Down into the basement of a separate building, their footsteps echoed off the brick walls. Francis led Iris down into the workshop.

“I know you said you would help the empire, but how?” Iris asked.

“I’ll show you,” said Francis, pushing open the thick steel door. “I had this developed in secret.”

“Why? Couldn’t you have enlisted the help of the engineers?”

“See, that’s the thing. Despite the emperor and empress not being on the best of terms, they both hate me. It wouldn’t surprise me if the servants I have are spies for one, or even both of them.”

“What’s so important that you need to do it in secret?”

“This is.”

Francis made his way to a black box on the table. Unclasping it, he pulled it open. In a velvet mould, there was a sleek silver gun.

“What’s that?”

“This is a gun.” He picked it up with careful hands, and pointed it at her. “If I pull the trigger, it’s likely that only you would survive. A shot to the head is deadly.”

Of course, he was never that huge of a fan of guns. He was somewhat familiar with the concepts and theories yes, but putting it together was a nightmare in and of itself. He was not a god. Not yet, at least.

“Allow me to formally ask you. Would you like to work together with me in order to secure a better future?” asked Francis. If she declined, the plans would have been derailed until he could find a substitute. But too much relied on her acceptance.

On the other hand, if she did comply, all was well. Armed with the best technology in the known world, and her general power, she would be unstoppable. Having her working with him was a boon. He could already envision it. The entire globe within his hand. So fragile. So small.

“You will ultimately do more good than evil. That’s what my instincts are telling me.”

“And are your instincts often wrong?”

“Throughout my lives, they have only been wrong on several occasions.”

“I do not know the future, but I think your instincts are correct this time. Can I take that as a yes, then? Unless the time hopping hero turns out to be a time hopping villain instead?”

“This is how you do things, right?” Iris went down to her knees and placed her hand on her chest.

“I think we’re far past the stage of formalities. Though if you want, I could get you a uniform.”

“Haha.” Iris stood up. “Speaking of uniforms, what’s the idea for your coronation?”

“The emperor strictly disallowed me from wearing the dresses that I want, and insisted that I show up in a formal military uniform.”

“Odd request to make. Why?”

“First of all, it wasn’t a request. It was an order, and he was willing to even present an ultimatum.”

“What was the other choice?”

“My sisters.”

“I hope you will be better than him.”

“Hey, your instincts said so, right?”

“My instincts have been wrong.”

“An example?”

“Hm.” Iris closed her eyes. “When I thought the portal wouldn’t open, but it did.”

“Excuse me what.”

“Yeah, the portal opened and I wasn’t prepared. The monsters invaded and killed me.”

“They killed you?” Francis exclaimed. That was utterly unexpected.

“Yeah. DId you not know?”

“Of course not. How else did you die?”

“Well one time I just got a heart attack and died. Most of it was due to my own mistakes, though. You stabbed me, poisoned me, you get the idea.”

“Sorry.” Francis opened the door and stepped outside.

“Hey, I don’t think you’ll go on that path.”

“If you say so. Here, want to test it out? There’s a single bullet inside.”

Iris received the black revolver and held it in her hands. Was she really that talented? She seemed to understand near instantly how it worked. Her hands wrapped around the grip, and her finger rested on the trigger.

“Here.” Francis handed her a pair of small white balls. He shoved one of each into his own ears, and motioned for her to do the same. When she muttered, her response was muffled. Good, it was working. She pressed the earplugs into her own ears, and nodded with a steadfast face.

With a calm stance, stable enough to not even disturb still water, she pointed it at a target dummy far away. A gust of wind blew by, rustling the leaves. A crumpled orange leaf fell, and she pulled the trigger.

Despite the earplugs, the shot still rang loud. But he looked on. The poor dummy’s straw chest was pierced with a hole. Iris’ arms fought against the recoil, and she started laughing. He plucked the soft rubber balls out from his ear canals, and stashed them within his dress pockets.

“You! This is amazing!”

“Hey, I had help from several otherworlders like me.”

“You got in contact with them?”

“Yeah. One of them’s performing at my coronation, you know. Jeanne Hildr?”

“Isn’t she the one that impressed the Friaren people?”

“Yeap. That’s the one.”

Iris whistled. So even in the quiet and remote forest, she heard of her stories. But there was still one thing that bugged him.

“So this portal opening, any chance of that happening here?” Francis asked.

“I’d say... It's likely.”

“And these monsters were three dimensional?”

“They are indeed three dimensional. Your weapon would work on them.”

“And how would you theoretically stop this invasion?”

“Hmm.” Iris cocked her head down as she thought. “You’ll probably need to kill everything that invades, or seal the portal.”

“But these monsters came from somewhere, right?”

“Yeah, the divine seal will inevitably break.”

“Divine? Did fucking Bahamut do it?”

“Every god helped out with sealing them. But since its not fully broken, we can stop it without any help.”

“So you’re telling me that this portal links to a place?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Then no need to worry about it. I have something just for that, and theoretically it should be finished in a few years.”

“If the stars line up, we won’t have a few years. Days, at most.”

“I’m... Going to put my faith in you if that happens. But give me sometime, and I will be able to eliminate them entirely.”

“How do you plan to do that?”

“Well let’s just say that I have an explosive plan.”

Iris eyed him with suspicion. Indeed, despite the time, she had not changed one bit. Still looking as youthful as ever, though with about more muscles than he ever had, including his past life. Though, it wasn’t as though he changed much either. Perhaps a little taller, and by the descriptions of his ladies in waiting, much more beautiful and refined. But then again, one of them was fired recently for embezzlement of money, so their words were to be taken with little regard. Lying sycophants.

She returned the gun. Smoke still rose from the barrel. Surprisingly enough, the bottleneck in production was the manufacturing of bullets, not the guns itself. With wasteful firing, and general misuse, the guns may as well be useless.

“I can give you one of these, if you like. Or in fact, just take this one. But treat it like a backup, okay? When you’re pushed into a corner and out of juice.”

“If I get pushed into a corner, I’ll be using this on you.”

“I don’t plan to kill you, not now at least.”

The two chuckled at their strange circumstances. Iris kept the gun, now fully depleted, into her pants pockets. They made their way towards the station where the carriage waited. It was far enough for the gunshot to be close to inaudible, so there was quite a long walk ahead of them.

Upon returning, a young boy about the age of 12 ran and slammed into Francis. He laughed, and hugged the future emperor, his arms wrapping around the fine dress and his thin waist. The boy released his grip, and looked at Iris with eyes of jealousy.

“And this is Charlie. Don’t mind him. Orphan from the slums, you know the story.” Francis motioned to the tanned boy with unruly brown hair.

“You are a strange man.”

“I’d prefer to be a strange woman rather than a strange man, but it's not harming anyone.”

“Still.” Iris squatted down to look at Charlie at eye level. “You shouldn’t be doing that, okay? His bones are weak. You don’t want to hurt him, right?”

“Can’t quite help but feel insulted.”

“You’re the one that said that I would snap your spine in half if I fought you.”

“Because you are a monster.”

“Takes one to know one.”

“I suppose you’re not wrong.”

“So uh, Charlie?”

“He doesn’t talk much.”

“So I’ve heard.” Iris stood up and smiled.

Francis walked hand in hand with Iris. Showing her the sights of the capital city. A theatre, an opera square, the various guilds that set up their headquarters. He pointed at a peculiar one, with a coat-of-arms of a sword thrust through a 5 pointed star.

“That’s Amelia’s guild, formally known as Amelia’s Merchant Corp. She’s one of the otherworlders I worked with.”

“Wait, what?” Iris exclaimed. “She’s an otherworlder? No wonder that drink tasted so foreign.”

“Yeah. Carbonated drinks are like that. Sells like crazy too. Want to take a look?”

“It's fine. I’ll have time to look around on my own.”

Originally, the businessman was hostile. The usual doubts, corporate espionage and such. But once Francis mentioned carbonated drinks, the puzzle pieces fell in place with ease.

Iris peeked around. They stopped in the middle of a bridge over a stream. The stone bricks arched, and they stood at the top. Being the next in line, as well as the child of a duke, it was inevitable that security would be forced upon him. But still Francis insisted on not having any. Iris was enough, Francis thought along that line. And she did look the part. For some reason, she was dressed in a high ranking military officer’s uniform. He did have a sneaking suspicion, however. He could recognise it as her own custom make, one that he had made for her before her time of isolation. But there was little reason as to why she would wear it now, though that was not to say that he had no idea. In fact, several names did come up as to why. Of course, it could just end up being Iris’ own choice. That too was a possibility. As unlikely as it was, it still was possible. Even if he saw no point in the military uniforms, perhaps she did.

“The emperor’s in poor health,” he spoke on a whim. “You were away, so I don’t think you know.”

“A disease?”

“In a sense. There’s no cure, not even with my otherworld knowledge.”

“You wouldn’t happen to be the one causing it, would you?” Francis stayed silent.

The emperor wasn’t healthy at all. At best, it gave him a year. On the other end, terminal and he may as well have been dead already. It was the same reason why the coronation was rushed forward. A nation without a named ruler, she would find herself engulfed in conflict both inside and out. It wasn’t to say that he didn’t have a hand in it, though. To the servants watching, Francis was helping. Armed with healing potions manufactured by Hye-Sung, the emperor theoretically should have gotten better. He knew the truth, though. The age of the world and the progress of medicine had yet to find the cause for cancer.

“I did not cause it, no.” Francis shook his head after a bout of silence.

“And are you making it worse?”

“That’s a different story. Biology here could work differently from my world.”

Iris gave a doubtful look, but ultimately chose not to pursue it. She pointed at a modern building down the street. In the academic district of the capital, where the university of the city towered over the rest, there was a small but remarkable building. White stone covered its exterior, a joyous break from the boring grey and red bricks.

“That’s new.”

“It is. That’s my lab. The engineer and the scientist should be there. Want to meet them?”

“No need.”

“That’s good. It shouldn’t go there anyway. Even though its deep underground, and we have taken precautions against leaks, it might still be dangerous.”

“What... Exactly are you researching down there?”

“Oh just some glowing green rocks. That’s all.”