The current of time resumed.
And just like that, I was human again.
Pain slammed into me like a tidal wave, though in truth, it had never left. It had only waited, suspended, a dull echo held back by the stillness of power.
'Reason and Judgment can be dangerous.' The thought echoed in sync with the throbbing pain of my arm.
Not just because of what it sees.
But because of what it lets you forget.
The ability to rise above it all, pain, doubt, fear.
To stand alone in a frozen moment and feel untouchable.
To believe, even for an instant, that the world is beneath you.
'Pride was always the most subtle of sins, wasn't it?'
I exhaled through gritted teeth and shook the thought away.
No time to linger in false clarity.
Emilia wanted an answer.
I would give it to her.
She sat in silence, watching me as I pushed myself to my feet.
My gaze drifted to Tracksuit, still out cold… then back to Emilia.
I stretched out my left arm, offering her my still-gloved hand.
'Will you take the poor sinner's hand?'
A small smile touched her lips, soft with relief.
And she took my hand without hesitation.
"I'll go with you, Emilia," I said, voice steady. "Puck asked me to keep you safe… It's only right I see you home without further incident."
"Mmn. I don't need you to keep me safe, you dunderhead." She grumbled lightly.
'Dunderhead. What does that even mean?'
"My bad, my bad." I waved my left hand in surrender, then turned toward Reinhard.
"Well, buddy. Looks like I'll be off for a little bit. Could you do me a favor?"
Reinhard straightened like a soldier receiving orders.
"If it's within my capabilities, I'll do my absolute best to make it happen."
I gave him a look. "I don't think it's that serious. Just… could you keep the stuff in my room safe? Toss it in a storage closet or something, I just don't want to lose it all."
He nodded firmly, his smile touched with something almost… wistful.
"I think I can do a little better than that, Ethan. You'll always have a room at the Astrea Estate, should you desire it. I'll keep your possessions safe until you return."
I gave him a nod of thanks. It felt good, knowing I had a place to go back to if things went sideways. Or if it turned out Tracksuit over there wasn't the Witch's favored after all.
Reinhard glanced at Rom and Felt, still unconscious, then turned to Emilia, offering a polite bow.
"My apologies for not being able to assist further in reclaiming your insignia, Lady Emilia."
Then he stepped forward and lifted both Rom and Felt like they were nothing, light as air.
He paused before us, gaze rising to the bright full moon overhead.
"Ethan. Do be careful, my friend. Know that I'll always come if you call."
"Thanks, buddy. I'm sure we'll be seeing each other soon."
He nodded at that, then turned back to Emilia.
"Lady Emilia. After the events of tonight, you should expect a summons from the Council."
And with that final warning, Reinhard stepped under the gaping hole in the roof…
…and leapt.
Shooting into the sky like a star, vanishing into the night.
My mouth hung open.
"What a dramatic exit."
I let out a sigh, brushing away the creeping edge of melancholy in favor of something more useful, action.
"Sooo… how exactly are we getting to your home?" I asked, glancing around at the ruined loot house.
Cracked beams, shattered floorboards, the lingering scent of blood and scorched wood.
We were still deep in the slums.
Carrying Tracksuit out of here was going to be a pain in the ass.
Emilia didn't answer right away.
I turned and caught her just standing there, brow furrowed, one hand tapping lightly against her chin as if trying to jog something loose.
"Emilia?" I prompted.
She blinked, eyes widening slightly.
"Ehh…" She winced. "I may or may not have… lost the person who came with me to the capital today."
I stared.
"…What."
'How do you just now remember that?'
I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, already feeling the oncoming headache.
I shook my head and shifted gears.
"Wait, you came to the capital? So you're not from the Residential District?"
"No," she said, shifting her weight as she stepped closer to the unconscious Tracksuit. "I'm currently staying with my sponsor, Lord Roswaal."
'Lord Roswaal? Who the hell is that? I'm way too clueless on matters that might be common knowledge.'
I schooled my face into something vaguely competent.
"Ah. Roswaal, huh? Big name. Owns a lot of territory, doesn't he?"
Emilia brightened a little at that and gave a small nod, strands of silver hair falling across her cheek as she knelt beside Tracksuit.
"Mhm. Roswaal is the margrave of the Kingdom's western territories, though I've only been to a few places. Right now we're staying at his manor, which is close to Arlem. Do you know where that is?"
While she began gently picking up Tracksuit, I hit the pause button.
Click.
Time froze beneath my will, and the grand map from the Astrea Estate unfolded within my mind's eye, clean, sprawling, detailed.
Roswaal's domain stretched far across the northwest. I traced his crest, Mathers, stamped over key holdings. Costuul stood out first, a garrison city built like a shield wall near the kingdom's northern boundary. A half-dozen strongholds traced the border, a spine of stone against the Holy Kingdom of Gusteko.
Two major cities dominated the region, Costuul and Ganaks.
Though Ganaks bore a different crest, signaling it belonged to another noble.
Besides those population centers, the map listed a small village labeled Arlam, with one of Roswaal's manors tucked just a few miles beyond it.
Pulling the map wider, I traced the roads leading back toward the capital. Both of Roswaal's manors, at least, the two marked here, were well outside the capital's shadow, far enough to feel remote.
Between them and us loomed the Flugel Tree. Even in ink, the cartographer had lingered over its lines, towering, regal, a miniature Yggdrasil in design
'At least we have a better idea of where this Lord lives… and maybe even a hint of what he's capable of. The kingdom, hopefully, wouldn't put someone unfit for combat on the northern flank.'
Just as I was about to exit the frozen moment, a thought rang through my mind.
'This Margrave, tasked with defending and holding territory in both the north and west. Tasked with standing against one of the four Great Kingdoms. And Emilia… claimed this man as her "sponsor." What does that mean?'
Emilia was a royal candidate. The insignia was more than a trinket; it was proof she was legitimate.
'And today, she had that legitimacy stolen from her.'
I reached back with my Authority, memories flashing by of the day, the conversations, and a moment shared between me and her. A small comment she made, self-deprecation that wasn't meant to say much.
"It was really important to keep it secret," she'd told me while fiddling with a strand of her silver hair, "...And then I had it stolen the same day it was given to me."
The pieces began to arrange themselves.
Emilia received the insignia today, likely in a formal ceremony. Shortly after, she was robbed by Felt, who had been hired to steal that exact item.
Then came Elsa, arriving not just to retrieve the insignia, but to kill everyone in the building. She'd even said Emilia being here had "saved her the time of looking."
At the time, near when we arrived at the loot house where Elsa had been told to purchase the insignia from Felt, we had been travelling with Reinhard, a man of considerable power.
Conveniently, just before arrival, a sudden swarm of something called "mabeasts" breached the city limits and began wreaking havoc in sectors of the slums on the complete opposite side of the city, thus drawing him away.
'Did they have eyes on us the entire time?'
The idea felt like it rang hollow.
'No. Reinhard would have noticed it.'
My friend may often act aloof, but the way his eyes casually scanned the crowds while we walked, the way his vision traced the rooftops?
I hadn't noticed.
But my Authority did.
'So how did they know events would align so perfectly?'
Then there was the final concerning detail.
Lord Roswaal should be a man of excess, considering his noble title. If he was Emilia's sponsor in this royal selection, then where was her guard detail?
She'd been sent to the capital of Lugunica with a single companion, one she had somehow managed to lose.
'Why? Why take such a risk?'
There was something off about all of this.
Some deeper plot that wove through the cracks, and that was without even mentioning the fact that Elsa had known who I was, thanks to some "Mother."
'Continued speculation will get us nowhere.'
I agreed with the sentiment and let the frozen moment collapse.
The world snapped back into motion.
The lingering haze of Reason and Judgement still clung to me, inflating my steps with calm certainty.
Emilia gently adjusted Tracksuit's weight in her arms as he groaned faintly, no more than that. Still out cold.
While she handled him, I began to comb the ruined building.
Odds were, anything of value would be stripped clean by morning. No point in leaving it for someone else.
First on the list was a worn leather shoulder bag I'd spotted earlier, it had fallen from the bar top during the fight.
Inside were a pair of brown gloves, a small stack of silver coins, and a dagger in its sheath. Nothing special, but serviceable.
"Uhm, Ethan? What are you doing?" Emilia asked, her voice soft and uncertain.
I didn't look back as I slung the bag over my good shoulder and stepped toward the straight sword I'd noticed when I first entered the building.
"Just appropriating stolen goods, Lia," I said, offering a theatrical wave before kneeling down to examine the blade.
Still sharp. No major chips. Blood stains on the hilt made me imagine how its former owner had lost it.
"But isn't that wrong?" Came her innocent question.
"Nope." I popped the 'p' as I gave her a cheeky grin. "This stuff's going to be looted anyway. Might as well make sure I get the spoils. The slum dwellers didn't fight a naked psycho to survive. I did. Feels like a fair trade."
A sword on the wall caught my eye, or more specifically, its sheath. Looked like a decent match.
I ripped the rusted blade from it and confirmed my suspicion: worthless junk.
I tossed it aside with a clatter, slotted my newly claimed sword into the empty sheath, then strapped it to my hip using a belt I yanked off a nearby shelf.
"So," I said, stepping around the bar, "how exactly are we getting to Roswaal Manor, Lia?"
The shelves behind the counter offered little reward, mostly empty bottles.
I stepped over a collapsed two-by-four and started checking jugs; some sloshed with liquid.
Most of it reeked. The kind of cheap liquor that could peel paint.
But one? Smelled like nothing.
I poured a bit into a glass. Clear. Still.
Water.
I took a deep sip, filled the cup again, and drank another.
Then, without a word, I held the cup out toward Emilia.
She glanced at it, hesitated… then shook her head.
I nodded once, half-shrugging with my good arm.
Fair enough.
I poured the rest of the jug over my right hand, letting the water cascade down and rinse the blood away.
Sticky red trickled to the floor, pooling briefly before soaking into the warped wood.
"I suppose that we can start walking back to where I remember Ram being when I lost her?" Emilia finally responded while adjusting her hold on Tracksuit in her arms.
Just as I was about to move on, something caught my eye. A black pouch barely peeking out from behind an odd-looking barrel.
"And where exactly did you lose this 'Ram'? Was it near where Reinhard and I found you?"
The confidence from my Authority finally faded… but the looting spree was far from over.
I grabbed the pouch and nearly dropped it in surprise.
'Heavy.'
Opening the pouch, I was greeted by the glint of fifteen holy gold coins, the same kind Elsa had offered for the insignia.
I stashed the prize in my shoulder bag and made my way to the table where all this chaos had started.
Scattered among the debris were the rest of Elsa's coins.
"It was actually closer to the royal castle where I lost her," Emilia admitted.
I shot her a slow look as I crouched to collect the remaining gold.
"So… you lost her near the castle? Which, mind you, is about three entire districts away from where we found you?"
Emilia's face flushed red in the moonlight.
I couldn't help the laugh that slipped out. "Did you just keep walking?"
"It's not that funny, Ethan," she huffed, though there was no bite behind it.
"Right, right." I waved a hand. "Still, heading all the way back to the castle sounds like a massive pain. I say we just get out of the slums and find the nicest inn we can afford near a middle district."
I stepped closer to Emilia and instinctively tried to move my right arm, only for pain to spike so sharply that I immediately aborted the attempt.
'Why the hell didn't we just go with Reinhard?'
"Are you alright, Ethan?"
I waved it off. "I'll live. Let's just get moving. Can you carry the kid? Or do you want me to help move him?"
She gave me an oddly confident look.
"He's as light as a feather! I'll be fine."
"Uh… right. Well then? Shall we?"
She nodded, and together we stepped through what used to be a doorway, now just a frame, the door itself kicked in and forgotten amongst the ruins.
Our boots crunched against dry mud as we emerged into the open air of the slums.
And for a moment, I simply stood still.
'I'm… alive.'
My mind felt clear for once outside of my Authority.
The air felt colder than I remembered. The moonlight cast harsh shadows on crumbling walls and broken streets.
But somehow, even the slums looked… beautiful.
What caught my eye the most was the way wealth and poverty could be seen, mapped, and measured, all from where we stood.
Far in the distance, the capital of Lugunica sat atop a massive hill, its peak aglow with the warm, gold-white light of civilization.
Below it, where we stood, the slums sprawled in broken silence. Not a candle in sight. Just pitch-black windows and skeletal buildings.
Midway up the hill, nestled between poverty and power, lay the middle districts.
There, streetlamps glimmered. Candles flickered in open windows.
A soft trail of light, climbing the slope like it belonged to a better world.
The higher you went, the stronger the light became, until the royal castle sat bathed in radiance.
I'd never seen a socioeconomic divide drawn so literally.
Then — CLATTER.
A loud noise snapped me out of it.
Reflexively, my eyes scanned the road, and both me and Emilia caught sight of something that didn't belong.
"Tell me I'm not seeing things," I muttered. "Is that… a ground dragon? With a carriage? Rolling through the slums?"
Emilia blinked hard, then reached up and pinched her cheek.
The carriage approached, creaking slightly with each wheel rotation. I felt my shoulders tense.
No way to know who these people were. Could've been a gang. A noble family with criminal ties. Hell, maybe someone coming to finish what Elsa started.
But as it drew closer, I caught sight of something, a familiar crest, shining faintly beneath the moonlight.
Etched onto the side of the carriage.
A golden eagle.
The same one stitched into the trim of Emilia's cloak.
"Wait… That's Ram!" Emilia cried, suddenly perking up.
She pointed toward the driver, a sharp-eyed maid with pink short hair and a facial expression that looked like she was debating whether to whip the reins or someone's spine.
The ground dragon came to a stop in front of us, and the maid climbed down from the driver's seat with precision in every step.
"Lady Emilia," she said coolly. "So this is where you wandered off to? Associating yourself with the local street scum?"
Her tone was sharp and barely restrained behind a veneer of etiquette.
Emilia immediately launched into apologies, trying to explain, but I tuned it out and slipped away toward the ruined building where we'd stashed my jacket.
No way in hell I was going to leave Reinhard's gift to me in this shit hole.
Stepping into the building, I struggled to find my footing. The room was pitch black, and I found myself wishing I had a flashlight.
But that was Earth thinking.
"Goa."
A small, concentrated fireball flared into existence above my palm, casting dim, flickering light around the ruined space.
I moved carefully, letting the glow guide me across the debris-strewn floor toward the fireplace where we'd hidden the coat.
Getting my jacket back, I quickly walked out of the shady ruin of a building and let the mana in my spell disperse without ever having to cast it in an offensive maneuver.
Magic in this world was far less rigid than I had initially thought. A Goa spell merely means you're using the fire attribute. It doesn't mean that you have to cast a fireball. It could just be used for light.
In that same vein of thinking, I could have used Jiwald as a brighter form of light, but it would also be more mana-intensive, as that was simply the nature of the attribute.
With my jacket back in my possession, I draped it over my shoulders. Immediately, I felt a little better. Like I was… secure.
'Maybe this jacket has enchantments besides the environmental ones?'
…Thoughts for another time.
I made my way back toward the carriage, boots crunching faintly against loose stones. Ram and Emilia were inside the cabin, gently laying Tracksuit across one of the padded benches.
Emilia hopped down from the step, landing with a soft thud, and immediately spotted me.
Relief flashed across her face like she'd been holding her breath.
She strode over, eyes locking onto the blood-stained tracksuit wrapped around my arm. Without asking, she reached for it, hands brushing my jacket aside as she examined the injury.
"I thought you ran off or something," she mumbled, still inspecting. "I got reeeaally nervous for a second."
I tilted my head. "Do I seem like the type to do that?"
She glanced up, flustered, then back to my arm. "No… I suppose not. But you should still say something before disappearing like that. It's good… manners?"
'Why was that a question?'
Before I could poke the girl, Ram finally descended from the cabin and laid her eyes on me. She gave me a once over but I noticed her gaze stayed on the shoulder of my jacket, where a certain crest was stitched.
"You belong to the Astreas." It wasn't a question; it was a statement.
I raised a brow. "Uh… no? I'm close with Reinhard, sure, but I'm not his servant or anything."
She didn't seem convinced. Her lips parted slightly, maybe to press the issue, but Emilia turned around at that moment, hands on her hips and expression firm.
"Ethan has been helping me search for… something that was stolen from me allll day," she said. "He even protected me from an assassin. I trust him, Ram."
Ram's eyes flicked to Emilia, then back to me. Something unreadable passed behind her expression, and then, without a word, she dipped into a formal curtsy.
"Very well, Lady Emilia," she said dispassionately. "The carriage is ready. If you and your… guest would please step inside, we can begin our return to the manor. That is, assuming your guest intends to accompany us?"
Emilia nodded at that, "I plan to reward both Ethan and the boy for helping me. They were injured because of me… so I'd like Miss Beatrice to tend to them both."
Ram bowed again, precise, emotionless, and turned without another word. She climbed into the driver's seat, reins in hand, posture ramrod straight.
'Talk about awkward. Do I look that untrustworthy, or is it just politics?'
Emilia turned, guilt flickering in her expression. She opened her mouth, maybe to apologize, but I shook my head before she could.
No need.
I just gave a tired nod toward the carriage.
She climbed in first. I followed.
The cabin was surprisingly plush inside, soft cushions, velvet lining, something faintly floral in the air. A sharp contrast to the grime we were leaving behind.
I lowered myself onto the bench with a quiet grunt, careful not to jostle my right arm.
Then I exhaled. Slow. Controlled. A long breath that left me a little lighter.
The door clicked shut behind us. A few seconds passed, and then the wheels began to turn.
The carriage rumbled forward, gentle sway rocking us as the world outside slipped past.
I leaned back, let my head rest, and closed my eyes.
Finally…
Darkness.
Author's Note:
I've been absent for like two days because life is pain, sorry about that!
Anyway, I'm back and with the ending of the first arc, nothing really bombastic or dramatic, kind of a quiet ending, but we did get to steal a bunch of shit from Rom and take Elsa's money, so there's that!
I'd like to think I set up some plot points in the two closing chapters:
We've got "Mother" from Elsa (I think we all know who that is), who has some unknown agenda regarding Ethan. We have the map of Lugunica opening up with Ethan becoming aware of cities like Costuul and Ganaks, plus he did just get quite a lot of money. And lastly, we've got Ethan making note that magic is something he can do a lot more with. (Does that even count as a "plot point?")
Next chapter, we finally get to Roswaal Manor. I swear to god I'm not lying, and I won't have Ethan stop in some side town or go on a million different side quests because something looked cool. (But if you could, would you not?)
Alright, enough yapping. I might fr be trying to become Regulus in these ANs.