"No innocent has ever fought a war and remained innocent." - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden

Cal chose to accept the dwarves' hospitality for the coming winter months, and spent the next three months in Knallgant. The only reason she had not stayed there the whole winter was because she needed to depart in late winter, so she could be in Paradise by spring, when the teleportation gate to Al-Shan was scheduled to be opened.

Not a week after her meeting with the king, Cal received a report from a female dwarf who introduced herself as the king's spymistress. At first she had not understood why the report would concern her, as it merely defined the investigation of a merchant family who unfortunately fell prey to wild wyvern attacks not two days from the city proper.

Then she read further and noted that the king's spies had investigated the merchant because it turned out he - and his entire family - had used false identities all along. The investigation mentioned that several members of various guilds were sacked and punished for their involvement in the matter, and that further investigations and testimonies hinted that the family were actually refugees from Al-Shan, who had fled to Knallzog not two years ago.

When one of the later pages of the report included a detailed sketch of the family head's face, Cal instantly recognized the man as Han Wen-fu, formerly the governor of Shan-Hu, and one of the first nobles on the usurper's side to have fled when the tables started to turn against him. Cal had long ago put escapees like him out of her mind, with the thought that as long as they never returned to Al-Shan, she would have had little reason to hunt them down.

In this case, it turned out the mere news of her presence was plenty to have caused the man to bolt for his life out of dread, which led to his untimely end. Granted, some hints from the dwarven king when she mentioned the matter to him the next time they met suggested that he might have played a more active role in the matter. For example, he might have ordered the complete removal of the rest of the traitor's family as a gesture of goodwill to the Al-Shan Empire.

In a way, the matter had both been a source of relief, as well as an unpleasant reminder to Cal. A relief, in that one of the few remnants of the usurper's reign who were left unaccounted for had been found and disposed of. A reminder, of the grim task she had undertaken in the early months of Xain's reign, where she had personally travelled the empire and hunted down every last descendant of the nobles who had backed the usurper, barring those few who had chosen to side with the loyalists and had proven their loyalties many times over.

It brought unpleasant memories of the blood that stained her all the way down to her soul, of when she had butchered many women and children, old and young, for the crime of being related to a noble in the usurper's side. Her heart had ached when she committed the butchery, yet she also realized that those very people she butchered, would have been the kindling that might have potentially sparked another conflict if left alone. She had not left the Empire until she had made very certain that not a single person related to the usurper or his supporters was left alive.

At least fights with Aelfried seemed to have had a therapeutic effect on that weight she had shouldered as her burden. The feeling when allowed to let loose and just go wild without worry about the consequences helped take a load off her mind, a feeling that was mutually felt by the old dwarf, and the two fought one another on a regular basis during her stay in Knallgant, to the utter dismay of the healers employed by the royal family.

At least those healers got good training out of it.

Cal also spent her time with Aelfried to teach him about Shi-Huang's method as thanks, which the old dwarf quickly managed to perform, to results that thoroughly pleased him to no end. Much like Cal, Aelfried has had many deep injuries that left effects healers failed to remove entirely, and he felt his body moved lighter and smoother after the self-treatments, much like a machine that got properly oiled again.

Roslin also got quite close with Cal during this period, and Cal found that she quite liked the straightforward and blunt young half-therian. In her spare time she would have often sparred with Roslin, and taught her tricks that Aelfried couldn't, since his fighting style was different to hers, and Cal's taller build and greater agility was closer to the young half-therian's own as well.

To be honest, Cal had nothing but admiration for Aelfried's adopted daughter cum disciple, for the young half-therian had trained extremely hard and persevered through situations where most would have given up to have reached the heights that she had reached. Roslin had fought on despite her physical handicaps and the fact that she had no potential to be a mage to be one of the deadliest warriors Cal had known in her life, and one she had been proud to call a friend. She just hoped that Roslin could keep that little bit of innocence she still possessed, instead of a future where she would have ended up on the uglier side of humanity like herself.

Once the last month of winter arrived, so too had Cal departed from Knallgant. Aelfried and Roslin had accompanied her to the gates before they said their farewells, and the king had given her a letter for her to pass on to the Al-Shan delegation she expected to meet in Paradise.

Even in the winter months, Knallzog remained rather warm, as the temperature had never dipped low enough for snow and ice to form, other than on higher ground like the mountaintops. Cal took the straight road back to Paradise this time, as she crossed northern Knallzog and south-western Ezram on her route.

The journey back was relatively uneventful, other than a couple of wyverns that made stupid mistakes where they tried to steal her dinner, only to end up as her dinner instead.

Northern Knallzog, despite the wave of terrorist attacks early in the year, had returned to peaceful days. The dwarves were much more ruthless and efficient than the Ezram kingdom, and had uprooted the cultist movement in their territories in its entirety within three months, with its higher ranked members executed, and the rest exiled.

Southwestern Ezram also gave her no troubles during her passage, as the lands she passed through turned out to have belonged to a noble that was part of Guilbert's faction. One who was not the least bit supportive of the cultists and had cleaned his lands properly of their presence.

So it was that a week before winter ended that Cal caught sight of Paradise once again.