Radahn had brought his little horse out to scout a location.
Thanks to the Scarlet Rot, the Redmane army had taken heavy losses. Their former headquarters had long since fallen into ruin, ravaged by corruption. Considering how troublesome it would be to clean up, and how Redmane Castle was tucked away in a remote corner of Caelid, making communication difficult, the little horse suggested finding a more central location with decent surroundings—something suitable for setting up a temporary camp. A place where Radahn could gather the more level-headed individuals, hold a meeting to figure out their next steps, and use it as a provisional command center to oversee reconstruction efforts.
The place didn't need to be large. After all, given that the general led by example, the average level of education among his troops was… well, let's just say, hard to describe.
Take, for example, a certain Miss Freyja—who declined to give her surname—who ran off to the Specimen Storehouse. She couldn't find the Guidance of Grace, couldn't make sense of the stone tablets, and her confused muttering echoed across two floors. In the end, she had to bother a Blood Dynasty veteran next door to help translate. Only then did she get a vague idea of what the tablets meant—and came away with the profound conclusion: "Fighting is awesome!"
Of course, you can't judge the whole by a few individuals.
But then you look back at the head of the Redmanes—our beloved General Radahn.
Let's not even start with how he hasn't said a coherent sentence from the Lands Between to the Land of Shadow, seemingly terrified that opening his mouth might shatter his image.
Just his look alone tells you everything you need to know.
Like how the top half of his helmet is deliberately open to show off his red hair—an inheritance from his father, Radagon, which he views as a mark of being a hero's son and wears with pride.
Never mind that Radagon himself saw it as a curse from the giants and would've gladly yanked it all out.
Or how he's idolized the "First Elden Lord" Godfrey since childhood and modeled his armor after Godfrey's lion design, even making his soldiers wear lion-themed armor. Except, that lion on Godfrey's armor? It was actually his external brain, which restricted his power.
So, while individual cases may not speak for the majority, from top brass to veteran grunts, the Redmanes as a whole often come across like a bunch of tragic prodigies. You can always count on their courage, loyalty, and martial prowess—but everything else, well...
Let's all just turn and admire the distant Erdtree, shall we?
In any case, Radahn had come here with the little horse on serious business.
And then ran into Lloyd and Ranni—though whether they were here on business was unclear.
After a silent moment where their gazes met, Radahn blinked and was the first to speak.
"So you really dragged Ranni out here, huh?"
The red-haired horse girl twitched an eye, thinking, "You're still hung up on that?"
Lloyd shook his head.
"She came on her own. Said she wanted to check things out."
"She's not exactly in a position to be going out right now, is she?"
"No, I tried to talk her out of it. But she seemed pretty concerned about what's going on here and was... pretty worried... mmph..."
"Shut up!"
Ranni snapped through clenched teeth.
Then she lifted her head, her face returning to its usual calm. With one hand covering Lloyd's mouth, she spoke as if nothing had happened.
"I'm just here to observe the flow of the stars and gather some information about Caelid."
Radahn blinked, looking a bit puzzled.
"But isn't Liurnia the best place for stargazing? And isn't Blaidd over there? You could've just asked him to report back about Caelid instead... mmph..."
His mouth was promptly covered too.
"Lady Ranni."
The red-haired horse girl gave a polite nod.
"Due to prolonged exposure to the Scarlet Rot, General Radahn's mental state is severely impaired. He's currently unfit for communication. If you need anything, I can speak on his behalf—General Radahn, you don't mind, do you?"
She looked at Radahn as she spoke, and he quickly gestured his agreement.
Seeing this, Ranni paused, then glanced at the red-haired horse girl with a slight frown.
Where did this woman come from?
Ranni had some understanding of her brother's temperament.
He might act a bit slow sometimes, but only a bit. When it counted—during serious situations—he was dependable. He'd listen to advice, sure, but he had his own will. He was never the type to be ordered around.
And yet now, not only was this woman sitting on his shoulder, but with just a wave of her hand, she'd gotten Radahn to shut up.
This didn't line up at all with what Ranni knew about him—and that red-haired woman with horse ears? She'd never seen her before, hadn't even heard of her... Wait a second.
Horse ears?
And that strange sense of familiarity—don't tell me...
"It's me, Lady Ranni," the red-haired horse girl said with a small nod. "We've met before. Back then, I was still serving as the general's mount—you even fed me a carrot."
"…You're that little horse?"
"I am."
When the woman nodded, Ranni's brain just stopped. The shock hit her harder than when Radahn got clowned on by Lloyd.
After all, without Destined Death, Radahn technically hadn't truly died after the Festival—his body was destroyed, sure, but it just meant the stars were unsealed.
Given that, and considering Lloyd's absurdly advanced soul manipulation, the idea of bringing Radahn back was surprising, but not unthinkable.
But this little horse...
You know, right? That was Radahn's horse!
Outsiders might see the bond between Radahn and his horse as some touching legend.
But because they were family, Ranni knew just how weird it really was.
"Why don't you just spend the rest of your life with your horse!"
"Eh? Really? I can?"
This snippet came from one of the Full Moon Queen's many conversations with Radahn. After saying that, she pulled out her staff and hit him with a good old Spinning Weapon.
According to unofficial accounts, that spell was originally invented by the Queen herself—specifically to deal with her own son.
Because said foolish son had skin like armor, and her dainty sorcerer arms couldn't hurt him physically, she eventually developed the spell.
One day, while she was smacking him with it, someone saw them and she quickly claimed it was a traditional self-defense technique passed down by Carian princesses.
Anyone who knew even a little magic could tell—it was a complete gimmick.
I mean, if you're going to spend all that effort making your staff spin around, you'd be better off just throwing an actual spell at someone. It'd do way more damage.
And besides, the Carians were masters of all sorts of knight sorcery—magic that was both deadly and elegant. Even if you didn't like the knights' flashy moves, a slight adjustment in form could make them graceful. There was absolutely no need to come up with a ridiculous technique like that. You might as well just snap your staff in two.
Anyway, rumors aside, the whole Radahn-and-horse situation had been a sore subject in the Queen's household for a long time.
It wasn't that the Full Moon Queen disapproved of Radahn keeping the horse. She didn't even mind if he built a shrine to it.
The issue was that Radahn insisted on bringing that horse everywhere.
He'd ride it around during the day, share meals with it at lunch, and sometimes even sleep beside it at night.
Just… yeah...
To be fair, since her sister had run off with a Serpent, the Queen had built up a decent tolerance for this kind of thing.
And to be clear, Radahn didn't harbor any romantic feelings toward the little horse—it was just a deep, if slightly awkward, friendship. The Queen could turn a blind eye to that.
But when you're that big and still insist on dragging a tiny horse into battle with you, even learning Gravity Sorcery just so you could bring it along...
That's not devotion—that's playing with your own life.
Stack that on top of all his past stunts, which only kept escalating...
Forget the Queen—even Ranni and Rykard struggled to keep a straight face when the topic came up.
Especially in social settings—when people gushed about the heartwarming tale of Radahn and his horse, the two of them would plaster on polite smiles and nod along, but what they were actually thinking...
Only the gods knew.
So yeah, while Radahn and his horse were practically legendary by now, the people closest to him? Every single one of them avoided the topic like the plague.
And now, that horse had turned into a person. Or half a person. With the same red hair that ran in the family. And a female, no less...
Given everything that had come before, Ranni was really struggling to keep it together.
But just as her calm mask was about to crack, she suddenly thought of a perfect way to let off some steam.
"Does Mother know about this?"
She leaned in and whispered into Lloyd's ear.
"Not yet," Lloyd whispered back.
"Then make sure she hears it—no, wait, take me to her. I want to tell her myself."
After that brief exchange, Ranni lifted her head and had a short conversation with the red-haired horse girl, clarifying her intentions. Only then did she let out a quiet sigh of relief.
It wasn't great—but at least it wasn't the absolute disaster she'd imagined.
Though, odds were, it was only a matter of time. Still, having a little breathing room was better than nothing.
"If you've got business to handle, we won't get in the way," said Ranni.
The red-haired horse girl nodded. "Thank you for understanding, Miss Ranni. Please don't worry—General Radahn and I didn't see anything here. We saw nothing."
"Huh? But…" Radahn looked a little confused.
The horse girl's tone sharpened. "We. Saw. Nothing."
"…Oh."
And with that, the man and his horse turned and left.
...
Once they were gone and Ranni finally exhaled, she suddenly realized something was off.
Wait a minute—what did they mean by "we saw nothing"?
The shock of the horse turning into a human had left Ranni so fixated on her and Radahn's situation that she'd completely ignored her own.
Only now did she notice that throughout the entire exchange… she'd been sitting on Lloyd's shoulders.
Not just that—she'd wrapped her arms around him multiple times, even whispered in his ear.
...
No wonder the horse girl's expression had been so strange.
No wonder her idiot brother had kept looking like he wanted to say something but didn't.
Ranni fell silent.
She was about to speak, but her gaze shifted to the half-eaten fruit in Lloyd's hand. She swallowed her words.
Time passed.
With a weary sigh, something landed atop Lloyd's head.
"You win."
Ranni collapsed onto his head, the elegance and mystery she'd always maintained crumbling in an instant.
She'd realized it was hopeless—trying to keep up appearances in front of this fool was just self-torture.
No matter how composed or refined she tried to be, how tightly she guarded herself, this fool always found some absurd angle to land a direct hit.
And the worst part? She couldn't even fight back.
Against a hollow puppet, unless it was physical violence, she couldn't hurt him at all.
And physically? Even if she wanted to try, she wasn't winning that fight.
She couldn't outtalk him, couldn't outfight him, couldn't outmaneuver him—she couldn't even come up with a good counter.
After such a complete loss, even someone as stubborn as the Carian princess had to finally admit it: she was defeated.
And yet… it didn't feel so bad.
Ranni had expected to feel humiliated, ashamed—like her carefully maintained image had shattered.
But the feeling passed quickly.
Because as she lay there on Lloyd's head, she realized… this wasn't so bad.
No need to constantly worry about how she looked. No need to brace for another of his sneak attacks. No need to get lost thinking about fate, darkness, freedom, and all that nonsense.
She could just lie there, letting his steps sway her gently, not thinking about anything.
It felt… nice.
Like the weight wrapped around her heart had finally lifted.
But…
That was as far as it went.
With a soft sigh, Ranni opened her eyes.
No matter how relaxed she felt, she knew this was only a brief pause.
From the moment she looked up at the sky and touched the laws of the stars, her path had been set.
Obey and become a puppet of the stars' will—or defy it, and walk the cold, lonely path into darkness.
She'd chosen the latter. She accepted that fate, and all the price it would demand.
But for now…
"Lloyd."
"Hmm?"
"Feed me fruit."
"What? You—pick up the knife, and I'll feed you."
"I'm not picking it up."
"Then I'm not feeding you."
"Then I'm not picking up the knife."
Let her be selfish, just for a little while.
Let her have this brief warmth, this quiet peace for her soul.
And in return, the cold Dark Moon would cast its light upon the flame.
"You said before you wanted the Dark Moon Greatsword, right?"
"I did. Why?"
Ranni paused, then said, "Help me find something. If you do, I'll give you information about the Dark Moon Greatsword."
"Seriously?"
"Seriously." She nodded.
She'd never planned to be Elden Lord anyway, and the Dark Moon Greatsword was something she'd made on a whim.
Rather than letting it sit around gathering dust, better to give it to someone who could actually use it—and maybe reinforce their alliance a bit while she was at it.
But...
"What about my Moonlight Greatsword?"
Of course, mentioning the Dark Moon Greatsword reminded Lloyd of the one he'd given Ranni.
Ranni was silent for a moment, then looked away.
"We should go see my mother."
Lloyd blinked. "...Huh?"
"I mean my Moonlight Greatsword—"
"We should go see my mother."
She repeated it.
Silence.
Lloyd raised an eyebrow. "You didn't lose it, did you…"
"No!" Ranni shot back instantly, then her voice softened. "I'll return it. I just need a little more time."
"How much longer?"
"Soon."
She lifted her head and looked toward the sky, her gaze piercing through the golden haze, locking onto the sea of stars.
"Very soon."
The stars were already moving. Her fate had been unsealed. Only one last piece remained, and her plan could begin.
She would walk the road she chose—the lonely, dark, frozen road ahead.
But before that…
"Let's drop by my mother's place first."
Still resting on Lloyd, Ranni's expression returned to normal.
And when she brought it up, she actually sounded a bit excited.
"You managed to stir up Radahn and all of Caelid. Something like that? No way we're not telling her."
Lloyd thought about it. Fair enough.
So, after wandering around a bit longer, they teleported to the Grand Library and met with the Full Moon Queen.
And then...
"Ranni, take this staff."
With a solemn face, the Queen of the Full Moon handed her a staff.
"Go spin that ungrateful son of mine to death."
"Gladly," Ranni said with a smile.
"My dearest mother."
...
[Upto 20 chapters ahead for now]
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