [Pure Mana Affinity] somehow simplified the process without me knowing?   I really need to learn more about magic once my financial situation improves…   “Well I guess it is time to wrap things up! Congratulations Junior Disciple Shiro! You are the winner of this competition!” yelled Tagon.   Eh? Seriously?!?! I actually won?!?!   Cheers and applaud spread through the room and it was a bit embarrassing, but at same time felt pretty good...   “YAHOOOOOOOOOO!!!! DRINKS ARE ON ME!!” came a loud shout overshadowing all other noise, looking at the source Gregon is jumping around and dancing with a large smile on his face.   From then on, everyone began to party like crazy drinking alcohol and dancing. During this chaos, Tagon came up to me.   “Tomorrow, after breakfast, come by the Senior Disciple ward. I will arrange for ya’r promotion to Intermediate Disciple and set ya up with the Grandmaster” Tagon informed.   “Yes! Thank you very much!” I replied with a beaming smile.   Finally! I will be able to sell my stuff and gain levels much faster! Not to mention, stealing the skills of the Grandmaster is the icing on the cake!   After Tagon, many others came to congratulate me for my victory, including Gregon who was already somewhat drunk.   Since I can’t exactly drink alcohol, after everyone was done giving their blessings, I head to eat dinner, then off to bed in excitement for the days to come.  

The 18th day in this town has turned out a very very happy day, as I got to spend the entire day smelting! To be clear, it isn’t because I am addicted to this warm and fuzzy feeling okay?   Due to my improvements in both skill and ability, I managed to make 15 [Bronze Ingots] and 6 [Iron Ingots] in just 1 day! Talk about bliss! The saddest part was calling it quits at dinner time! Why does something like dinner exist?!?!   I even got a bigger shock the day after when I realized I was out of things to smelt after only making 4 [Iron Ingots]! Conspiracy?!?!   Of course by completing 50 extra ingots, I again managed to complete a class quest and got another +1 PER.   So now the moment of truth, I claimed my 1 [Iron Ingot] and 2 [Bronze Ingots] and began my attempt at an [Iron Blacksmithing Hammer]!   It took me the entire day to smith the hammer, as it was the most difficult thing I have ever made so far. That said, I already had insight into Iron and making hammers from Doran. On top of that my skills and [PER] also improved. Interestingly enough even [END] helped keep me steady in making precise motions in my smithing.   Iron Blacksmithing Hammer   An average blacksmithing hammer made out of iron   +25 STR +5 DEX -30 AGI +4 ATK +10% improvement for Blacksmithing   [Made by Shiro] Durability: 1000/1000 Quality 5.0003/10.0000   Eureka!   Thus I retired Johnny, which by the way is what I named my [Bronze Blacksmithing Hammer], and put the freshly made Tommy in service!   Too bad it was the end of the day, so I could not take Tommy for a spin…   Only the next day did I finally put him to good use. My first aim was construction of a helmet. The biggest weakness of all humanoids is the head, and any attack on the head from a blind spot means instant death!   Normally making a full helmet would require 3 [Bronze Ingots]. But my requirements are much simpler since not only am I smaller than a typical full grown adult, I also don’t need a full helmet.   The helmet I need has to not get in the way of my agility and I only needs to cover the most vital parts. Which is the top of the head, back of the head and the neck. Though I have to also account for is my ears. I don’t want to press them down, neither do I want to leave them vulnerable...   So what I am thinking is something along the lines of one of those city guard helmets you see in shows where the top of their heads are covered in plate, with chainmail on the sides going around the neck. Except mine will have room for my cat ears which will be plate on the back side, and chainmail on the front.   The issue is that normally I would still slightly lack the materials to pull it off...But this is where my [All-Observing-Eyes] come in, and in more ways than one. First of all, using it I can tell where the weak points are on a beastkin’s head are. I can then fortify those areas with more fortifications, while skimping on materials in other areas. The only remaining factor is to insure structural integrity of the item, which is again where my Unique Skill along with my high [PER] shines.   Different from making a Blacksmithing Hammer like before, it is important to think about what attributes I wish to imbue it with. The probability of getting more of those attributes increase if I also use materials that reflect those attributes. Otherwise, the attributes will either be spread out or random. There is also a way to make the item stronger by setting restrictions on it. Similar to how the hammers have higher stats than normal, but in retrospect give negative of other stats.   In my case, what I am aiming for is an item which is focused more on agility since my number one importance is survival, aka running away.   The restrictions I am thinking of is the stat bonus would mostly be limited by the creator and requires a minimum level of 10. I would set it to 13, but the requirements are only possible in denominations of 5.   Overall though, setting these kind of restrictions is rather rare. Mostly because not only are the benefits minor, usually you would want to have the equipment sold to someone else later, especially if you are a blacksmith who gets XP from it. But in my case, where in the world would I find a 12 year old catkin who needs a helmet for combat? Even if I gave it away for free to a stray catkin I find somewhere, they’ll most likely sell it for scrap metal...   After spending an entire day on it, I was finally able to make it.   Catkin’s Specialized Bronze Plated-Chainmail Coif of Minor Agility   An average helmet made out of bronze that has been specialized by its creator to fit a young catkin while focusing on protecting vital areas.   +2 AGI +1 STR +1 DEX +1 VIT +25 DEF Restrictions: Minimum Level: Level 10 – Benefit: +1 AGI | Penalty: 90% reduction in stats   Owner Restriction: Shiro Benefit: +1 AGI | Penalty: 90% reduction in stats [Made by Shiro] Durability: 100/100 Quality 5.0007/10.0000   The results are a bit disappointing as I was hoping for Greater Agility. But in reality it came out better than expected. I was literally customizing a helmet with my own design, which speaks a lot since this is my first helmet, not to mention wanting stats. I wouldn’t have been surprised if quality fell below average and I got completely random stats. So considering the results, it was pretty good.   I am literally being hard carried by my skills and stats, then backfilled by my vague knowledge.   Of course when I finished it, the expected blue quest box appeared as well.   [Creationist] quest unlocked! [Creationist] Armor creation Produce 10 armors with at least a quality score of 1.   Type: Continuous 1/10   Status: 1/10 Reward: 1 [PER]   With this I am done with pretty much everything except making combat gear out of Iron. The next quarterly competition is within only 15 days. To win that competition and become an Intermediate Disciple, I need to steal the skills of an Advanced Disciple. If I fail to win this competition, I will need to wait another 3 months for another attempt, or 6 months until the yearly test which is more guaranteed. But personally I prefer to move up by winning via the competition, not only is it faster, there is another awesome perk attached!   I walk up to the dwarf sitting at the counter.   “Uhm… Hello, I would like to sign up for my yearly lesson with an Advanced Disciple please” I request.   “Didn’t ya just have a lesson with a Intermediate Disciple just a few days ago missy?” questioned the dwarf in confusion.   “Yes, I am done with mastering Iron, and am ready to go further for the competition” I reply while also showing off Tommy, my [Iron Blacksmithing Hammer].   “Ya gotta be kiddin’ me right missy?” exclaimed the dwarf while carefully examining every inch of Tommy.   “Nope! I am ready to take things up a notch!” I assure in a confident matter-of-fact tone.   “...I don’t know what to say missy, it is really hard to believe...But...the evidence is right here ha?...I will make a request with ya’r assigned Advance Disciple and see if he is open. Be warned though, as it gets closer to the competition, things can get rather booked.” advised the dwarf.   “I understand, thanks a bunch mister!” I reply and leave the counter.   Now then...until I get my confirmation, I should move on to the next step. That being making money! With my helmet finally made, and my combat skills overall improved, I should now attempt to face some monsters.   And I probably will need a decent amount of money...the reason is pretty simple. While the competition may seem fair at first, it is far from it. Not only are we separated by skill level, we are also separated by attainment level. An Intermediate Disciple can get access to steel. While at best, I would have to compete with iron. It is said that your skills are what is taken into account, not the material. But even that is BS to an extent. Steel is more difficult than Iron, so the hurdle in itself is higher. So even if I make the best Iron item I can manage, I would still lose out to a quality steel based item.   There is of course some respite in all this, steel fundamentally is made out of [Iron Ore] and [Coal]. So technically speaking, all I need to do is buy coal and combine it with my iron. But if I really want to show a good performance, I may need to actually buy higher quality [Iron Ore] and [Coal Ore] to attempt to make a higher quality steel item.   This is why from tomorrow on, I need to start making money via herbs and killing monsters!   Of course it was already too late for today, so I head out to have my poor excuse for dinner and get some shut eye for the long tomorrow.

** POV Kuina **   Amongst the beastkin, there is a story about how from time to time a beastkin is born with an exotic color. Not only is this exotic color unnatural making it hard for the beastkin to hunt in the forest without detection, often times these beastkin are born with deficiency such as blindness, deafness and retardation. These beastkin are referred to as “retards” in our clans. Often times we even isolate them for the protection of the clan.   Personally, in the 15 years I have been alive, I have never met these so called “retards”. And while I do not doubt the stories told far back by our ancestors, as these stories have rarely if ever been wrong. But they are not without their exaggerations.   Of course with the living example showing up in front of me one day, I’d argue the ancestors were being modest.   Originally, beastkin are not native to this continent. We either came here through willful migration or captured and forced here by slave merchants. This continent overall is harsh on beastkin and discriminates against them. Even in the few countries on the continent that have lesser discrimination, it is virtually impossible for a beastkin to live their lives normally in these lands. The majority of the beastkin are slaves and are treated like disposable junk. This has gone on for over 1000 years.   Then one day comes this retarded Level 4 Catkin out of the blue, walks into an inn and asks for a job like she is a [Human] or something. Then after being thrown out, she still followed humans with no apprehension. I mean talk about retarded! Where has she been her entire life, stuck in some hole under a rock?!?!   And that isn’t even scratching the surface!   Every living thing that is born in this world is born with a preset knowledge. That preset knowledge is engraved in our very existence and allows us to know how to level up and gain classes. Even if someone were to lose their memories they would still know how to properly level up.   Of course not this retard! This retard didn’t even know something as simple as that! I mean seriously, what world is she from? It definitely isn’t this one...   I am used to being discriminated everywhere I go, but the stunt she pulled off in the guild was utterly embarrassing. She might as well have just screamed out “Hey! I am a retard!”.   Even worse, I got stuck babysitting this retard! Which has been easier said then done! My job is to make sure she does not do anything stupid, and all she does is stupid! When everyone runs away from monsters, she just runs at them head on! I am surprised how she even lived till 12 years old. It must have been some miracle or some dumb luck.   Well she isn’t lacking in dumb luck that is for sure. How she finds 15 herbs by the end of the day is beyond me. I mean even Ryo who has [Smell Sense] Level 4 would not find herbs as quickly as she did on the first day. I wonder what’s this retard’s [LUK] stat at? I would ask, but somehow I get the feeling she would ask “What is a [LUK] stat?”...ugh...my head hurts just thinking about her stupid face…   Most people who train for combat do so through 2 routes. First route to advance is to work towards their non-combat class and then level that up to a combat class. The other way is to train in skills, once you attain skills, you go in with groups to level up safely. Those with money even capture monsters to help them level up to a combat class quicker.   But this retard just rushes in blindly! I mean I have to admit, she sometimes is pretty fast on her feet...that last time almost made it seem like she used [Sprint]...but that is impossible...ugh! I must have been seeing things and her stupidity is infecting me…   I can’t say my life is a good one, but I know I have it better than others. While the master who uses us as bait is often times cruel, he is reasonable. He keeps things professional and rarely goes out of his way to torment us outside of bringing order or doing our jobs. I know many beastkin who are abused on a daily basis and I am thankful I ain’t one of them. The only thing I need to worry about is surviving as bait, and with my experience the risk of dying is rather minimum.   Most of the deaths are among the newcomers. And I have seen plenty of newcomers die after their first few assignments. To the point I stopped even caring about their names. We live in a world of survival of the fittest. If they are weak, they die. Simple as that. In that sense, I am shocked this retard is still alive...what dumb luck…   The only thing I have to look forward to in this life is breakfast and dinner. It isn’t much, but as slaves even that is a lot.   And what is this retard doing right now? She is giving away her privilege of larger portions for 5 days in exchange for information that everyone who is a slave should know. She might as well be chopping off her arm for learning what the weather is like today...But hey, I am not going to complain, more food for me! In this world, everyone is for themselves and anything that benefits me, I’ll take. Your loss is my gain. You can only blame yourself for being so retarded!     “I am no expert of [Slave Collars] and I do not know how they are made or the likes. What I can tell you is the basics that every slave should know. Again, you better not take back your word if you don’t like the content...or else...” I threaten again, then continue on “When a [Slave Collar] is put on you, information is usually pushed into your brain. This information includes the preset conditions that the slave merchants have set up, plus custom conditions. The most common conditions include not hurting the master, not to commit suicide unless told to and to follow all [Orders]. When you go against a condition, you will begin to experience pain. In some cases even thinking about going against the conditions can cause pain. Which is why it is nearly impossible to disobey an order accidentally, because any attempt to do so will bring upon pain...of course with a retard like you, I wouldn’t be surprised if you messed up somehow. If you are concerned, you can always check the list of standing conditions and [Orders] in your [Slave Collar]’s menu. Will save me the time of explaining all of them to you” I add.   “W-what do you mean menu? Do you mean the Status menu?” she stupidly inquires with wide open eyes.   Argh! That stupid face really ticks my nerves!   “No you retard! It is under your equipment menu! You know, open up ‘Equipment’ and view the details of your [Slave Collar] ” I yell getting more and more irritated at her blunt stupidity of things everyone should know.   “...Eh...Eh?!?! EHHHHHHHHHHHHH!?!??!?!?!?” she stops and suddenly yells.   I don’t think you need to over exaggerate about finding out there is an equipment menu...but then what do you expect from a retard…   Suddenly she begins to wobble and her knees give out and she falls on the floor. She then grabs her hair and starts messing it up while screaming..   “ARGGGGGGGGGG!! GYAAAAHHH!! GUUUUUUU!!!” she screams.   She really has some mental issues…   “I AM A TOTAL IDIOT!!!” she screams, then starts rolling on the ground like a maniac repeating “The shame! The shame!” over and over…   She then bumps into a tree while rolling, gets up on her knees and starts whacking her head against the tree repeating “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” over and over.   At this point, it is getting rather strange even for this retard. Even I begin to worry. Of course my worry lies in the fact that if she kills herself this way, I’ll get in trouble. So I go over to her, grab her shoulder and say:   “Stop retard! Are you trying to kill yourself or something?” I reprimand.   “Kuina! I am a total idiot! A total idiot!” she conveys while grabbing both my shoulders.   “I know” I respond being told the obvious.   “No! You don’t understand! I am a total idiot! Ugh!” she screams.   “I assure you, if there is one person you don’t need to convince, that is me...” I reply while tapping her shoulder in assurance.   This retard really likes repeating the obvious ha…Anyways, I better put a stop to this…because it is getting really annoying, on top of that...   “Look retard, I frankly could care less what you do all day. But if you don’t bring the 15 required herbs, then I won’t get my larger portion! We are already behind due to the whole monster incident so hurry the hell up and get yourself together!” I reprimand knowing my priorities.   “...eh?...You are right!” she exclaims and gets up on her feet.   I sigh in relief that my food increase is safe and sound for the time being. Judging by how shocked she was by the equipment menu, I wonder once the 5 days are up if I should trick her into handing more food for the knowledge of the title menu. Hehe. Not that it would be useful to her anyways, at best she’d have the [Retard] title.   Either way, knowing that I’ll have more food when we get back makes dealing with this retard just a tiny bit more bearable...     ...   [Slave Collar] Details Status: Inactive   Locking mechanism: 100.00% [Complete]Establishing link to organism: 100.00% [Complete] Force opening link to mind: 100.00% [Complete] Establishing link to master rune: 100.00% [Complete] Taking over organism via mind to system link: 0.00% [ERROR]   - Insufficient mana. Please insert more mana to resume the process -    

When I arrived at the market, strangely enough there were not too many people there… The few people who were there were mostly drinking alcohol and partying… strange… I also did not see any buyers either… Is the exhibit market closed today?   Though by the looks of things they don’t seem to be closed, I still see the entrance to the public still open and everything… Maybe some sort of dwarven holiday or something?   I walked up to the guards by the door and confirmed if the exhibit market was open today or not, and was told that the exhibit market was in fact open and I am free to sell my wares… okay…   I don’t know what to make of it but I’ll take advantage of any opportunity that presents itself… with no one else selling, I just might finally have my lucky break and get my first customer!   I set up my weapons on display, took up my disguise and waited…   30 minutes passed... no one came…   1 hour passed… no one came…   1 hour and a half passed… still no one...   Grrr… someone… anyone… please come through that door!   As though listening to my plea, finally a middle aged man walked through the door. FINALLY! YES!   Even though he is human, the crime of being born human I’ll forgive if he buys something!   Okay… lets not mess this up… be professional… looking at him through [Identify] his level is about a Rank B adventurer… so any sales to him would have an awesome return in both XP and money!   He walks in and takes a look around, I use this opportunity to grab his attention.   “SELLING QUALITY STEEL AND IRON STUFF AT 25% DISCOUNT OF AVERAGE PRICE!” I yelled.   Personally, I want to sell at no discount due to the monopoly. But I really want to avoid a situation where he just leaves and comes back another day…   With my announcement, he finally takes a notice of me and heads right for me...YES!   Despite my fright, I steel myself and pronounce slowly not to stutter…   “Please have a look at my wares” I urged.   The man takes a look and reaches his hand down grabbing a [Steel Sword], then swings it a few times to test. YES!   “Hmm...” muttered the man.   “I’ll take all your [Steel Swords], [Steel Daggers], [Iron Swords] and [Iron Daggers]” the man suddenly announced.   REALLY?!?! Not only is he my first customer he is now one of my favorite customers! Yup, crime of being human forgiven just this once!   “Would you also like the [Iron Axe] or [Iron Spear]?” I slowly questioned not to stutter.   “No need, only the swords and daggers...” the man replied.   I see… well even without that, it is still an awesome sale! I should treat myself to something super delicious to celebrate!   “...but if it possible... could you make 100 [Steel Swords] or [Iron Swords] within 7 days?” the man adds.   Ha? 100? 100 of what? He didn’t say 100 swords did he? Have I misheard? ...Has my desperation finally driven me delusional?   “...can you repeat that?” I muttered.   “I said, can you make 100 [Steel Swords] or [Iron Swords]?” the man repeated.   Congratulations Shiro! You’ve officially gone insane! Now you are making imaginary friends that are buying your stuff… Isn’t that swell…   I activate [All-Observing-Eyes] just in case… he is real…   There is no way my delusions can come up with that much detail… so does this mean….   I ACTUALLY GOT AN ORDER FOR 100 SWORDS?!?!?   OMG! God… all those bad things I said about you the other night… I take them back… I didn’t mean it…   My first bulk customer! I am Queen of the world! Muwhahahaha!   No! lets not get ahead of myself and mess this opportunity up like I always do…   First lets think this through… 100 swords in 7 days… That means I need to make about 14 swords per day… that should be doable with my skills as long as I only focus on making them average…   The problem is getting the materials in place… I only get 100 ingots or ores per month for use… But to make 100 swords I need 200. I can get 10 more ingots next week from my quota… but I’ll still be short 90. Which means I would need to purchase them… Which effectively means I would be making 45 swords for free…   But then again, that is still better than nothing…   “I-I can do 100 swords, but I can’t offer a discount since it won’t be my materials. I would also require a 15% downpayment...” I replied slowly not to stutter.   I hope my requirement for market price and downpayment doesn’t scare him off… Of course downpayment is standard practice, but I can’t help but be anxious that he will change his mind at any minute for some reason...   “No problem, lets sign the contract” the man replied.   AWESOME! SUPER AWESOME!   Things are finally looking up again! I wonder if he is some sort of mercenary leader and trying to stock up on weapons… though why only swords? Oh well… who cares… as long as I get paid I am happy!   We signed a contract for the order and he payed me 9 gold coins for the 3 [Steel Daggers], 9 gold coins for the 2 [Steel Swords], 1 gold and 80 silver coins for both [Iron Swords] and 3 gold for the five [Iron Daggers]. Netting me a total of 22 gold and 80 silver coins! I was literally almost shaking holding that much money! And the worst part is knowing I’d have to part with 70% of it, leaving me only with 6 gold and 84 silver coins. Really… No fair!   But that was just the appetizer! Based on market price of 6 gold per [Steel Sword], I was given 90 gold coins for downpayment! My eyes almost jumped out of their sockets!   After that, the middle aged man said his goodbyes and walked away. With him finally gone, I break into a dance and start humming in pure bliss!   When I finish this order, I am going to go get myself some new clothes, and treat myself to the tastiest food I can find and then get a good bath as well! I can’t wait! But first of all I need to finish this order… lets not count my chickens before they hatch…   Sucks to be all of you celebrating and partying… you all missed out on this super large awesome order! I bet ya are all jealous and regretting you didn’t set up shop!   Being a bit naughty, I activate [Hearing Sense] to gauge at their awing reactions…   “poor thing...”   “I feel sorry for her...”   “I know the missy was desperate for an order but that was just too much...”   …   Ha? rather then awe or regret… all the people are murmuring in… pity?   Why are they pitying me? Hmm… could it be…   I see… that is probably why… thinking about it logically… making 100 [Steel Swords] in 1 week is pretty unrealistic… especially for an Intermediate Disciple… and in our guild, breaking a contract has severe punishment. But little do they know that in terms of [Blacksmithing] level, I equal the Grandmaster! Add to it the class skills I got from the Advanced Disciple Gregon and Argon the Steelsmith, plus my super high [PER], something like 100 [Steel Swords] is a piece of cake!   I can only imagine the reactions they’ll have when I finish it! I unconsciously let out an evil grin as I make my way towards the cafeteria.   ...   The next day, I withdrew 100 [Iron Ore] and 100 [Coal Ore] as part of my monthly privileges. I also bought another 90 [Iron Ore] and 97 [Coal Ore] at the counter which cost me a total of 85 gold and 20 silver coins. It was painful parting with that much money… but the joy of smelting helped melt that feeling away somewhat. After making the 190 [Steel Ingots], I began making the swords. Initially, most of my swords were pretty much average due to my fast pace. But surely enough, as I became more familiar even with the improved pace, I started seeing some swords get quality scores of 6 or gain bonuses more often. Once the customer tries these, he will never want to go back to inferior dwarf goods! Hehe..,   Like that, a week passed by and on the last day, I finished my commission of 50 [Iron Ingots] rather quickly and proceeded to make the last 10 [Steel Swords].   From making 450 ingots, I completed 9 [Creationist: Ingot Creation] quests and got +17 PER and from making the 100 swords, I completed 10 [Creationist: Weapon Creation] quests and got +14 PER.   The reason why so much more than usual? That is because I finally managed to complete the 10 quests for both ingots and weapons opening up quests with higher rewards:   [Creationist] Ingot Creation II Produce 50 tier 1 ingots with at least a quality score of 8 and/or 50 tier 2 ingots with at least a quality score of 7 and/or 50 tier 3 ingots with at least a quality score of 6 and/or 50 tier 4 ingots with at least a quality score of 1.   Type: Continuous 5/10   Status: 17/50 Reward: 3 [PER] [Creationist] Weapon Creation II Produce 10 tier 1 weapons with at least a quality score of 7 and/or 10 tier 2 weapons with at least a quality score of 6 and/or 10 tier 3 weapons with at least a quality score of 4 and/or 10 tier 4 weapons with at least a quality score of 1.   Type: Continuous 3/10   Status: 1/10 Reward: 3 [PER]   Pretty awesome I would say!   Of course that was not all that I have gained, you don’t just make 100 [Steel Swords] without any benefit...   Level up! Creationist: +2 to all unlocked attributes +5 MP +5 Mental +2 PER   Once 18 o’clock came, I went to the armory where the swords were temporary stored, and waited for the middle aged man while in my disguise.  

I woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling… uwah! I can’t believe I actually used that line…   I took a look around and could not recognize the place at all. Regardless, one thing I could tell was the furnishings were definitely of higher quality than I have ever seen in this world.   Not long after, a human lady walked in the room.   “You are awake?” she asked.   Suddenly dread fills up to the bottom of my soul, and my face goes pale as I quickly check the equipment menu. Relief only fell after I confirmed that the [Slavery Collar] was still inactive. Once I calmed down, I took a glance at the lady.   “Yes...Where am I?” I asked.   “Ah, sorry for not giving you a proper introduction. I am Nun Kimberly and you are in the Church. You were brought here by Zack after sustaining heavy injury” Nun Kimberly responded.   “I see… How long was I out?” I inquired.   “You were out for almost an entire day, it is about 2 o’clock now” Nun Kimberly answered.   A whole day?!?! I need to hurry back or I won’t reach my weekly quota! As I was about to get up and run back to the Blacksmithing Guild, I suddenly remember something.   “Uhm… is there anything I have to pay for treatment?” I hesitantly inquire.   “You don’t need to worry about that, Zach and the priest here go a long way back. So you are free to go whenever. Of course, in the future if luck is on your side, then feel free to donate to the Church” Nun Kimberly informed.   I awkwardly nod as I make my way out of the Church. To be honest, I don’t even know which god this church worships, but It would be really awkward and embarrassing to ask.   After being seen off, I quickly ran back to the Blacksmithing Guild. On the way back to the guild, I review where I stand.   Lets see, I completed 19 [Copper Ingots], this means I have 1 more [Copper Ingot] remaining. Then I have to move on to finishing 10 [Bronze Ingots]. Only then will I get my share of 3 [Copper Ingots] to use for my own devices. This is where my new [POW] stat and increased [PER] will really shine!   I pull up my status window and review my stats.   “Ha?”   What in the world is [Pure Mana Affinity]? And again that weird messed up look... I also got [Light Magic] as well! Does that mean that Magical Girl Shiro is finally born?!?!   Ƥưȑȇ Ṁḁṋẫ Ấẜḟḭṅḯṯỷ – 99.9%   You are one with all that is mana. You live and breathe mana, it is your arms and it is your legs.   Odd...my [Smell Sense] is not picking up anything related to mana… Have I been scammed?   That said, my only spell is [Holy Light] and according to the note even that is limited! Talk about useless… I mean sure, healing yourself is pretty useful and all. But at this stage almost anything can kill me with 1 shot! So something like [Holy Light] would at best be a support spell as I am running away half dead! I mean I am not greedy or anything, but couldn’t they give me a bit more of a simple and reasonable spell...like you know [Meteor] or [Armageddon]… That isn’t asking for much right?   * sigh *   I guess beggars can’t be choosers ha? I’ll worry about those implications later, for now I have other things to focus on which take precedence.   I make my way into the guild, and withdraw my last [Copper Ore]. Now is the time of truth!   The hammer in my hand now feels a lot lighter than before as I observe the [Copper Ore] with my improved [PER] and begin the process of [Smelting]. But that is not all, I activate [All-Observing-Eyes]! Which is not limited to finding flaws in just living creatures, but flaws in all things that I have observed. This includes the [Copper Ore] and [Copper Ingot]. Unfortunately, a huge headache ensues as large amount of information floods my head.   Unlike simply looking for points of weakness in a monster, now I am looking at the entire integrity of the object as a whole. The amount of information is simply too enormous for me to process as-is! Regardless, it still serves as a helping hand in my [Smelting] as I gain new insight.   Due to the limitations of [All-Observing-Eyes], I kept usage down to 10 seconds every 10 minutes or so. After about an hour, my last [Copper Ingot] is complete!   Copper Ingot An average quality copper ingot. Used in the production of metallic goods   Quality 5.023/10.000   Yey! I finally managed to make a [Copper Ingot] without much loss in quality!   So now that I am done with Copper, next would be Bronze. Though I really don’t that have much time as tomorrow is the last day of the week.   But before that, I need to first observe how others handle [Smelting] of bronze. And like that, I spend a few hours paying keen attention to how others are [Smelting] bronze, only after about 2 hours of watching, with sometime use of [All-Observing-Eyes] do I finally feel comfortable giving it a shot.   I pick up another [Copper Ore] and a small chunk of [Tin Ore] and begin smelting them together. The process is far more difficult and takes me 2 hours to complete. The final result is less than thrilling.   Bronze Ingot A poor quality bronze ingot. Used in the production of metallic goods   Quality 1.442/10.000   But you know what? I am not discouraged one bit. I knew this would happen on my first attempt as I get the hang of it, frankly speaking, I did better than my first attempt at a [Copper Ingot] despite the higher difficulty.   While I would like to continue and attempt at least one more [Bronze Ingot], that is out of the question. At issue is that I am completely famished!   I missed yesterday’s dinner plus today’s breakfast. Not to mention I had to deal with all that training! And on top of that, smelting these 2 ingots. A bit more and my stats will drop from hunger!   So instead I head for the Cafeteria and wait for dinner. After enjoying the rather poor dinner, which somehow due to hunger tasted better than it normally does, I drag my tired self to sleep.   ...   The next day, my final challenge for the week has started. The goal is to finish the 9 remaining [Bronze Ingots] and claim my just reward!   My first attempt of the day with the help of my [All-Observing-Eyes] netted me a quality score of 2.537. Which continued to increase at a steady pace. I would first use my Unique Skill for making 1 ingot, then make 2 more without it. This way I can solidify my knowledge without relying on my limited use Unique Skill. I barely managed to finish the 9 ingots prior to dinner, with my best record being 4.892.   Finally finished with my work and totally exhausted, I have dinner and retire for the day. With this my first week as a Junior Disciple at the Blacksmithing Guild ends, with all quotas barely met. I did remember to pick up my complementary 2 [Copper Ingots] and 1 [Bronze Ingot] out of the batch I made and stored them into my [Item Box].   With the start of the new week, I started out as usual. In the morning, I made 2 [Copper Ingots], which by the way I was super pleased that I was able to make them around the quality score of 5 even without [All-Observing-Eyes].   After the less than spectacular breakfast, I head out of the guild. My destination? Obviously the Alchemist Guild! Today is the Alchemists Guild monthly selections, and while I can’t exactly be a member of both, I can still get some production skills which I may not have access to normally. The Builders Guild already demonstrated for me that access for outsiders is limited. So this is my only chance in the short term to get some significant skill improvements.   When I arrive at the Alchemists Guild which is located a pretty decent distance away towards the south western area, I see the place jam packed! There is easily over 100 people here, maybe even 200!   The variety of people is also much larger, while the Blacksmithing Guild was loaded with mostly dwarves. The Alchemists Guild has a lot of elves and yes unfortunately humans. But there were also a few beastkin there as well.   After a while, an elf in a long robe came out and addressed the crowd.   “Welcome everyone! To the monthly selections for the Alchemists Guild! As you may know, the Alchemists Guild is divided into multiple tests that check your standing, and depending on it, you will be assigned within the guild. The first test will test your [Herb Processing] skill. As there seems to be over 200 of you here, we will divide you up into groups and test your groups one by one” announced the elf.   We were separated into groups of around 50, and I was put in the 3rd group. It took not more than 40 minutes for them to get to our group and we were show inside.   “Everyone, please sit down at a table. There are herbs in front of you that you must process. You are required to process 3 different herbs within 15 minutes. Please begin as soon as you are seated” announced the elf.   I and the other 50 or so people took our seats and began the processing of herbs. My first order of business was as usual, to enjoy stealing all the delicious skills that I can! Of course this time, unlike with [Blacksmithing], I paid far more attention to the details and from time to time activated my [All-Observing-Eyes].   It didn’t take long for the skills to start rolling in!   Your skill [NP][Herb Processing] has become Level 2 Your skill [NP][Herb Processing] has become Level 3 Your skill [NP][Herb Processing] has become Level 4 Your skill [NP][Herb Processing] has become Level 5   Unfortunately I spent so much time staring that I was left with only 7 minutes to process the 3 herbs! But can you blame me?   I diligently began processing the herbs to the best of my ability. Which was rather high considering my skill level and my improved [PER]. I don’t know about other production classes, but if they have similar quests as mine, it definitely wouldn’t be easy to get.   After I finished processing my first herb, as expected a blue box appeared.   [Creationist] quest unlocked! [Creationist] Herbs processed Process at least 20 herbs with at least a quality score of 1.   Type: Continuous 1/10   Status: 1/20 Reward: 1 [PER]   Of course I had no time to slack as I had 2 more herbs to process, and I was running low on time! Only at the last second, I barely managed to process the 3rd herb, and even then I feel like quality suffered quite a bit due to my haste.   Barely able to finish in time, I sigh in relief as the examiners walk around evaluating the herb processing. Unlike the talkative dwarves, all they did was say “pass” or “fail” and move on.   Interestingly enough, a whopping 37 people have passed. Me of course being one of them. Which seems like the overall standards here are quite low?   “May I have your attention everyone? For those who have passed, you have two options. The first option is to go join the guild as someone designated to collect and process herbs. The second option is to move on to the second exam. Those who wish to participate in the second exam, please come to me” announced the elf.   Out of the 37 people, only a measly 7 people went to the elf. I then walked up as well being the 8th, which seemed to have confused the elf a little.   “You are aware that the second exam requires the knowledge of alchemy correct?” the elf questioned.   “I know...” I replied.   “I see...then all of you come this way” said the elf.   It did not take long till we arrived at a room full of equipment. While it looked similar to a chemistry room, all the equipment seemed pretty foreign to me. Frankly speaking, I had 0 confidence in passing the test or probably even doing alchemy. But I am not exactly here for that am I? I expect to fail really. Though I am not just going to give up either, I will at least make an attempt, as making my own potions would help quite a bit.   “This is the lab we will be using for this test. Your assignment is to create two potions, a [Lesser Health Potion] and a [Lesser Mana Potion]. All the materials are provided here. There are also reference books and other things that are accessible. We are not testing your knowledge of alchemy here, that will be for those planning on taking the third test. During the second test we are looking for those capable of mass producing potions. You have 3 hours to complete this assignment” declared the elf.   Like that, everyone went their own direction and started preparing the processed herbs. In my case, I went towards the reference books and started skimming them a bit. Not surprisingly, it was all Greek to me…   So while pretending to read the book, I took glances at the other 7 participants and studied what they did. At first, it made very little sense until a helping hand was thrown from my good old friend blue box.   You have acquired a new skill [NP][Alchemy] Level 1   Congratulations! You have completed the class quest [Creationist: Improve your production skills] +25 PER has been attained   Class quest [Creationist: Improve your production skills], has been reset.   Suddenly... thing started to make a whole lot more sense!   I continued to watch as they mixed herbs, brewed them and etc. With it my skill levels continued to rise.   You have acquired a new skill [NP][Alchemy] Level 2 You have acquired a new skill [NP][Alchemy] Level 3 You have acquired a new skill [NP][Alchemy] Level 4   To be honest, I never actually expected to hit level 4 in [Alchemy]. But one of the participants seemed to be very talented, he was pretty much done with the [Lesser Health Potion] in half an hour! I watched the others as they completed their [Lesser Health Potions] at varying times, but all of them were done within an hour and a half.   Once that happened, I turned back to the reference book and continued reading. I did hear some gossips going around like “Why is this beastkin even here?” and the like, but I ignored it. I spent half an hour on reading the reference book learning as much as I could about [Alchemy].   After that, I finally attempted making the [Lesser Health Potion]. To be frank, I saw health potions as top priority. I lack spells and enough mana to make mana potions any use for me in the short term. That is not to say that I didn’t memorize the details the best I could, but as far as attempting goes, my priority was the health potion.   So I started the process of making the [Lesser Health Potion] and it was fairly challenging. It looks simple when looking from the side, but the process is like a timed video game. You have to mix materials at a certain interval, have heat at certain amount at certain time, then divide them up quickly enough before they overreact. The process was really really difficult! Even with my rather high [Alchemy] skill and my really high [PER], if not for [All-Observing-Eyes] slowing down time at critical junctures. I would have been totally screwed! I am just glad this isn’t one of those recipes that can explode in your face...   After an hour though I finally managed to make my first potion.   Lesser Health Potion A horrible quality lesser health potion. Used to restore health.   +5 HP +5 HP/min for 5 min   [Made by Shiro]   Quality 0.931/10.000   Talk about pathetic! Considering according to the reference book an average [Lesser Health Potion] should give +30 HP +30 HP/min for 5 min.   Obviously I did not have enough time to make a mana potion due to the test coming to an end.   The elf examiner went one by one, evaluating the potions. Unlike last time, he gave some basic comments here and there. Overall, out of the 7, 5 passed and 2 failed.   Then he came to me, picking up my potion he frowned for a second. Looking around, the other’s reactions were either of sneering or of pity.   “Hmm...to be honest I am somewhat surprised. While you failed to make the [Lesser Mana Potion], and your [Lesser Health Potion] is of unacceptable quality. The fact that you managed to even make a potion goes beyond my original expectations...   From the looks of things, this was probably the first potion you have ever made isn’t it? The very fact that you got this far is extremely astonishing! There is no need to be discouraged, personally I think you may have a great talent for [Alchemy], especially considering your young age.   Unfortunately, it does not change the fact that you failed this examination, and the rules of this guild is strict. I would highly suggest trying again in the upcoming selections. In the meantime, I suggest taking up a role in [Herb Processing] and becoming more familiar with the herbs.   Here, you can take the potion you made as a gift. It is too low level for us to use for anything, but it might prove useful to you in the future” evaluated the elf examiner.   “I understand” I replied, taking the potion and making my way out of the guild.   Contrary to what the elf examiner may have thought, I was rather pleased with my result then and there. Not that the extra complements and gift hurt by any means.   Resisting the urge to go peekaboo to the tailoring shop a few times to see if I can get another skill level in [Thread Weaving], thus fulfilling my last requirement for the quest. I for the time being head back to the Blacksmithing Guild. It is vexing to be so close to a quest completion and letting it go just like that, but there are other priorities I need to take into account.   When I reach the smithing area for the Junior Disciples, I take a look around and do my best to learn everything I can about [Blacksmithing] in same way I learned about [Smelting], [Herb Processing] and [Alchemy]. At this point I already have quite some experience learning from others.   After about 3 hours of learning what I could, I take out both of the [Copper Ingots] and start smithing. It took me about 4 hours to finish smithing the item I was looking for.   What was it that couldn’t wait another day?   Copper Blacksmithing Hammer   A semi-poor blacksmithing hammer made out of copper   +1 STR -3 AGI +1 ATK+1% improvement for Blacksmithing   [Made by Shiro] Durability: 128/128 Quality 2.567/10.000   It came out better than I thought, because the free hammers they provide us are below the quality score of 1. Thus giving no improvements whatsoever.   But that is not the most important thing! The most important thing is that to gain levels, I need my equipment to be used by someone. And at this point, I am wasting XP on every ingot I forged!   Now that I have my own hammer, despite it being inferior to average, it is still better than what I am using now. And every use should net me some XP, towards my [Creationist] class.   That said, I kind of overused my [All-Observing-Eyes] today and all the mental stress has been stacking up. So I decided to retire a bit early for today.   Only the next day did I start putting my new [Copper Blacksmithing Hammer] to good use! And as expected, the flow of XP increased tremendously. While there is no such thing as an XP bar unfortunately, I can somehow feel the flow of XP as I gain it. The feeling is akin to warmth and joy filling your heart. And the feeling I am getting from using my own hammer vs one provided for me feels to the tune of getting triple the XP!   It almost makes me regret making those 32 ingots using someone else’s hammer, regardless how silly and unreasonable that sounded. I was in such a good mood, I managed to make 18 [Copper Ingots] all in one day!   This feeling of gaining XP is so addictive, that I wonder if there is such a thing as “Gaining XP Anonymous”...Cause really its just too addictive! I was filled with so much happiness and joy, I almost accidentally fried my tail in the forge from it swinging back and forth in excitement! Talk about dangerous!   Unfortunately, with the coming of dinner, all that happy time came to an end. Despite my inner self screaming “Just one more ingot, you know you want to!”. Of course it was not up to me, as the forge closes down after dinner, so there is nothing I could do even if I wanted to…   Either way, I managed to complete the 20 [Copper Ingot] quota and all of them were around the quality score of 5. Not to mention, since I managed to make 50 ingots, I managed to complete a quest as well, with a new one appearing.     Congratulations! You have completed the class quest [Creationist: Ingot creation] +1 PER has been attained   Class quest [Creationist: Ingot creation], has been reset. [Creationist] Ingot creation Produce 50 tier 1 ingots with at least a quality score of 2 and/or 50 tier 2+ ingots with at least a quality score of 1.   Type: Continuous 2/10   Status: 0/50 Reward: 1 [PER] Left with no other choice, I went to eat dinner and retired for the day.

When I woke up the next day, I wallowed in bed a bit till it was breakfast since I had nothing to do really. And after breakfast, I headed out.   My first order of business is the leather goods shop. When I visited at first, I got discouraged due to all kinds of circumstances, but this time around I have a bit of an idea now that I thought about it better. Of course there will be a price to pay, but it should be worth it in the end.   It does not take me long to reach the leather goods shop due to its close proximity and I enter through the door.   “Hello there missy, we meet again. How may I help ya?” asked the dwarf at the counter.   “Hi, I am interested in a pair of leather boots that preferably increase [AGI] and fit my size” I request.   “Hmm… We do not have anythin’ that fits ya’r size in stock, but dependin’ on the material, I can modify it to fit ya. The cheapest leather boots we offer that give stats like [AGI] costs 3 silver coins. There would be a 2 silver coins cost to modify them to ya’r size though” informed the dwarf.   WHA?!?! Talk about highway robbery! That is like half my savings! Lets see if I can bargain it down at least a bit…   “Would it be possible to make it a tad cheaper?” I plead.   “* sigh * The prices are already pretty low missy. At best, I can lower the price by 50 iron coins, and that would come out of my share at fixin’ up ya’r boots” replied the dwarf.   I guess I have no choice… it still feels kind of frustrating working so hard to make that money only for it to be taken like that…   “...I’ll take it then...” I relent.   I hand over the 4 silver and 50 iron coins with hesitation.   “Follow me to the back so we can do sizin’ ” said the dwarf after taking the money.   He picks up a pair of leather boots and leads me to the back. He then measures my feet and begins modifying the boots.   You have acquired a new skill [NP][Leatherworking] Level 1   Finally! Now lets see if I can find out what the limits are…   “You seem to be really skilled mister… Just out of curiosity, what is your [Leatherworking] level if you don’t mind me asking?” I inquire.   “Thanks for the complement missy, but I am not really that good. My [Leatherworking] is only at level 2… I used to be a disciple at the Hunter’s Guild making leather, but due to lack of talent, I never managed to make it past Junior Disciple. Since I was not able to succeed in my trade, by contract I was instead assigned to work as a store clerk here in this branch office. Initially it was goin’ to be only for a year, but I ended up stayin’ here and making a livin’. I am already past the age of chasin’ other dreams after all” explained the dwarf.   “I see...” I respond awkwardly, not knowing what else to say.   Your skill [NP][Leatherworking] has become Level 2   Soon after he was done with my boots and fitted them on my feet.   “That should do it missy” said the dwarf.   “Thanks a bunch mister!” I exclaim as I try walking around in the boots to check for comfort.   Dire Fox Leather Boot of Agility An average boot made out of dire fox leather modified to fit for children   +1 AGI +2 DEF Durability: 25/25Quality 5.2311/10.0000   To be honest, hardly impressive...but in comparison to walking with my ragged shoes, it was the difference between heaven and earth!   Later on, I will plate them with bronze and give it some real stats!   Overall, I am pretty satisfied… well other than paying half my savings that is!   I say goodbye to the dwarf in the leather goods store and head out.   Next order of business… darn these boots are comfy… err… anyways, next I am going to try heading to the second hand clothing store.   While unlikely, maybe there is someone who knows tailoring and can do modifications as well…   I walk into the second hand clothing store and notice it is run by a human… grrr…   “How may I help you?” asked the lady at the store.   “I-I’m interested if t-there is any shirts m-my size that g-give [STR] stat” I inquired.   “Hmm… we have things that fit your size… but nothing that gives stats… If it is a really low level item though we may be able to do something...” the lady informed.   “L-like what?” I probed.   “Well… give me a second… Tanya! Come down here!” yelled the lady.   Soon after, I hear noises running from the top floor, and a catkin girl who is about 1 year older than me with brownish orange hair runs in.   “What is it?!?!” the catgirl asked, then looked at me “...A retard?” she adds.   “?!”   * smack *   The shop owner lady smacked the catkin girl right in the head quicker than I could even react.   “You’re in front of a customer! I’ll have you behave!” screamed the lady.   “But she.. Ugh! Fine what should I do?” relents the catkin after being glared at by the shop owner.   “The customer here wants an item that gives [STR] stat that fits her size, can you do it?” the lady questioned.   “...uhm… if it is something like this, I may be able to pull it off but it will probably lose some quality and durability in the process, since my [Tailoring] skill is only at level 1” the catkin responded while picking up a used black shirt.   “How much would that be?” I inquired.   “That shirt would cost about 75 iron coins, as for the cost to resize it… Tanya?” the lady asked.   “For something like that, I guess about 25 iron coins would do?” Tanya answered.   Hmm… to be honest I don’t really need a shirt too much as far as necessities go… but it would be nice to have some spare clothes while at same time getting that [Tailoring] skill…   “Alright, I’ll take it” I replied as I take out 1 silver coin and hand it to the lady.   “Yey~! A customer! Come with me~!” exclaimed the catkin in excitement.   We went upstairs into the upper room which was loaded with supplies, and she began taking my measurements. Then with that done, she started making adjustments to the shirt I just bought.   When she notices I am paying careful attention she turns toward me.   “If you are trying to learn some tailoring while watching, I would give up~ ...It took me years just to get where I am today~” she warns in a merry mood.   You have acquired a new skill [NP][Tailoring] Level 1   Congratulations! You have completed the class quest [Creationist: Improve your production skills] +25 PER has been attained   Class quest [Creationist: Improve your production skills], has been reset.   It does not seem like there is a huge boost for passing 200 PER… Oh well, my skills still improved quite a bit due to the bonuses of class based skills.   “You don’t say… Though I was wondering, why did you even pick up tailoring in the first place? I don’t often see beastkin doing production based jobs after all” I inquired.   “Oh~, that simple~! I just love playing with yarn~!” she proudly declared with a wide smile.   “...”   Being left speechless, I didn’t say anything after that and waited patiently till it was done…   The final result was less than spectacular but within expectations…   Black Linen Shirt of Strength A slightly below average shirt made out of linen, dyed blacked and modified to fit for children   +1 STR Durability: 9/12Quality 4.4278/10.0000   The reason I went for [STR] this time around instead of [AGI] is that I don’t expect to use this in combat much, as I plan to eventually make actual body armor for combat. But making body armor requires quite a bunch of ingots, so it may have to wait. The +1 STR may not be much, negligible even, but every bit helps smithing steel which is far harder than iron.   After thanking Tanya who went to play with the yarn after finishing and thanking the shop owner. I left the the second hand clothing shop. I would have liked to get a full change of clothes really, but I can’t waste money just yet. I just have to hold on for a little bit longer... Regardless, having a change of a shirt in itself is already a plus. Not too thrilled about it being second hand, but beggars can’t be choosers.   Now then… I have two more methods to get more production skills as far as I am aware. There is the tailor shop which is a bit tricky, and the other one is to see if the Builders Guild has anything to offer that I may have missed during the selections. Maybe something like [Sculpting] or etc… I am a bit worried about trying my luck at the tailor shop so lets see if I can get anything at the Builders Guild.   I walk to the Builders Guild and walk up to the elf receptionist.   “Hello, I was interested in the Builders Guild and was wondering. What skills does the Builders Guild encompass?” I inquired.   “The Builders Guild main focus is [Carpentry] and [Stonemasonry], though we do have people who do [Blacksmithing], [Mechanical Engineering] and [Sculpting] to some extent. Of course, if you are interested just in joining, we have positions that do not require any skills. Though it might be somewhat difficult for someone of your build” the elf receptionist informed.   Hmmm… I guess no new production skills, but I should learn a bit more about [Sculpting] and [Mechanical Engineering]   “So what level [Sculpting] and [Mechanical Engineering] are there in the Builders Guild” I question.   “Well… We are not exactly specialized in those skills in particular. Probably at best level 1 or 2. Anyone with higher [Sculpting] would probably open up their own art shop like the one in the west district. As far as [Mechanical Engineering] goes, it’s kind of a niche profession around these parts, as most mechanical engineers are located within a few key locations, this town though isn’t one of them. The mechanical engineers we get tend to be ones lacking in talent and looking for other things to do” responded the receptionist.   I see… an art shop in the west district ha…   “Can I get directions to the art shop?” I asked.   “If you plan on going, I would advise against it. The shops in the western district are pretty strict and don’t allow anyone poorly dressed to enter their shops” warned the receptionist.   “I see… thanks for the tip, I’ll keep that in mind” I said and made my way out of the guild.   Next, I go again to the west wall to double check to see if I missed anyone with a higher level skill. But unfortunately even after an hour of waiting, no such luck.   Which leaves me with last plan for the day, that personally I wanted to avoid but have no choice. I walk towards the tailor shop.   Though this time around, I do not actually go into the shop but linger a distance away waiting.   Only after about 2 hours of patience did what I was waiting for happen. A man wearing fancy clothing walked into the tailor shop.   I quickly sneaked up behind him and once in the shop, I quickly activated [Blend Stealth]!   “Good day madam, I am looking to buy a birthday dress for my daughter” said the man.   “Why if it isn’t mister Raymon, I would be glad to help you with your selection. I’ll bring out some dresses for you to see in a moment” said the woman at the counter as she walked to the back. Talk about unfair treatment…   Of course I was spending this time looking at the other woman at the corner who was spinning the thread.   Your skill [NP][Thread Weaving] has become Level 3   In a few minutes, she then came out with multiple beautiful dresses in hand. Grr… I am not jealous at all...   “Here we have a fine selection of dresses which are of the finest quality. They should match your daughter in both fit and color I assure. Personally I suggest this one, which is a new style from the capital” said the woman at the counter while showing off the dresses.   okay, maybe a little...   Your skill [NP][Thread Weaving] has become Level 4   They continued to chat about the dresses here and there and time continued to pass. It seemed that level 4 was the limit here. My guess is the one spinning the thread is probably an apprentice or something? And I can’t exactly get the shop owner to spin some thread or do some tailoring as I am now.   There is only one problem… how do I leave… I really want to just quickly open the door and [Charge] out, but I don’t want people to assume I shoplifted or something…   After waiting another few minutes, the man decided on a dress and the shop owner went inside to put the others away. Using the opportunity, I quickly opened the door and walked out. The man was caught somewhat off guard, but it should be fine. I was a bit worried back there…   Either way, my goal has been accomplished, so I head back to the Blacksmithing Guild to retire for the day… Did I mention how comfy these boots are?  

When I woke up the next day, I still felt some of the residue feeling from yesterday. To throw that feeling away, after eating a serving of INT and WIS food, I began smelting the [Holy-steel Ingots]. During the process, I used Angelica’s option to grant it 200 Holy Power. It took me about 3 hours to smelt the [Holy-steel ingot].   So far the quality did not seem to suffer too much, I then did the same and created a second ingot using the Angelica’s remaining Holy Power.   Then I began to work on the simplest part of the set, the bracers. This took me about 7 hours of hard excruciating work, if not for Angelica it would have been much harder though.   From my experience working with Holy-steel, I noticed that the magical ability that I grant an item is strictly tied down to the properties of holy and light. So as long as it is within the abilities of that magic system, I should be able to transfer it to my item. And that is what I did.   Holy-steel Power Imbued Bracer of Minor Strength   An average bracer made out of holy-steel that has been specialized by its creator to fit a young child.   +15 STR +10 AGI +10 DEX +5 VIT +5 INT +5 WIS +250 DEF [Imbue Holy Power] Surround your arm in holy power protecting your arm and at same time imbuing your arm attacks with holy damage. Weight is reduced to 0 ( 50 Holy Power per minute )   Bonus: +3 STR   Holy Power: 200/200 Restrictions: Minimum Level: Level 15 - Bonus: +2 STR Level 20 - Bonus: +3 STR   Owner Restriction: Creator (Shiro) Benefit: +1 STR   [Made by Shiro] Durability: 1000/1000 Quality 5.0014/10.0000   Luckily both bracers came out the same with minor difference in quality, both surpassing the quality score of 5. I also took advantage of what I learned from the Grandmaster and made some minor room for growth as well. Unfortunately, I lacked the skill to make it fully adapt to level like he did. That said, I’ll worry about it when the time comes.   From then on I went to eat dinner, put mana inside some [Coal Ore] and went to sleep.   ...   The following day, I again repeated the same process of eating INT and WIS food, and putting mana into [Coal Ore]. The difference this time around is I used a [Lesser Mana Potion]. Then I began on working on the next item.   This time around I got a little bit of insight on how to approach things more efficiently. The item I decided to work on is the helmet. But unlike my previous items, I decided to focus more on the magical portion of the item.   The results overall were pretty good.   Holy-steel Shifting Coif of Knowledge   An average coif made out of holy-steel that has been specialized by its creator to adapt to its owner.   +5 STR +5 AGI +5 DEX +5 VIT +15 INT +15 WIS +250 DEF [Light Shift] Expand and contract the item to the desired size, weight becomes proportional to size ( 50 Holy Power – activation, 1 Holy Power per hour - maintenance ) [Weightlessness] Reduce weight of the item to 0 (1 Holy Power per minute)   Bonus: +3 INT   Holy Power: 200/200 Restrictions: Minimum Level: Level 15 - Bonus: +2 INT Level 20 - Bonus: +3 INT   Owner Restriction: Creator (Shiro) Benefit: +1 INT   [Made by Shiro] Durability: 1000/1000 Quality 5.0002/10.0000   Yes, I thought about this very carefully. What I am lacking is [IPR], [INT] and [WIS] to offset my high [PER]. With the creation of my bracers it suddenly came to me, why not just offset it by prioritizing the gear that gives those stats? Even without knowing offensive magics, being able to utilize my [PER] better in itself is worth it to an extent.   The second idea I came up with is spending the option into form changing. This might seem like sacrificing fighting prowess for convenience, but far from it! It allows me to turn the helmet into something like a hairpin so that not only does it not stand out, it also creates a false assumption of weakness. Which I may be able to take advantage off in certain situations.   The downside to such flexibility though is the maintenance. Whenever I don’t use it as a Coif, after form changing I have to constantly feed it holy power. Considering I plan to use it as a Coif in general combat situations, it shouldn’t be a problem.   And like that I began to work on my other pieces for the next 5 days, that of course included spending a part of one day working on my quota as well. I focused on dividing up the stats between gear maintaining an overall balance. Another thing I tried to keep consistent is reducing the weight of the armor during activation, this allows me to make full use of my high speed when necessary while still having solid protection. Usually speed types go for leather after all, due to it being light and flexible.   In my case, I will have high armor when standing still, while at same time being able to move fast without restraint. Of course I do sacrifice some protection in adding these options. But overall, I think it is well worth it, because my goal is not to fight monsters who are stronger than me with my equipment, but those that are weaker than me. Which means I should be able to end the fight quickly, if not, run away. Hence the point of this configuration. Luckily, things like making it light is a cheap option for the holy attribute.   I also account for the flexibility by use of chainmail at the joints, while using plate to cover my vitals.   Holy-steel Rejuvenation Imbued Boot of Minor Agility   An average boot made out of holy-steel that has been specialized by its creator to fit a young child.   +15 AGI +10 STR +10 DEX +5 VIT +5 INT +5 WIS +250 DEF [Imbue Holy Rejuvenation] Surround your leg in holy power protecting your leg and at same time reducing stamina consumption. Weight is reduced to 0 ( 25 Holy Power per minute )   Bonus: +3 AGI   Holy Power: 100/100 Restrictions: Minimum Level: Level 15 - Bonus: +2 AGI Level 20 - Bonus: +3 AGI   Owner Restriction: Creator (Shiro) Benefit: +1 AGI   [Made by Shiro] Durability: 1000/1000 Quality 5.2826/10.0000 Holy-steel Protection Imbued Breastplate of Minor Vitality   An average breastplate made out of holy-steel that has been specialized by its creator to fit a young child.   +15 VIT +10 STR +10 AGI +5 DEX +5 INT +5 WIS +250 DEF [Imbue Holy Protection] Surround your entire body in holy power protecting you. Weight is reduced to 0 ( 50 Holy Power per minute in activated mode, 1 Holy Power per minute in automatic mode )   Bonus: +3 VIT   Holy Power: 400/400 Restrictions: Minimum Level: Level 15 - Bonus: +2 VIT Level 20 - Bonus: +3 VIT   Owner Restriction: Creator (Shiro) Benefit: +1 VIT   [Made by Shiro] Durability: 1500/1500 Quality 5.3707/10.0000 Holy-steel Enhancing Legplates   An average legplates made out of holy-steel that has been specialized by its creator to fit a young child.   +10 STR +10 AGI +10 DEX +10 VIT +5 INT +5 WIS +250 DEF [Holy Enchance] Allows you to transfer Holy Power and/or enhance the Holy Power of other items   Bonus: +1 STR +1 AGI +1 DEX   Holy Power: 300/300 Restrictions: Minimum Level: Level 15 - Bonus: +1 STR +1 AGI Level 20 - Bonus: +1 STR +1 AGI +1 DEX   Owner Restriction: Creator (Shiro) Benefit: +1 DEX   [Made by Shiro] Durability: 1000/1000 Quality 5.5908/10.0000   After those 7 days I was dead tired. Not only did I manage to make myself 7 new pieces of gear, I also managed to smelt 50 [Iron Ingots] during that time. Granting me +3 [PER] from my [Creationist: Ingot Creation II] quest and +1 PER for finishing my [Creationist: Armor Creation] quest.   But regardless I was super thrilled!   My total bonuses from these 7 pieces plus my mithril arm-blade katar end up as:   STR: +101 AGI: +124 VIT: +68 DEX: +72 INT: +58 WIS: +52   With this, I am pretty close to 2-3X my stats.   Yup, I have become totally OP! And white… totally white… white gear, white hair… all white…   I am just missing some wings and I can pass off as an angel hehe   Anyways… Now that I finally got all this awesome gear... it is time to proceed to the next step!   But before that… sleep… I am dead tired so I collapse on the bed and retire for the day.   ...   The next day, I visit the Adventurers Guild to see what quests are available and give my new equipment a field trial.   Looking at Rank E quests which I can now take, I see [Collection: Dire Wolf Pelts] which gives 7 silver coins + market price aka 35 iron coins each for 5 pelts, [Subjugation: Ravenous Coyotes] which gives 5 silver coins for 5, [Subjugation: Forest Goblins] which gives 8 silver coins for 1, and [Subjugation: Kobolds] which also gives 8 silver coins for 1. It also seems some of these Subjugations give bonuses if you bring more people, but since I am alone I don’t qualify for any.   Now then… which quest should I take?   Logically speaking, it is best to be efficient and do multiple quests at once. In that sense the [Subjugation: Kobolds] is out of the question despite me wanting to stock up on some [Red Cave Moss]. It’s not like I am in a hurry or anything, so I can do it later if need be.   On the stuff I can double down on is the [Ravenous Coyotes] and [Horned Rabbits] since they are around the same areas in the plains. And also the [Forest Goblins], [Dire Wolves] and [Dire Foxes] at same time since they are all in the forest.   The only downside with going for the goblins is that according to what I remember, they are pretty deep into the forest. So unless I happen to find a strangler scout, I would need to spend the night outside the town which I have no plans on doing. To begin with, these quests seem to be aimed at specifically to encourage adventurers to take out the scouts if they meet any.   Thinking about it, I decided to go for the [Ravenous Coyotes] and [Horned Rabbits]. My reasoning is that [Dire Wolves] can sometime be in packs, which may be more troublesome. It is probably not an issue since I have my new armor, but again I don’t want to end up dead just cause I got careless and full of myself. So first I’ll see how strong a level 15 monster really is.   The other benefit is that [Subjugation: Ravenous Coyotes] has a special marker on it for today, which indicated that this quest has some urgency. Usually due to outbreaks and the like, this meant that the rewards for this quest would be increased by a whopping 50%!   On top of that, since both the monsters I’ll be hunting are new monsters, I may be able to get some new skills as well.   With my mind made up, I set out towards the plains. Since my [AGI] has increased so much, despite my heavy armor, the rate at which I move has also increased by quite a bit, so it did not take me long to get there.   From then on, I used my usual [Smell Sense] and [Presence Sense] to try to locate the monsters I was looking for. Which interestingly enough was much easier than in the forest. Probably because the open field lets smell travel easier.   The first thing I found was a level 7 [Horned Rabbit], of course unlike a forest there was pretty much no cover so it spotted me virtually instantly. It then rushed straight at me and quickly accelerated at me with its horn!   You have acquired a new skill [RA][Thrust] Level 1   Of course with my improved stats, it was nothing more than a joke. I used [Evasion] to dodge it to the side like it was nothing. Then wanting to test the sharpness of my mithril katar, I used [Slice] right at the base of its horn cutting it cleanly off.   The [Horned Rabbit] didn’t even realize that its lost its horn as it again tried to stab right at me… or would it be more accurate to say it tried to head bash me since it was missing its horn?   I quickly spun around and beheaded the [Horn Rabbit] like it was nothing.   Hmmm… despite my more than stellar performance, I noticed a caveat… It seems that there are side effects to unnaturally raising my stats so much. My control seems to suffer quite a bit, if it wasn’t for my high [PER] and the accuracy improvement of [Slice] I wouldn’t have been so accurate. While [DEX] does help a bit as well, the issue is more of getting used to it, so it should not be a long term problem as long as I get enough practice.   After storing the [Horned Rabbit] and its horn, I continue on traveling through the plains. It takes me only 10 minutes to find yet another level 7 [Horned Rabbit] who attacks me the instant it sees me in the same way the previous one did.   You have acquired a new skill [RA][Plunge] Level 1   I smile due to the torrent of new skills that just keep pouring in! Though this time instead of dodging I instead chose to [Parry] the attack with my katar. Then I used my [STR] and [POW] to push the [Horned Rabbit] back and while it was in mid air swung my [Holy-steel Healing Dagger] imbued with [Slice] at the base of its horn. Like with the katar is easily separated.   Hmm… it seems these opponents are just too weak to even test the sharpness of my blades…   I put away the dagger and activated [Punch], smashing the [Horned Rabbit]’s head, thus killing it instantly.   Yup, too easy… lets see if I can find myself a [Ravenous Coyotes], maybe they will prove more of a challenge… Not that I actually want more of a challenge, easy wins are my favorite wins! But I do want to know where exactly I stand. Generally speaking, Enchanted Steel is at a level of a Rank B adventurer. Of course they also have all 25 pieces most likely, but I am pretty confident that I could probably measure up with a low tier Rank D adventurer at the very least.   Once I got further out from the town, it did not take long for me to find my first [Ravenous Coyotes]. It was level 12 so about mid-range as far as they get. Once it noticed me I activated [All-Observing-Eyes]. While I am 99% sure that I won’t need it, I plan to pay special attention to its movements and weak spots which I will use as a reference going forward.   It tried to lunge at me which I easily dodge with [Evasion]. To which it turns around and quickly tries to attack yet again. I continue to evade but so far no skill came up... Growing a bit irritated at not gaining anything, once it lunged at me again, I decided to finish it off and slice off its neck with my katar. And like that the [Ravenous Coyotes] fell to its death.   I continued to farm [Horned Rabbits] and [Ravenous Coyotes] until I got 5 of each. And to be honest, it was a piece of cake. I got [Plunge] to level 2 and even a level 15 [Ravenous Coyote] was pretty helpless against me. Not that it is surprising since they are only Rank G and F monsters respectively.   The only reason why Rank F monsters make Rank E quests is because Rank F adventurers don’t have a combat class. Even among Rank E adventurers, many don’t have a combat class. This is partly why Rank D is considered a cut off point.   Either way, with that I decided to retire for the day and headed back to the Adventurers Guild. I also managed to find 2 [Blue Hoya] and 2 [Sleepy Jasmine] on the way, despite not exactly actively looking for herbs. These herbs seem to be more common around these parts from my observation. I decided to store the herbs for now since they don’t take up much space anyways.   After cashing in the quests and materials, I made a decent 9 silver and 70 iron coins, plus 4 Guild Points. I then head back to the Blacksmithing Guild to eat dinner and get some rest.   Announcement I wanted to wait a bit to get the results of the poll from more people, and the end result the biggest vote went to "New cover looks better and is more attractive" with 32.7% of the results. That said, "Old cover looked better and is more attractive" followed close after at 22.4%. But the 3rd was "New cover looks better but isn't as attractive" at 16.3%. What that tells me is that people were slightly more favorable towards the new cover, though you guys/gals/cores are somewhat split on the attractiveness of the old and new.   Lastly, the bigger concern was that 22.4% also voted for "Why are you wasting time drawing covers?! Let me teach you priorities! *grabs whip**lash**lash*"... how mean, wait till I find out who you are! And when I do I'll... I'll... go cry in my corner... : / What I'm thinking of doing for the cover is keeping this one for now and than later to slightly fix it up, while at same time make an updated version of the first one to try to include Shiro in the reflection of the eye, we shall see... wait! wait don't whip me! I know! I will first finish volume 3 before doing that, I swear!

After breakfast, I went to the counter and picked up my pass. Then headed towards the Advanced Disciple section to meet Gregon.   “Hey there missy, so ya ready? First, I’ll show ya how to smith a high quality [Steel Dagger]” said Gregon as I entered in.   From then on he proceeded to smith the dagger, while explaining things that I should know and take note of. After he was done with that, he began work on an Enchanted-steel sword.   The difficulty in smithing the enchanted sword came from balancing the mana while smithing. From what Gergon said, the mana practically leaks while smelting the ingots and smithing the item, and the smith’s job is to contain the mana to the best of their ability. Even for Gregon himself that proved quite a challenge.   Your skill [NP][Smelting] has become Level 7   Apparently, making that [Steel Ingot] back then did not push him enough to make use of his true skill...   Smithing that Enchanted-steel sword took up the majority of the day, but there was still some time left. So afterwards I requested him to smith all kinds of other things starting with boots, which thankfully he had no issue with complying since he said he needed to smith those things anyways, due to different requests he had backlogged.   When there was only 3 hours left till dinner, Gregon stopped smithing and turned to me.   “One last thing missy, did ya already use up that [Iron Ingot] ya got from ya’r last quota?” Gregon inquired.   “Uhm… no… not yet why?” I questioned.   “Take this [Coal Ore] and attempt to make a [Steel Dagger]. I want to see how well ya improved from my teaching” said Gregon.   “Uhm… but I was kind of saving it to make a [Steel Blacksmithing Hammer] to help me with the competition...” I helplessly retort.   “Hmm… Tell ya what missy, if ya can manage to make a [Steel Dagger] with a quality score of 5 or more. I’ll personally provide ya with enough materials to make ya’r [Steel Blacksmithing Hammer]. But if ya fail, ya will have to pay for the [Coal Ore]. How does that sound missy?” offered Gregon.   “Okay!” I instantly agreed.   I then began smelting the [Iron Ingot] and [Coal Ore] to make a [Steel Ingot]. My abilities have improved quite a bit since my last attempt, in both understanding my skills and in stats. The result of the smelted [Steel Ingot] was an astounding quality score of 5.8341!   I then began smithing the [Steel Dagger] for the second time. This time around I did not luck out like last time with the bonus.   Steel Dagger   An average dagger made out of steel   +5 STR +5 DEX +5 AGI +5 VIT +100 ATK   [Made by Shiro] Durability: 1000/1000 Quality 5.5186/10.0000   Regardless, the results were rather satisfying!   “Ya know missy, I have a hard time believing it every time I see it... Are ya sure ya not some illegitimate half-dwarf child of a legendary blacksmith or somethin’? The rate ya are improving is terrifying to say the least...” Gregon murmured.   The best part is, since this is made out of my materials, I actually get to keep it! Though I would have liked a bonus…   “So... I get materials for my hammer right?” I gleefully questioned.   “Yeah, yeah. Here ya go...” said Gregon handing over 2 [Iron Ingots] and 2 [Coal Ore] for my hammer.   We went over a few other things, but soon ran out of time. After agreeing for another lesson prior to the day of the competition, I asked if I could borrow a [Coal Ore] to practice making steel with which I would return after I get my quota. In response Gregon just gave me the [Coal Ore] and said that if I win the competition, there is no need to return it. Obviously I wasn’t going to reject the goodwill...   After that, I went to eat dinner and did my usual thing.   ...   The next day, I began working on smithing my new steel hammer! During the morning prior to breakfast, I smithed the ores into [Steel Ingots]. And after breakfast I began smithing the hammer.   I put a lot of effort into it, opting to spend 9 hours to make sure it comes out the best it can. And the results did not disappoint!   Steel Blacksmithing Hammer   An average blacksmithing hammer made out of steel   +50 STR +10 DEX -50 AGI +8 ATK +25% improvement for Blacksmithing   Bonus: 1% improvement for Blacksmithing   [Made by Shiro] Durability: 2500/2500 Quality 5.9125/10.0000   Thus Caroline was born! I took an hour break due to the overwhelming fatigue and stress of the process and then began working on upgrading my leather boots by plating them with the [Bronze Ingots]. With the help of both my [Blacksmithing] and [Leatherworking] skills the process was not too difficult.   I spent 3 hours making the boots to make sure everything comes out well, and my results were pretty good.   Bronze-Plated Leather Boot of Greater Agility An average boot made out of dire fox leather modified to fit for children and plated with bronze   +4 AGI +24 DEF Bonus: +1 AGI     Restrictions: Minimum Level: Level 15 – Benefit: +1 AGI | Penalty: 90% reduction in stats   Owner Restriction: Shiro Benefit: +1 AGI | Penalty: 90% reduction in stats [Made by Shiro] Durability: 100/100Quality 5.9826/10.0000   Bronze-Plated Leather Boot of Agility An average boot made out of dire fox leather modified to fit for children and plated with bronze   +3 AGI +2 VIT +29 DEF   Restrictions: Minimum Level: Level 15 – Benefit: +1 AGI | Penalty: 90% reduction in stats   Owner Restriction: Shiro Benefit: +1 AGI | Penalty: 90% reduction in stats [Made by Shiro] Durability: 122/122Quality 6.1023/10.0000     I lost out on some stats due to the leather being of lower tier than the metal. But the bonus and quality increase overall made up for it. Smithing bronze when you already made steel is pretty much a piece of cake.   Now normally you can sync the two pieces to increase probability of similar stats when making pairing items. But in the case where my skills improve more and more the better I understand them, I chose to make them separate.   Fully satisfied with my work, I head off to that poor excuse for a dinner… I am really getting sick of eating broth! And end the day as per usual...   …   When I wake up in the morning, since I have nothing to do. I decide to make plans for now. Today and tomorrow, I have pretty much free, the day after tomorrow I have my quota to fulfill and the day after that will be the last private lesson before the competition.   I doubt I can find 2 more skill levels to raise my [PER] that easily unfortunately. There is the art shop, but from what I have seen there are guards there and I don’t want to get into trouble… So maybe I should go hunt [Dire Foxes] and gather herbs in hopes of getting a level up? That is probably the best option, and I want to also try out my new equipment as well!   Like that, after breakfast, I head out of town. Now that I was dual wielding daggers and had a boost in speed from my new equipment, things went a lot simpler and I easily stocked up on 5 [Dire Fox Pelts]. I even had pretty good luck with herbs, getting a total of 15! Of course like before, I stored the [Dire Milkweed] in my [Item Box] and brought the rest to the guild.   I hand in the 10 herbs, getting a total of 50 iron coins with the reward. Then I hand in the [Dire Fox Meat] and [Dire Fox Pelts], getting 2 silver and 11 irons coins. Bringing my total savings to 7 silver and 84 iron coins!   I then place my hand on the orb to get completion credit.   “Ha?” I exclaim.   Suddenly the orb begins to glow in different colors… I hope I didn’t break anything…   “Hmm… It seems you qualify to move up a guild rank. I suggest heading to the counter to update your guild information” informed the dogkin at the materials exchange booth.   So I already got 20 points ha? I didn’t even keep track… Well I guess it won’t hurt…   Thus I head to the elf receptionist at the counter.   “Hello, how may I help you?” said the receptionist.   “Uhm… I was told at the material counter that I qualify for a rank up, and was told to come here...” I responded.   “I see… please put your hand on the orb there and I will begin processing your information, then I will update your tattoo” said the receptionist.   “Okay...” I replied and placed my hand on the orb.   The receptionist then placed their hand on a similar orb and both began to glow.   You have acquired a new skill [CP][Receptionist: Information Processor] Level N/A Due to a special action, a new special [IPR] stat has been unlocked [CP][Receptionist: Information Processor] Level N/A   Increase information processing of all skills by 20% + 1% for every level in your non-combat class + 0.5% for every point of [IPR] What in the world is that…   “Congratulations, you have now become a Rank F adventurer. All information has been inputted in your guild tattoo, and your points have been reset to 0. Please remember that from now on, you will not receive any more points for Rank G requests.” announces the receptionist, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” she then added.   “Uhm… yeah.. I mean No, that would be all for today...” I respond and quickly head out of the Adventurers Guild.   As I head back to the Blacksmithing Guild, I ponder to myself if I have any skill that would make use of information processing...   Logically speaking, my [Creationist: Analyze Everything] does process information to an extent no? Maybe my [All-Observing-Eye] too? Especially when I am smithing, there is generally too much stuff my [All-Observing-Eyes] picks up. Maybe it will help with that… I guess I’ll test it the day after tomorrow.   I completed the day as usual and went to sleep.   …   When I woke up in the morning, I kind of regretted not signing up for the Church to see if I could find the priest. I was so distracted by the new [IPR] stat and skill, I totally forgot… Wish it could have helped organize my thoughts better!   So now what should I do? I could maybe attempt to see the priest normally, but remembering how crowded it tends to get in the front of the Church, that is probably not an option without some sort of appointment. I could go hunting again for [Dire Fox Pelts], but based on the feeling I get I doubt I’ll get any levels. The XP from hunting monsters far lower level then me is kind of small. And I need to get better gear so I can hunt stronger things…   Maybe today I should just relax? I’ve been struggling over a month without a day of breaks and it is taking a toll on me… It wouldn’t be good if I collapsed during the competition due to fatigue after all… Yup lets do just that!   And like that, I waddled in my bed the entire day like a lazy cat… this is the life…   …

The next day, I decided to try the other route. Since I gained confidence fighting level 15 monsters, I wanted to see how [Dire Wolves] would stack up and if they have any skills worth taking.   I walk out of town, and proceed to hunt [Dire Foxes] as I made it deeper and deeper into the forest. Like the [Ravenous Coyotes], the [Dire Wolves] lived farther away from town. After killing about 3 [Dire Foxes] and traveling 3 hours, I pick up the scent of mammals I did not recognize.   Of course when I say I did not recognize it, I mean I have not exactly met up with the owners of this smell before. Considering I have spent some time in the leather goods shop, I can definitely find some smell similarity to the smell of the [Dire Wolf] leather goods.   By the smell of things, there seem to be 4 of them…   I would have preferred to start out with 2 or 3. But I don’t think 4 should be a problem. Especially if I am cautious.   As I get closer, they easily picked up on my scent and begin heading my way while attempting to surround me. Of course I am not exactly just going to let them have their way. As they get closer, I activate [Sprint] and run towards one of them. And when I shrunk the distance, I activate both my [Throw] skills focused on speed, and fling a rock right at the [Dire Wolf] in front of me.   The [Dire Wolf] attempts to dodge to the side, but is a tad too late and ends up hit in the shoulder. Personally though, I wasn’t even counting too much on the [Throw] to hit as it was more of a distraction, not that I am complaining or anything... I then quickly [Charge] straight at the [Dire Wolf]. Imbuing my katar with wind and activate [Slash], I shred the [Dire Wolf] in half.   Realistically speaking, I didn’t really need the wind blade on my katar to kill this wolf, but as I mentioned before. I am not exactly thrilled about being surrounded by 4 monsters around my level, even with my increased stats. Killing the first one ASAP makes it easier for me to be on defensive. So after I killed it, I quickly turned around and took up a defensive stance.   Soon the other 3 [Dire Wolves] closed in and looked awfully pissed about me killing one of their own. As they came closer, they again started to spread out trying to surround me. Though I am not exactly going to just stand there and do nothing now am I?   I again use [Throw], this time focusing on strength and aim the rock right at the [Dire Wolf] on the left I then activate [Charge] despite the higher stamina cost due to early activation, and head straight at the [Dire Wolf] on the right. Catching it completely off guard, I use [Slice] and wind blade to promptly behead the [Dire Wolf].   Now that it is down to just two of them, I plan to fight them a bit more normally without relying on the wind blade.   This time around the two [Dire Wolves] decided to stick together instead of splitting up after seeing how quickly I dispatched them one by one. It seems like they are thinking that if I [Charge] one of them, the other will attack me from the side.   Since that is what they want, I’ll give them just that and activate [Charge] aiming for the one on the right. But half way into my [Charge], I activate [Throw] on my [Holy-steel Healing Dagger] with full speed right into the left [Dire Wolf]’s face. With the left one out of the picture for the time being, I imbue my katar with my old favorite triple combo of [Penetrate], [Impale] and [Thrust], though now with a new flavoring of [Plunge], stabbing the [Dire Wolf] right in the neck.   The [Dire Wolf] ends up flying back due to the impact and I land right on top of it, then after the short stun wears off, I quickly roll off the wolf and get in defensive position.   At this time the last one gets its act together and charges straight at me, I use [Evasion] and wait things out hoping to see if it has any useful skills. After playing around with it for 2 minutes or so, noticing it has no useful abilities left I finish it off.   After I disassemble them and store them in my [Item Box] I move on. Too bad there wasn’t 5 of them, or I would already be done… now I have no choice but to either luck out and find a lone [Dire Wolf] or have to take on an entire pack. Not that I can’t do so, but one thing my gear doesn’t help too much vs a similar stat adventurer is my lack of stamina.   In about an hour or so, I killed 2 more [Dire Foxes], thus completing that quest. Then after another 15 minutes of walking, I pick up the scent of a lone [Dire Wolf].   Using the opportunity, I head straight for it.   As I begin to get closer, I suddenly stop. The reason is because despite my [Smell Sense] telling me there is only a [Dire Wolf] there, as I got closer my [Presence Sense] picked up 3 other presences with the wolf. After locating their presence, I try to focus harder on my [Smell Sense] and realize there is some unknown scent in the air, but it is super weak, to the point that I normally wouldn’t notice it.   This confirms that whatever that is, it is somehow hiding it’s scent to an extent. Which points to some sort of intelligence. As curious as I am, I head towards the location…   NOT! Do I look that stupid?!?! I am not some literature hero who after hearing a roar of a dragon goes “What’s that noise? Lets go check it out”. If I don’t know what it is, or it looks suspicious in any shape or form, it’s not my problem! Someone else can gladly handle it!   “Shit!” I yelped suddenly realize something and activate my [Sprint] running away as fast as possible!   The problem is that if I am in the range of [Presence Sense], there is no way that a [Dire Wolf] would not be able to pick up on my scent…   Unfortunately my worst fears have come to pass as one of the presences merged with the [Dire Wolf] and started heading for me!   The worst part of it is, even with [Sprint] at level 3, I don’t think I can outrun it... Well if I use the option on my boots and start chaining [Charge] I may be able to outrun it for a short while, but it would eventually catch up to me and I would lack stamina to fight it. Thus guaranteeing my death.   It is better off that I find some sort of defensive position, if whatever that is riding it is stronger than me, I can at least use the best of my ability to injure the [Dire Wolf], and then make my escape.   Looking around, I find a dense pack of trees and head straight for it. Since I have the convenience of a katar not occupying my hand, I quickly climb the tree with my claws with little pause. I then move around to the neighboring tree and hide in the leaves using [Blend Stealth].   My heart beats rapidly in anxiety as I wait for my unknown foes...   Soon afterwards, the [Dire Wolf] and the one riding it comes into my view...   You have acquired a new skill [NA][Wolf Riding] Level 1   Ha? How does that even make sense?!?! I freaking can’t get [Horse Riding] even though I see horses every single day! But [Wolf Riding] which is probably a harder skill to get just pops up like nothing? Where in the world am I gonna get a wolf to ride? Do I have to tame a wolf? Or do I just get a wolfkin to give me a piggy-back ride?!?!   Okay, Okay... I need to focus!   The one that seems to be riding the [Dire Wolf] is a [Forest Goblin: Wolf Rider]. And its level is 25! Even the [Dire Wolf] he is riding is above its average at level 20!   Of course my position should be safe for now at least. From what I remember of the previous [Dire Wolf] pack, their [Sense Smell] is at about level 3. Even if this higher level [Dire Wolf] has it at level 4, it isn’t enough to pinpoint my exact location. It knows around where I am, but not the exact location. And even if it did, relaying anything but the general direction of my location to its rider would be difficult… the issue is…   “AHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”   You have acquired a new skill [RA][Howling Call] Level 1   ...to an extent... that! So far, only the [Dire Wolf] and its muscular green rider came. But there were two other presences... Which means if I don’t dispatch this [Forest Goblin: Wolf Rider] soon, they will come here and make things difficult. Even worse would be if those two called for reinforcements. Either way, regardless of what I plan to do, I need to do it soon... In a battle of attrition, I am guaranteed to lose!

In front of me stands a village. From what I heard from the guys on the carriage, this village is called Diara Village. In terms of size, this village is pretty large, but not to the tune of being a town surrounded by a giant wall and guards. Actually, this village is mostly guarded by a fence even I can jump over if I put in enough effort. So it seems like its purpose is more to keep animals in and out rather than to protect against a large monster attack. I am also pretty glad this village is not a huge guarded town, nor a small village. Making this just perfect!   The problem with large towns that have guards and all is that I would never make it in. I know in most literature the crazy protagonist walks in, tells the guards he lost his ID or comes from some remote village that has no ID, in a week they would already get a key to the city from the mayor and rescue a princess or two.   That unfortunately is not going to work in reality. No country is going to allow random people who might be criminals or spies from another country to just walk in without an ID and assume a new identity. The guards are more likely to just say “too bad, go back and get an ID or get someone to confirm your identity”. It is not like they are under any obligations to help you out while risking their own necks.   The problem with a small village is everyone knows each other, so a foreigner coming it tends to get attention which I would rather not have. Since I know very little about this world, I’d rather not get any attention. I can already imagine how things can easily go wrong.   ***** [Start Shiro’s Imagination] *****   [Villager A]: “Hey there, I don’t remember seeing you around these parts, are you new here?” [Shiro]: “Yeah, I just came in today from far away” [Villager A]: “Is that so… Which parts do you come from?” [Shiro]: “Oh you know a remote Beaskin village on another continent far away which I am sure you never heard of...” [Villager A]:”Is that so...You mean the Beastkin Country on [Watchamacallit Continent]?” [Shiro]:”A-Ah...yeah thats the one!” [Villager A]:”YOU DARE COME HERE AFTER BEING IN WAR WITH US FOR DECADES?!?! YOU KILLED MY SON! GUARDS! GUARDS! THERE IS A SPY IN THE VILLAGE!”   ***** [End Shiro’s Imagination] *****   Well maybe I am exaggerating a little bit. But I can’t imagine me not knowing anything in this world is not bound to easily make people suspicious. You can’t just pretend you don’t know common sense and get away with it that easily. So it is important to minimize dialog and instead collect information indirectly.   That said, speaking of war. There is one last thing I need to check. I walk out onto the road and walk in the opposite direction of the town. I pass by another carriage while keeping an eye on the faces of those in the carriage. Once the carriage passes by, I go back into the forest and follow them back to town.   My goal here is to find out if Beastkin happen to be at war with humans or not. If they are, the people on the carriage would have started acting suspiciously. While I saw a few twitches when they saw me… it did not seem to the point of panic or anything of the like. So it is safe to say that this country is not in war with the Beastkin. That said, considering the faces, I have a feeling Beastkin may be discriminated around these parts. Which is not something I did not expect, but it may make my job hunting quite a bit harder. * sigh *… Either way I will proceed with the original plan cautiously.   The first thing before I make it into the village is hiding my [Ancient Mithril Dagger]. What I am looking for is a clearing in the forest away from the village. I know the most common way to hide a treasure is under a marked tree, and that is precisely what I am not going to do. Precisely because it is too common of a hiding spot, and who knows if some person coming to get herbs is going to accidentally dig it up. And let us not forget places near a tree tend to be difficult to dig due to the roots. A non-conspicuous clearing with nothing there is the best place to hide things, at the very least in the short term.   Once I locate such a clearing and memorized the location, I dig up a deep hole. It takes me about half an hour to dig up the hole because I want the blade at least a few inches deep. I then take 25 steps away and leave a few rocks embedded in the ground as a marker.   With that out of the way, I finally proceed towards the village.   Inside the village I peak my ears and try to pick up as much information as I can. I also use my [Smell Sense] to help navigate myself to the flea market in the village. There not only can I listen in on plenty of conversations, but I can also get a feel for the currency in this country. From what I see in the market, I see copper coins, iron coins and silver coins.   Paying close attention to what people are buying and how much change they are getting in return. I conclude the following:   1 Iron Coin = 100 Copper Coin 1 Silver Coin = 100 Iron Coins   Looking at the trend I would assume there is gold coins as well but so far I have not seen anyone trade those around these parts. So I have no clue where they fit in and I am not going to ask a vendor either. Again my goal is to be as least conspicuous as possible. And now you are expecting me to say how much these things converts into dollars right?...how about not!   Converting currency into a currency of another country let alone another world is an exercise in futility. Sure it works ok if you are comparing 1st world countries with similar economies. But when comparing completely different countries and economies, it doesn’t work that way. Even when comparing commodities, like food, costs between places with manual farming and farming assisted by machines makes a huge difference. These are all things I picked up while traveling with my parents around the world.   I also use this opportunity to use [Identify] on people. And here is what seems like a typical adult person looks like:     Bob Vallen Gender Male Race Human Class Level Age 34 years Status ? Human 14 HP ??? MP ?? Merchant 5   Which confirms that even a regular person can wipe the floor with me 10X over and have room to spare.   By the way, this is what a typical combat class person around here looks like:     Andrew Bellard Gender Male Race Human Class Level Age 48 years Status ? Human 20 HP ???? MP ?? Cook 7         Warrior 8     Though this makes me wonder an interesting point. Is the only way to level to fight things? I can’t imagine a Merchant or a Cooking going out in the field to level up by killing monsters...So I am definitely missing something… And I somehow doubt that people are just going to reveal these things in the middle of the street out of nowhere...this isn’t a game where everyone else is an NPC screaming random vital information around strangers.   My top priority is gathering information and finding a place to stay. If I can find a way to level up without hunting until Level 10, that would be ideal.   So now I will prepare to execute “Operation: Infiltrate the Inn”. Tada!   Everyone knows that the best place to get information is the Tavern Inn. When people are drunk, you can get them to spill almost anything without any suspicion at all. On top of that, it is a location that gets plenty of foot traffic and plenty of opportunities to ask random questions.   It probably won’t be easy, especially if the beastkin discrimination is very severe. That said my plan is to go to the cheapest looking inn and effectively offer my services for free. All I will ask in return is minimum amount of food and a place to sleep. That place doesn’t even have to be a room, a corner would be more than enough for me as long as it is a safe location. I am used to sleeping virtually anywhere while being on the move. I estimate that my chance of success is about 20% or so, but even then it is well worth it. If I get turned down, oh well, but it does not hurt to try right? What is the worst that can happen?   “…”   Somehow I feel like I triggered a flag...Don’t mind! Don’t mind! I just have to be prepared for the worst that is all there is to it!   I spend a few hours looking around the Inns that have taverns and go for the cheapest looking one. Luckily this isn’t a large town where the cheapest Inn would be in the middle of a slum. Because even if I could secure a job there, I wouldn’t feel safe sleeping there. This Inn is located in the poorer districts, but it is not to the point that screams “crime everywhere”.   I get near the Inn and begin investigating it in the least conspicuous way possible, I take note of the owners of the inn and the staff there. And from a distance try to judge their personalities. From the looks of things the middle-aged lady named “Anne Dalton” is probably the best person to approach as she seems to have the most authority in the inn. She also seems to have a decent reasonable personality as far as I can tell from a distance. It helps a lot that this inn is an open door one where you can peak inside, probably to draw in customers to the tavern.   Now then I wait until the tavern gets more and more filled up and the waiters can’t keep up with demand. And I choose this moment to strike! At this point I am less likely to get attention if I get turned down and my chances to get hired is increased due to immediate demand. “Principle of Supply and Demand”.   Time to start “Operation: Infiltrate the Inn”. The most important thing at this point is “Confidence”. If I stutter or act uncertain, they may think I am suspicious or something. The more confident I am in relaying my message, the less likely I will be suspected of anything.   I slowly walk into the tavern inn and head for the middle-aged lady. When I reach her I quickly recite my practiced lines.   [Shiro]:“Excuse me. My name is Shiro. I was wondering if you need some help. I just got into town for a day or two and was hoping I can get a part time job around here. I don’t need much, just some scraps of food and a place to...”     You have taken 206 damage. You have been stunned for 2 seconds.   [Shiro]:“..eh?”   eh? eh? EHHHHHH?!?!?   I am totally confused what in the world happened! But I feel a numbing pain from the top of my head as I feel blood begins to drip down…   I totally zone out and it takes me a few seconds to get myself together and I look down to notice there is a broken spilled mug on the floor covered in blood.   It take a look up and notice the entire tavern is staring at me with disgusted eyes... Like they are looking at mud...Then the voices begin to flood in as I slowly regain myself.   [Tavern Customer A]:”WHAT IS A STINKIN HAIRBALL DOING HERE?!?! ITS GOING TO GET FLEAS IN MY FOOD!” [Waiter A]:”We sincerely apologize, we will get rid of it right away!”   The middle aged lady   [Anne Dalton]:”Shoo! Go away! We have no scraps for you!”. she then grabs a broom and starts shoving me out of the Inn. “Shoo!”     You have taken 3 damage. You have taken 5 damage. You have taken 4 damage. You have taken 2 damage.   SERIOUSLY?!?!? I MEAN SERIOUSLY?!?!?   This is beyond discrimination… they are literally trying to kill me! Its like they found an icky cockroach on the floor and trying to squash it!   I mean I expected to be discriminated and poor treatment and all but this is ridiculous! I mean who just takes a filled mug and throws it at you the first thing they see you!?!?   While I would like to give them my two-cents on how completely unreasonable they are being, I get my act together and run! Because at this rate, they will actually kill me! I even activated [Charge] to get some distance as fast as possible!

I woke up in the morning especially grouchy. Not only from remembering the things from yesterday, but also from the fact that I had nothing to smelt!   So I spent my time in bed grumbling about how unfair life is and how everyone is out to get me and such!   “psst… Steal some ore to smelt...no one will know...” muttered a small Shiro with horns on my shoulder.   Wah?   “Don’t listen to her!” muttered a Shiro with a halo and angelic wings on my other shoulder. “...stealing is wrong! Commit genocide of the humans and dogkin instead!” she added.   “Ha? Aren’t you my angelic half? How can you say such cruel things?” I question.   “That is right, I am your angelic half. Good and Evil is decided by each individual, in history genocide has been done plenty of times for the greater good!” explained my angelic self.   “GUH! All this stress is driving me crazy!” I scream in the room that was luckily empty.   Since I woke up a bit late, it did not take long for breakfast to come. So I put my daydreaming delusions aside, and went to get some chow. Hoping to get my mind off things such a distraction, only to suffer some more with a reminder of how bad the food was!   And from there, I headed out of the city. Since there was no need to stop by the Adventurers Guild for a repeatable quest after all. I usually do stop by to see if there is any new quests and such, but I wasn’t in the mood for going there in the morning...   Personally... I wanted to vent some stress killing things, and part of me wanted to go hunt a [Dire Wolf] due to their “similarity” with a certain someone. But good thing the voice of reason stopped me, cause I’d probably end up getting myself killed.   * sigh *   I calm myself down and proceed with the task at hand, which is looking for [Dire Foxes] and herbs.   It takes me about an hour to locate a [Dire Fox] this time around, it was level 9. I decide to use the same strategy I used last time of letting it notice me, then wait for it to attack me. It seems to have the least risk of messing up. As before the [Dire Fox] runs away, only to sneak up behind me and attempt to attack from behind. Of course that is what I was waiting for, as I repeat my maneuver of [Charge], then with [All-Observing-Eyes] stab it in the eye with my combination of my 3 skills!   The [Dire Fox] smashed into the floor from the impact.   [Critical Hit] You have dealt 248 damage to the [Dire Fox]!   Darn! In my rage my attack was shallow!   The [Dire Fox] slowly gets up and begins glaring at me…   * grrrrrrrr *   I calm myself down and grab a rock, hurling it at the [Dire Fox] with my [Throw] skill. Which it quickly dodges to the side. I use this opportunity to approach it from its newly created blind side and stab it in the neck, finishing it off.   [Critical Hit] You have dealt 162 damage to the [Dire Fox]!   This is really unacceptable… I can’t let my emotions cloud my judgment during battle... It was good that the enemy was weak and my mess up was minor. But in a situation where I am fighting something of equal strength or stronger, I am just asking for a death wish...   I disassemble the [Dire Fox] and spend the next 3 hours just looking for herbs and cooling myself off.   After I feel like I have cooled off, I again begin to look for [Dire Foxes]. And it takes me only 5 minutes to find one this time around since I was already keeping track of monsters.   This [DireFox] was level 7. I used my usual strategy of letting it run away, then when it attacked me from behind, I finish it off with one precise attack!   [Critical Hit] You have dealt 370 damage to the [Dire Fox]!   Dead in one strike, as it should be! I finish disassembling it in only 10 minutes and move on.   Now that I am convinced I got my groove back in, I resume searching for the last [Dire Fox]. Even though I don’t have enough space in my [Item Box] for the whole thing. If I forgo some of the meat, I can fit it in.   In about half an hour, I spot my last prey! This [Dire Fox] was level 10!   Like last time, I let the [Dire Fox] notice me, and run into the bushes. Then as it sneaks up on me and attacks, I turn around and…   You have taken 36 damage. Your skill [RA][Sprint] has become Level 3   “Wha?!”   The [Dire Fox] was apparently faster than I initially thought… for reasons I found quickly apparent. It tackled me to the ground and began sinking its teeth into my neck!   You have taken 62 damage.   I tightly grip my dagger and start desperately stabbing the [Dire Fox]! While I can’t use [Thrust] or [Impale] like this, [Penetrate] is still going strong. I even activate [Berserk] in desperation. Though I do resist the urge to use [All-Observing-Eyes][Overload].   You have dealt 92 damage to the [Dire Fox]! You have dealt 103 damage to the [Dire Fox]! You have taken 83 damage. You have dealt 117 damage to the [Dire Fox]! You have dealt 115 damage to the [Dire Fox]!   Only then did it finally stop moving...   “Wheh...that was close...” I exclaim.   If it wasn’t for my helmet providing protection to my neck...I’d probably be dead…   Today has been one of the crappiest days in a long time...I really need something to make my day... cause things are just looking too grim…     …     Level up! Enlightened Race: +1 in all unlocked attributes +1 free attribute +20 HP +10 Stamina +10 Mental Beastkin: +2 STR +2 VIT +1 AGI Catkin: +2 AGI +1 DEX   Mr. Level up-san! How I missed you!   You always know how to brighten my day!   Speaking of brightening my day...Isn’t this the perfect opportunity to try “that”?   I think of the incantation as words flow through my mind, which takes quite a while. But when it finishes I then shout out!   “[Light Magic: Holy Light]!”   A warm light envelops me, recovering my health.   You have recovered 19 damage.   Though at same time a headache assaults me taking a toll on my [Mental]. It wasn’t to the point where I would faint, but it would definitely be a demerit during actual combat. Luckily after about 5 minutes though the headache was quickly gone.   Overall, I put about 10 MP into it. I could have probably put in all 15 MP, but I don’t know if this would has something like when your MP hits 0, you fall unconscious or something like that. Which would be pretty much guaranteed death in this forest. I should probably test that in a safer environment...   I should also probably visit that church again and see if I can get any more spells or levels...err...I mean give my thanks…   I proceed to disassemble the last fox, and leave out the less expensive parts of the [Dire Fox Meat]. Once done, I proceed to collect herbs again while avoiding monsters.   In total, by end of the day I managed to collect 11 herbs. So I keep 1 [Dire Milkweed] for my [Alchemy] and head to the guild to do my cash in. Personally, I don’t want to meet that dogkin again, but since I’m gonna get paid, I’ll tolerate it to some extent.   I arrive at the counter and after waiting in a short line place the materials there.   “Lets see, that would be 35 iron coins for the herbs, plus 10 iron coins from the quest for a total of 45 iron coins. For the [Dire Fox Meat] that would be 15 iron coins. And lastly for the [Dire Fox Pelts], I can give you 40 iron coins for the two of the pelts, but the last one is a bit damaged, so it will be 17 iron coins. Lastly it will be 1 silver coin for the quest reward. The total sum ends up 2 silver and 17 iron coins” the dogkin announces.   Despicable dogkin trying to cheat me out of my just rewards! Though instead of making a futile argument, I place my hand on the orb and claim my coins obediently.   Now my total savings is almost at 5 silver coins! It isn’t much, but I am getting there step by step.   This time around, I am going to do a slight change to my schedule. I walk to the request board to look for the quest I was looking for. Specifically the Rank G quest [Help: Clean the Church]. The payout is only a measly 1 iron coin. From what I’ve seen, this quest has been mostly taken by beastkin who recently escaped to help pay for their food till they get something more permanent.   This quest is also a continuous quest. But unlike other continuous quests, there is a limit of how many people can accept the quest. So I mark myself down for tomorrow morning.   My motives? As pure as a white cat!   Once that is done, I head back to the Blacksmithing Guild. Before going to sleep, I played around a bit with lowering my mana pool to see the result. I did not attempt to try 0 MP since you never know, that could be instant death for all I know… But I tried getting it down to around 1 MP and the result seems to be similar to be a larger strain on my [Mental] and that is about it. With the knowledge, I go off to nap.   ...   The next day, the first thing I do when waking up is head for the Church. From my understanding, I need to help for a minimum 3 hours to receive my commission. I arrive at the back entrance of the church where we were told to gather in the request. Standing there is a boy dogkin and a girl bunnykin, both are slightly older than me by about a year or 2.   “Hey, I am Rex, you must be new around...a retard?” the dogkin exclaimed after he gets closer.   !?!??!?!?! GUH!! Did I ever mention I hate dogkin?   “Let me make this clear right here and now! I am not a retard! If you say that one more time, I will freakin’ [Slice] off your tongue!” I bellow while glaring daggers at him. I might or might not be pointing a real dagger at him as well, but who worries about such minor unrelated details...   “Hii!?!?” exclaimed Rex in surprise.   I am higher level than them and I will probably never meet them again, I have no reason to tolerate their BS! Maybe the fastest way to get what I want is to cut him up a bit, then wait for the priest to come and heal him * evil grin *   Ugh! What the hell is wrong with me...it feels like this world is making me into a psychopath day by day.   I calm myself down and wait for whoever issued the request a distance away from the other two beastkin.   Shortly after, a Nun came by, though unlike Kesha, she was far older.   “You are all here I see. For those that don’t know, I am Nun Lina. I will be in charge of overseeing your work. Rex, you will be in charge of cleaning this back yard. Alexa, you will help with the laundry. And what is your name little one?” asked Nun Lina.   “My name is Shiro” I reply.   “Shiro then, you will help with washing the hallways. The water is available at the well, and the towels you need are located over by the shed to the right” said Nun Lina pointing at the shed.   “Okay! No problem” I exclaim and head to get the stuff I need in the shed.   I take a towel, then a basket and go to the well. After I pull up some water, I began cleaning the hallways as instructed.   Of course I have another agenda, the first one is scouting! As I wash the hallways, I use [Smell Sense] and [Presence Sense] in hopes of locating the priest. I go from room to room where I sense something to see if I can locate him. But so far no luck…   “So you must be new here” exclaimed a childish voice from behind.   I turn around and see a well dressed boy same age as me.   “Uhm… yes, I picked up a Rank G quest at the Adventurers Guild and today is my first day...” I reply, then thinking it as an opportunity “By the way, do you happen to know where the priest is?” I add.   “The priest is away for today and will not be back till end of the day. By the way, for your information I am Anderson, the great disciple of the priest!” announced the boy in a proud matter-of-fact tone.   Darn! Just my luck! Wait...hmm...maybe I can use this…   “By disciple of the priest, do you mean that you can use magic?” I inquire in curiosity.   “Of course I can! ... [Light Magic: Light]! Aren’t I awesome?” exclaimed Anderson excitedly as a ball of light appeared and hovered over his head.   You have acquired a new sub-skill [NA][Light Magic: Light] Level 1   More than you know it sucker! Though why didn’t I get level 2? Is it because he lacks the proper level? Lets see if I can extract some more information…   “That is amazing! What level is your [Light Magic]?” I question pretending to be thrilled. Well, actually I am thrilled, but for a different reason then he thinks.   “Uhm...for now my [Light Magic] is still at Level 1, but it shouldn’t take long to reach level 2. I am already half way there!” bragged Anderson.   “What do you mean half way there?” I ask by reflex.   “Ah, you don’t know ha? I am a genius so I already have 5 spells levels right now, I just need to learn or gain 5 more spell levels to unlock level 2. Though for someone great like me, that is a piece of cake! Hahahaha” laughed Anderson.   So far so good!   “That is really amazing! What spells do you know and what level are they at?” I probe.   “I know right! My [Light] spell is at Level 2, I also have [Healing Touch] at level 1 and [Cure] at level 1. On top of that I even have [Blessing of the Sun] at level 1! One day, you can brag that you talked to someone as great as me!” gloated Anderson.   Hmmm...[Cure] is a bit difficult due to no valid target, [Healing Touch] probably overlaps a bit with [Holy Light]. But I should definitely get this [Blessing of the Sun].   “Super duper amazing! By the way, what does [Blessing of the Sun] do?” I inquire.   “I’ll have you know that [Blessing of the Sun] is one of the hardest level 1 spells to learn! It raises your stats as long as are in direct contact with sunlight” explained Anderson.   Interesting… I need to buy some time so lets change the topic for a while.   “By the way, I am new to this town, can you tell me what deity this Church worships?” I ask.   “You don’t know even that? This is the great Church that worships the [Divine Dungeon]! Initially my family belonged to Dragon God religion, but after it was found out I had talent in [Holy Magic], I was taken in as a disciple here! When I was 3 years old ...” Anderson rambled on.   Wow...he is like one of those NPCs...you ask one question and he brings out the whole life story...Not that I am complaining despite what he says goes out one ear and out the other…I mean seriously… he makes it sound like him walking down the street is the 2nd coming of god or something…   “… are you listening?” Anderson questioned.   “...Uhm...Yes! It sounds super awesome! By the way, can you demonstrate the amazingly difficult to learn [Blessing of the Sun]? I’ve never seen anyone good enough to cast it before!” I insist.   “Sure! No problem! Let me demonstrate my great skills! Just stand by the window over there” points Anderson.   I do as instructed and stand in the sun by the window.   “[Light Magic: Blessing of the Sun]!” he exclaimed.   You have received the [Light Magic: Blessing of the Sun]!   +1 to all unlocked attributes while under direct sunlight for 1 hour You have acquired a new sub-skill [NA][Light Magic: Blessing of the Sun] Level 1   Way too easy! He is like a spell pinata! The more you tug at him, the more spells come out! Too bad he is only at level 1 though...   Regardless, I should steal as many spells as I can. I was hoping for an offensive spell though…   “Anderson! Are you disrupting the temporary workers again? You have your own duties to attend to as well, are you finished?!?!” bellowed a voice from behind.   “Hii?!?!” squealed Anderson and ran.   Turning around I saw Nun Lina heading down the hallway.   “Tche! It was going so well...” I mutter silently.   Lina then came over and faced me.   “Sorry about that, that boy likes to brag about himself way too much. Due to being brought here, he has doesn’t really have many people to talk to his age. If he bothers you again, just tell me and I’ll set him straight” Nun Lina said.   “It was no trouble at all, I’ll get back to my duties now if you excuse me” I reply as I head down the hallway.   Since it does not seem like the priest is going to be here today, lets speed things up a notch! Using my extra stats from [SPD] and [END], then pick up the pace cleaning the hallways. It took me only an hour and a half to clean all the hallways.   After I finish, I head back to see Nun Lina.   “I finished!” I exclaim.   “Already?” asked Nun Lina in astonishment.   “Yup! Feel free to check” I confirm.   She walks around the hallways inspecting here and there, then returns.   “I am surprised you finished so quickly... Normally, the minimum required time is 3 hours, but I don’t really have much else for you to do. So I guess I’ll count it as a complete for today. Here is your 1 iron coin and a slip to claim completion from the guild” said Nun Lina while handing over the reward.   “Thank you very much!” I exclaim, and head out of the Church, after spending that 1 iron coin I got on some meat skewers for breakfast. I again leave the city towards the forest.

While we were walking through the forest looking for herbs. I was processing some of the information I got from the guild. Long story short, I doubt I can level up outside of killing monsters. I might be able to speed things up if I start collecting herbs for real. But with Kuina here that is rather difficult. I can try waiting out till I get enough trust to be alone, but I don’t know when that would be.   I need to level up as much as I can while looking for a solution to the [Slavery Collar], cause even if I do get out, it does not change the fact that I am too weak. But regardless, I need to start collecting information on the [Slavery Collar] and my best bet on it is Kuina.   Though that is hard to pull off when every half an hour Kuina says things like “You won’t be so lucky today”. She is really taking things a bit too personal.   After some thought I came up with a solution. I call it “Operation: Two Birds with one stone”. The plan is simple really, I will use my [Smell Sense] to find monsters and identify their smells from a safe distance. Once I know how the monsters look like and their average level. I will on purpose lead us to monsters while looking for herbs. An evil grin appears on my face.   Everyone says that companions are born in battle! If me and Kuina fight together and grow stronger together. She will eventually accept me and I’ll be free to ask her anything I want. My very own foxkin encyclopedia!   Of course there is a lot of risk in this plan. I really did not want to fight monsters head on. I would prefer to trap and ambush them from a safe distance. But now since I will be “accidentally” leading us to monsters. Not only will we not get the ambush, in some cases the monster will get the head start since I would have to approach from a direction of the wind to get around Kuina’s [Smell Sense] Level 1. The bright side to this is Kuina is pretty strong. She is 15 years old and level 9. So she should be almost 2X stronger than me in theory. So if we hunt solo monsters that are Level 5 and below it should be pretty safe...probably…I’m sure she would be very thankful once this is all over!   Now then, lets start the operation. But first lets get a head start by getting some information from Kuina. While she might not be willing to talk about many things, since this topic is related to herb hunting it should be fine.   “Hey Kuina, I have a question. What kind of monsters are around these parts and what levels are they? I want to be sure that I avoid them the best I can” I say in the most innocent tone I can muster.   Kuina looks at me a bit ticked and says “Who let you call me by my name retard?!?” she takes a moment to ponder while glaring daggers at me then continues “Ugh..fine. The monsters around these parts include [Rabid Squirrels] who range from level 2 – 6. [Stink Beetles] who range from level 3 – 8. [Dire Mokeys] who range from level 5 – 12. [Red Wolfs] who range from level 8 – 15. Just try not to get yourself killed on my watch.”   So it seems like the only ones that fall into the acceptable safety range are [Rabid Squirrels] and [Stink Beetles]. Though I somehow have a bad feeling about the later. I wish [Smell Sense] could help me detect a monster’s level but that is just wishful thinking.   So first order of business is finding what [Rabid Squirrels] smell like. I try to hone in on all the mammal scents I can’t identify and proceed in that direction. As we get closer, Kuina suddenly stops.   “There is a monster near by!” she exclaims as she takes up an alert stance.   Playing dumb I ask “Do you know which kind of monster is it and how many?”   “It smells like a single [Dire Monkey]” she exclaimed.   I see...that is a scent of a [Dire Monkey]...a bit risky but there is still a high probability it is within safety range. I prepared my spear for combat.   We both stood there covering each other’s back searching for the monkey. Of course I actually knew exactly where the monkey was due to my higher skill level despite not being able to see it behind the leaves of the tree. The monkey was still a distance away and I was worried that Kuina would insist to run if there was an opportunity to escape.   So I let the monkey get closer and closer while remaining vigilant. Once the monkey got close enough we both noticed it, I instinctively activated [All-Observing-Eyes] though at that moment I saw a rock being flung at me.     You have acquired a new skill [RA][Throw] Level 1     I barely dodged it by a few millimeters and used [Identify] on the [Dire Monkey].     Dire Monkey Gender Male Race Dire Monkey Class Level HP 390/390 MP ? Dire Monkey 8     A little bit out of my comfort zone but should still be doable. The biggest issue is getting to it since it is on a tree. I guess it is time to try my new skill!   I grab rock from the ground and use the [Throw] skill. Unfortunately the [Dire Monkey] flung to the side and I missed but luckily it was enough to get him off balance and he landed on the ground.   Not wanting to miss this opportunity I activate [Charge] while stabbing with my spear. In the past my spear thrusts were more akin to a child playing with a stick, but now that I have spear mastery even at level 1 I feel I can probably at least compete in a high school competition.   I stab the monkey in the shoulder, not wanting to lost the opportunity while the monkey was off guard, I then raise the spear and use downwards [Slash]. Unfortunately, due to my spear being a blunt weapon due to it being a wooden spear and not a real one, the bonus of slash was limited but still better than nothing.     You have dealt 62 damage to the [Dire Monkey]! You have dealt 83 damage to the [Dire Monkey]!   Despite my decisive blows, my mastery of the spear and the monkey’s rather low defense the damage I did was rather lacking due to my poor weapon. I then jump back and gain a little distance as a spear is not particularly grand at short range. Since I injured the shoulder of it’s dominant arm, it should have a harder time throwing things as well.   I then take a notice of Kuina who is just standing there staring blankly.   “What are you doing Kuina?!?! help me out here!” I exclaim.   She snaps out of her stumper and yells back “What are you doing! This is our chance to run!”.   Somewhat perplexed I question back frantically “What do you mean run?!?! It is injured and alone so we can take it out!”   Noticing the monkey making a move to attack head on in rage. I again activate [Charge] and stab the monkey in the stomach blowing it back. This time due to it being a decisive blow at rather close range, the damage was much better despite the poor weapon.     You have dealt 136 damage to the [Dire Monkey]!   From behind I can hear stomping and and yelling.   “Ugh! You stupid retard! Why do I have to put up with this!?!?” Kuina complained.   Then she gets in a ready position and… runs away…     You have acquired a new skill [RA][Sprint] Level 1   “WHA?!?!” I exclaimed completed stunned.   I totally did not see that one coming...wasn’t she ordered to protect me?   Since the monkey noticed that its opponents has shrunk down from 2 to 1 and that I was momentarily off guard. It decided to vent its anger and jumped straight at me!   I quickly brandished the spear and again thrust forward hitting the [Dire Monkey] by its thigh. Unfortunately, the hit was shallow and not only was the damage low but I was not able to stop its momentum and the monkey landed right on top of me. As a result I ended up falling to the ground and letting go off the spear.   With the monkey on top of me it started bashing me in the face with its arms over and over.   You have dealt 18 damage to the [Dire Monkey]! You have taken 24 damage. You have been stunned for 0.5 seconds. You have taken 32 damage. You have been stunned for 0.5 seconds. You have taken 28 damage. You have been stunned for 0.5 seconds. You have taken 36 damage. You have been stunned for 0.5 seconds. You have taken 31 damage. You have been stunned for 0.5 seconds.   Things were not looking good… In no time at all I lost almost half my HP and I could not pull myself together as the monkey kept bashing me on the head.   As I was panicking trying to find a solution out of this desperate situation I heard a loud * thud *, afterwards I stopped feeling being attacked and opened my eyes. The monkey was gone and instead was a blue window.       Level up! Sentient Creature: +1 in all unlocked attributes +1 free attribute +20 HP +10 Stamina +10 Mental Beastkin: +2 STR +2 VIT +1 AGI Catkin: +2 AGI +1 DEX   I took a look around and behind me was the [Dire Monkey] with its face to the floor and a rusted dagger stabbed in the back of its neck.   Preceding over it was Kuina. Who then came over to me and asked if I was okay…oh who am I kidding…   “Are you stupid?! Are you a retard!? Wait don’t answer that! Who in the world attacks a monster head on like that? Do you have a death wish?! I don’t care if you die but don’t do it on my watch or I’ll get in trouble!” she complained.   Wondering thus far I asked the first thing in my mind “I thought...you ran...so why...” I inquired.   “Of course I ran! I don’t have a combat class nor any combat skills, the only thing I can remotely use for combat is an ambush via [Sprint]’s momentum from a long distance. And even then that is pushing it. I am not a suicidal retard like you who rushes in head first!” she bellowed.   This is definitely something I did not consider...Since my Unique Skill does not allow me to get or train skills normally, I never thought about how difficult it is to obtain skills. So despite Kuina being Level 9 she is most likely weaker in combat than I am?   This is really a bind, I am going to have to reconsider my options and might have to find a way to convince Kuina to fight monsters with me. At the very least provide some cover…   So for now I put “Operation: Two Birds with one stone” aside and proceeded to gather herbs at a steady pace. When we collected the 15 herbs for the day we headed for the guild, Kuina seemed to be rather upset that I was able to meet the quota 2 days in a row.   ...