***The World***

***Angrod***

Yawning, I unlock the door and leave my private room, upon which my mouth stays open as I take in the scene.

Right in front of my door is a trail of blood. Surveying the area, I find an arc of blood spatters decorating the white wall next to my door. I tentatively raise a foot from where I stepped into the blood on the floor and give a quick mental 'thank you' to the multiverse when I realize that the blood is already dry. My morning-socks weren't sullied.

Did someone get murdered right in front of my door? I am no stranger to mayhem, and this scene gives the impression that someone had the main artery of his neck cut.

I follow the trail to Katrine's and Arthur's private rooms where it ends beneath the door. Wringing my hands, I wonder whether an assassin made it into the embassy and started killing people left and right.

Placing an ear on the wooden door, I hold my breath and listen.

“Repeat! I won't sneak into a boy's room until I am old enough!”

“Uhuuhuu… I think you broke it!”

“I will break other things too if you keep refusing to listen to me. By the gods, I swear that I’ve never met someone as stubborn as you.”

“But I haven’t done anything wrong!”

“There we go again. I can keep healing you all day long if it has to be, young miss!”

It sounds like Katrine and Celes are in there. Massaging my chin, I follow the bloody trail with my eyes, slowly piecing the puzzle together. Celes must have tried to implement one of the stranger points on her stupid list. She tried to sneak into my room, but Katrine caught her.

I just wonder whether I should feel sorry for Celes, especially since she got herself into this mess entirely on her own. Well, maybe if I hadn’t locked the door? I close my eyes and shake my head. If I hadn’t locked the door, I would currently be sharing Celes’s fate.

Turning to walk away, I stop when my eyes stay stuck to the trail of blood.

Sighing, I turn back and knock on the door to Katrine’s private quarters. Celes is a real pain in the ass, but she might be the only one in this world who will ever be able to understand me and what I lost when they took away my godhood. Only Seria herself knows how many centuries or lifetimes I may stay stuck on this ball of dirt.

Oh, how low has a former deity of Chaos fallen to help a god of Order?

The door opens, and Katrine looks down on me, quite obviously surprised at my presence.

I smile. “Please don’t be too hard on Celes. She is a real hellion and quite messed up in the head, but I seriously doubt that her intentions are ever truly bad. Maybe you should try talking things over, instead of torturing her. Try to work through her wicked train of thoughts? There is this strange list which she always keeps in her pocket. You might want to go over it with her.”

Tapping my wrist, I indicate that she should think about the time. “Ah, and please don’t forget that we have to go to class in forty minutes. Thanks!”

Bowing, I excuse myself and head down to the kitchen for breakfast, leaving behind a baffled Katrine. I shudder at the thought that this woman would ever become my mother-in-law.

۞۞۞

It’s the first snowfall, announcing the beginning of the winter season at the end of our first school year. I accomplished a lot of work with Margerie during the past year. We created a solid scientific foundation for the development of the world's economic structure. There will always be strife and competition, but I would like to think that thanks to my intervention, a war might no longer be necessary due to economic reasons.

Tongord is still training us really hard, putting his own life on the line in the process. Even though the Cygnus family applied pressure on the school's administration board, they didn’t replace our teacher, arguing that they would first have to find a suitable replacement. Ah, the woes of bureaucracy.

At least Sarda, Senda, Iris, and Gabriel weren’t bothering us too much. They somehow ended up forming their own little clique during combat lessons.

On the other side are I, Celes, Tanja, Sven, and Sandra, who is a nice girl – if you get to know her better. I don't think that I would call Sandra a friend like Tanja. We are classmates and good acquaintances. It's hard to build up any sort of relationship with someone who I see just for training and who dashes off as soon as the lesson ends.

Strangely enough, the Sarda group never made trouble for us, keeping their heads down. Celes calls it the silence before the storm whenever we discuss our situation.

Stephen stopped pestering us about gods because we kept refusing to answer his questions. His interest switched to helping his sister making use of everything I taught her. Margerie never asked where my knowledge comes from. My guess is that my parents shut Margerie up by having a word with her parents.

Everything else followed the daily rhythm of going to school, listening to lessons and going back home.

There is only one little problem. Celes and I will fail this year! It is the end of us! Our parents will twist our necks and pop off our heads for sure!

I will fail the Art class and Celes has no chance to pass the test in Rune Magic. Her marks are just too bad and her understanding is non-existent! We sure broke our own legs at the beginning of the year by choosing the wrong subjects.

Failing one subject wouldn’t be a problem, but we also chose to join Samarin's class, which is said to be a sure fail. That means that we won’t achieve the necessary credits to advance to the next year.

In absence of a solution to my problem, I retreated to the schoolyard in order to consider my options.

There has to be a possibility. Maybe it’s possible to take the test for a class I didn’t join and get the remaining credit point that way?

Passing Art is just out of the question. In the evening, there will be one last test. Everyone has to bring something of great artistic value to Mrs. Jeniva. It sucks that I don’t even have an idea. I could present her with another statue, but she already made it clear that she isn’t a fan of magically crafted items.

As the snowflakes dance down from the sky, I start shaping the snow with my mind, starting out with a snowman. Thanks to a whole year of training, using a little Telekinesis for this task puts almost no strain on my body.

While shaping the snow, I allow my mind to wander, drowning myself in memories of a better time. Instead of just a snowman, I quickly end up with a whole scenery from the deepest parts of my memory. Memories rise up from a time long gone, when I loved a fine woman and had a big family with her. She was the first person I ever really yearned for whenever we were separated. I still remember her cooking.

That was before I became a god.

When we died after a long and good life I searched for her for many lifetimes, trying to get her back. But how do you find someone who doesn't remember her past life? Finding one soul among countless billions... without any hint on which world she was reborn...

It is an impossible task.

‘BOOM!’

An explosion shakes me out of my dreams and I jump up. I think it came from the front gate? At first, I want to check out what happened, so I walk into the direction of the explosion, but soon I am stopped by a crowd of screaming students running my way.

Seeing them, I realize my folly. Never run towards a battle. Run away!

Damn it, this world is just too peaceful. My instincts are getting unreliable.

“The school is under attack! Everyone to the shelters until the security can solve the situation!” A teacher herds the students towards the main corridor with the entrance to the underground shelters. I know where the doors are, having passed them on a daily basis, but I have never been inside.

Originally, they were built during the war. The school decided that having a safe place for the students might be a nice idea, so they left the underground shelter intact and built the school and university on top of it.

I fall in line with the other people, trying to find someone I know. Unfortunately, I had been alone in the schoolyard and have no idea where my friends are.

We arrive at the shelter where several teachers are protecting the entrance.

Recognizing Samarin among them, I approach. “Have you seen Celes, Tanja, Margerie, and Stephen?” I ask him about the very few people who I care about, wondering at that moment why I would include Celes on that list and name her first. I don't bother to ask about Sven because I don't talk to him much – though he is a good friend of Tanja's.

“The Cygnus siblings are inside. I don’t know about the others. Come on and get inside!” Samarin answers, gesturing with his hand.

Crap! Two people to search for. I turn around and run off, leaving a yelling Samarin in my wake. “Where do you think you are going!?”

“To search for my fiancée and my friend,” I call behind my back, hoping that Samarin isn’t stupid enough to follow me. I have no idea how combat-worthy the old man is, but he strikes me more as the scholarly type. He isn’t a fighter.

At first, my search is aimless, but I quickly realize that the school is too large to find anyone within a reasonable amount of time. Where could Celes and Tanja be? They were together when I walked off to mope on my own, so they must have been waiting for the last test to start.

I return to the schoolyard which is now void of people, realizing that the two girls like mingling with other students in the cafeteria.

Walking slowly, I hear fighting from the direction of the school gate. If Celes was alone, I would expect her to head directly towards the battle, but she is with Tanja. Celes wouldn’t be stupid enough to involve her friend in a full-blown battle.

Still, they must be cut off somehow, or they would have escaped to the shelter. The most likely place to search is still the cafeteria. Maybe the attackers had a second entry point and my friends are pinned down.

If I were to plan a terrorist attack, I would have one strong group attack the main gate to create havoc and draw the attention of the defenders. Meanwhile, I'd have another, or even several groups, go after the real target of the operation. I have no illusions that this isn't aimed at either killing Celes or me.

While walking over the schoolyard, I pick up two fists of snow.

With a little concentration, I melt the snow and freeze it again, forming twelve little icicles.

I am about to enter the building with the cafeteria when a black-robed guy drops down from a window on the first floor, landing just five metres away from me. He is carrying an unconscious student and looks like some cross-over between a mummy and a ninja thanks to his outfit.

Upon noticing me the robed guy drops the student and reaches for something beneath his robe.

Not hesitating, I flex a mental muscle and propel one of the little icicles in his direction. It sinks into the man’s left eye and punches through, showering the snow behind him with blood and brain tissue. For a second, the guy just stands there, until his body registers the loss of control and he drops down to his knees without a sound. Toppling forward, he lands face first in the snow.

I walk up to the corpse and confirm his death. I died too often because I thought my enemy is a goner. Always check the enemy first and the ally second! That's an iron rule which I had to learn the hard way and I am never going to break it.

Seeing the brain through the hole where a part of his skull was blown out of the back of his head, I rest assured that this man no longer poses a threat.

Turning my attention to the unconscious student, I find something amazing. The girl who was about to be abducted was Iris.

Strange, I thought the attackers belong to her faction. So is there another party involved in this game?

What to do?

The noises from the school gate are dying down, so some side is loosing, meaning that I don’t have much time left if the attackers are winning.

I hope I won't regret this.

I pick up Iris and carry her over the shoulder while I hold my icicles in front of me with telekinesis. Then I enter the building with the cafeteria. Thanks to my bloodline it’s no bother to carry a person who is lighter than me.

When I arrive at the correct hallway, I look around the corner and see five robed people and a man in the grey uniform of a teacher at the entrance to the cafeteria. Two are casting Fireball spells into the cafeteria, while another two are backing them up with shielding spells. The fifth guy is shooting with something like a musket.

Those five look exactly like the one who had Iris, but I note with a frown that the teacher is actually Tongord.

Suddenly one of the casters drops backwards, a familiar hairpin sticking out of his forehead. Using the chance, Tongord ducks past the casters, entering the cafeteria.

Finding myself having to choose between being careful and taking action, I decide that I should not leave Celes on her own longer than necessary. She may be able to fight Tongord, but there is no telling how much the raccoon was holding back during our lessons. Dodging Fireballs at the same time might make all the difference Tongord needs.

Using the disturbance, I jump around the corner and unleash all of my projectiles on the enemy.

Taken from behind, two enemies are hit in the head and are taken out instantly. A third receives an icicle to the knee and drops out of his cover and into the wide doorway. Having lost his protection, another hairpin ends his life a second later.

The second shield-caster drops to one knee and loses his concentration because of the icicle which penetrated his flank. As he tries to pull out the shard, I feel how his mana flow is disturbed by the injury. His magical defences evaporate. Reaching out to his brain, I use telekinesis to pop some important blood vessels, a very clean and cost-effective method to get rid of someone who hasn't paid attention to his magical protection. Twitching thanks to the inexpert lobotomy I performed on him, the last opponent drops to the ground.

Carrying Iris, I quickly walk up to the entrance and take a careful look around the corner, feeling no need to be the next one with a hairpin in his head.

Celes is having a stand-off with Tongord who has a sword in his hand. Tanja is lying next to a tilted table, one of many in the burning cafeteria. There are corpses everywhere, turning the place into some scene from Dante's Inferno. It looks like Tanja got hit with a Fireball, burning her hand and the side of her face. She is holding her belly and sobbing from the pain, blood welling up between her fingers.

It looks like Tongord stabbed her.

Stepping into the cafeteria, I lower the unconscious Iris from my shoulder and, holding her up by her silvery hair, place one hand on her throat. “I think that’s enough,” I yell, not bothering to hide the fact that I am pissed.

“Angrod?!” Celes calls out upon seeing me.

Tongord turns around, looking at me. He seems surprised upon seeing Iris but quickly calms his expression. “What’s that supposed to be?”

I shrug and close my fingers around the girl’s throat. “What does it look like? I think my parents mentioned something about you being related to her? I wonder what her parents would think if she came home in a casket?”

He presses his lips together and turns to face me, seemingly having lost all interest in Celes. “You are just a child. You can’t do it.”

I reveal my sharp teeth. “A child who just killed a handful of men. A child who would have killed you several times if it weren’t for that cheat of yours.”

His eyes flick to the corpses at the cafeteria’s entrance.

“They won’t get up again, no worries.” I tighten my fingers around Iris’s throat.

Tongord points his sword at Tanja and Celes changes her position to intercept him.

“I could kill this one instead.”

I stop smiling, trying my best acting skills to look as shocked as possible, then I drop Iris and jump forward in a seemingly desperate attempt to assist my friends, abandoning my hostage.

Smirking, Tongord turns to face me, bringing his sword forward for a thrust, aiming at my heart.

Yelling, I hit the blade with my right arm, pushing it aside and cutting myself in the process. The blade bites deep into my flesh, cutting muscles and tendons, but stops at the bone. Tongord is too surprised and too sure of himself, so he reaches for me instead of increasing the distance between us.

That's the problem with an almost godlike healing ability to rely upon. Even if he could avoid being hit easily, he prefers to take the hit if he can land an attack in return. It's exactly what I just did.

It only becomes a problem if your opponent has a trick up his sleeve that renders the healing advantage meaningless.

Reaching for the amulet around my neck, I rip it free and slam it onto his chest, channelling a generous amount of mana into the runes and circuits which I engraved on it. Within a moment, a spell matrix is formed that would have otherwise taken me minutes to cast, melting the circuits within the amulet and igniting Tongord’s grey robes.

Shaking my burning hand in a frenzy, I push away the mana and close my mana channels before the curse can backfire. Then I duck and roll away from Tongord who is screaming and slapping at himself in a vain attempt to put out the spreading fire on his torso.

Scrambling to my feet, I scream at Celes. “Pick up Iris! I'll take Tanja.”

“Heal her!” Celes screams at me with tears in her eyes.

Tanja is seriously burned and breathing heavily.

I put a hand on Tanja's forehead and concentrate, feeling how my mana flows into Tanja's body to repair the damage. Channelling my only healing spell, I concentrate on her lungs first, then the wound in her belly.

Reaching beneath her shoulder, I pull the larger girl to her feet and guide her towards the exit, making a generous circle around Tongord who is screaming and writhing on the floor, his whole body aflame. Parts of his flesh dissolve and reform as he tries to heal himself, but the flames stay attached to him, hungrily consuming every bit of power that is offered to the curse.

We reach the exit, leaving Tongord’s screams and the spreading fire behind. The cafeteria was already burning when I arrived, but now the flames are spreading, consuming everything.

Depleting three-quarters of my mana, I stop my healing efforts on Tanja who is now unconscious, so I drag her with me. I can see that she can breathe easier now.

Not wanting to become completely defenceless, I patch up my cut arm, only making sure that I won’t bleed out. “For the moment I can't do more, but she is out of immediate danger. At the shelter, the healers can patch her up completely.”

“Thank you.” Celes eyes are red from crying. She became very good friends with Tanja during the last year.

“What… what did you do to Tongord? And why did you have Iris?” she asks me while blinking.

“I picked her up on the way here,” I answer. “And regarding Tongord, I cast Soul-Fire on him. Unless he finds a way to heal up and disenchant the curse, he will burn until he is out of mana.”

“Good! I hope he dies! He was with them when they started killing everyone in sight. I tried to help, but there were too many of them.”

“It's okay, Celes. You did well.” Just don't lose it now. “Can you take Tanja? You may have an easier time carrying her.” We switch our cargo since Celes with her brute strength can easily carry the larger Tanja. In turn, I shoulder the wolfgirl.

“You should have left her where she was!” Celes is clearly angry.

“Hah! I thought that too, but obviously for other reasons than you. I don't think she is a willing participant in this attack. It looked like they tried to abduct her,” I answer. “And it turned out that she was a handy distraction for Tongord.”

After a few seconds, Celes nods. “We need to get them away from here. There is nothing we can do for the others.”

At that, I remember the burned bodies in the cafeteria, the ones I earlier chose to ignore. Attendants, students, teachers, our attackers didn't really care who they killed.

“Fuckers! Follow me. We go to the shelter.” I start walking the way I came back and Celes follows me.

“You are not hurt?” I ask while we walk.

She shakes her head, choosing to stay silent while she searches for more enemies. It seems like she is still shaken because her friend got wounded.

We leave the building and as we walk over the schoolyard, Celes suddenly holds me back. “Hide!”

Ducking behind one of the bushes which are aligned along the path, we barely cut line of sight with a group of eleven robed guys who run past us. They head into the direction of the fighting at the school gate which sounds like it regained in intensity. Apparently, reinforcements arrived.

After Celes signals that everything is clear, we continue on our way without further incident.

At the shelter, Samarin receives us and takes Iris from my shoulder. As soon as we are inside the large underground room with other students and teachers, I take another look at Tanja and start pouring my remaining mana into healing her.

Soon after this some healers appear and take care of her from there. I sit down at a wall and just feel tired while a healer takes care of my arm. I close my eyes. Maybe I should dream of better times again?

“Samarin said you were already at the shelter? But you still ran off to get us?” Celes suddenly asks from next to me.

“Don't get the wrong idea. I am no white knight for the maiden. I just would have felt bad if the few people I know in this world were hurt while I was sitting around,” I answer.

“Hmpf! You are still a stupid hermit,” she calls out.

I don’t want to argue that point, so we sit in the shelter with the other students and wait.

۞۞۞

The following day, everything is like it never happened. The school was closed for the rest of the day after the terrorist attack was repelled.

All sixty attackers were dead and no sign of their affiliation was found. Their actual aim couldn’t be discerned. Apparently, they just tried to kill as many people as possible while trying to abduct a few selected individuals.

They came close, but they never managed to pull through because the school’s security slowed them down until regular police forces from the city arrived.

There were quite a few deaths. Seventy people in total, most of them from the school’s security and staff. Luckily, we knew none of the victims aside from Tongord, whose body has yet to be identified. The cafeteria burned down completely, making it hard to identify him among several charred corpses. Apparently, a small group had used flying magic to invade from the sky, bypassing the school’s security. They went directly for Celes’s location.

I think that they received the information on Celes's whereabouts from Tongord.

The following day, the school held a short minute of silence and the director spoke a few words for the dead. Hardened by the war, the people of this world still find it easier to move on quickly than to lament for weeks. I allowed the events to pass by me in a daze, eagerly waiting for our parents to find some clue that connects the terrorists to our political enemies.

Celes already received her negative mark in rune magic. Teacher Mirgurd showed no mercy with her.

The other subjects didn’t turn out to be a problem for us.

Right now, I am waiting for my negative mark in art. I couldn't think of anything that would please Jeniva, so I have to try my luck with Samarin.

“Angrod, you are positive by a hair’s breadth. Next time, work harder!” Jeniva offers me a certificate which confirms that I receive a credit point for visiting her class.

“Huh?! But I didn't have anything!?” I call out, baffled.

“I took your work in the schoolyard into account,” Jeniva replies cooly.

“The snowman!?” I utter, baffled.

“I watched you while you created that ‘wonderful ice sculpture’ in the schoolyard. Let’s not refer to it as a snowman, or the other teachers might think that I have a soft spot for bratty princes. You may be a lost cause as a painter, but as a sculptor, you have some talent. I still think that the use of magic for the purpose of art is cheating. Still, you shouldn’t be self-deprecating yourself. Your work had emotion. Something I unfortunately never felt from your other works,” Jeniva explains, noting down that I have received her evaluation.

“Hoh! I must take a look at that snowman.” Celes grins at me, having made a wondrous recovery from yesterday's shock. Her mood quickly improved after it was clear that Tanja will pull through. Our friend is still in the hospital though, since the fire got all the way down her throat and heavily burned her lungs.

Celes’s own work for the art class is a nice painting of a landscape with cornfields and a little house made out of wood at a lake. It looks very peaceful. I could look for days at the picture, since it reminds me of something, calming me.

Jeniva declares the end of the class, so we go to Samarin's test which turns out a little strange.

After we enter the class, we sit down and Samarin starts asking his questions in rapid-fire mode, barely waiting for us to give an answer.

“Soo... I don't like tests, so I will make this fast! Sven, how many suns are there in the sky?”

“One?”

“Correct, pass! Margerie? What's the square root of 676?”

“26”

“Correct, pass! Stephen? How many times will you take my test until you give up?”

“Huh!?”

“Wrong-”

“Aaahhh!”

“-failed. Angrod? Why do you know so much about science and magic?”

“Because I am much, much older than you! Mwhahaha!”

“Failed!”

“What?”

“Celes? What is the annual income of Stricc and Tirna together?”

“2,345,678,786 Crown Coins this year!”

“...”

“You didn’t even know! You just wanted to baffle me! Wait. Did I really just tell you information that’s relevant to our national security?”

“I didn’t expect you to actually answer the question. Pass.”

And that's how Celes and I somehow managed to pass our first school-year, both failing one of our classes.

After saying our goodbyes to everyone, I leave the class and walk off into the direction of the school gate, but Celes takes another corner.

“Hey, Rose is waiting at the car!” I follow her.

“I know! But I want to see the snowman!” Before I can stop her, Celes runs off onto the schoolyard.

I sigh and follow her to take a look at the creation I made so absent-mindedly.

On the schoolyard are a few people who are gaping at a wonderful ice-sculpture of a whole family in life-size. A bearded man holds a small child up in the air. Both are laughing. Next to them a beautiful woman with an infant in her arms is smiling, watching them with a benevolent expression. She has long hair which looks like it is flowing in the wind.

A small girl tugs at the woman’s skirt. They look like a happy family. Ordinary people who don't have to worry about a thing in the whole world, just happy being together. It is almost as if I can see the cornfield and the wonderful nature around them. Watching them a little longer, it is like they could start moving any second.

Suddenly, I realize why Celes’s picture with the house and the field feels so soothing to me. It’s similar to the place I couldn’t recreate, the place that’s supposed to surround the sculpture.

A hopeless memory, nothing more.

“Angrod? Who is that?” Celes asks.

“Nobody... just... a wonderful, lost dream.”

I turn around and walk in the direction of the car where Rose must be already waiting for us.

Celes remains a little longer, staring at a long forgotten memory.

***The World***

***Celes***

The stupid hermit is my honey? My honey-pie? My cuddle-bear? My one and only snuggle-bear? My biggest love of all time!?

My ‘Little One’? Oh no, that’s his title! That's what I always called him back then when he played with the kids! I remember it now. Did that bitch Seria know!? She must have known! Why else would she have given him that title?

No. It can’t be!

But there is no doubt. I am looking at a past version of myself! And it is not only me. The little Sofie is also there, tugging at my skirt like she always did. And the little Siegfried! I would recognize these people even in another hundred thousand years, they are my dearest memories.

And my Johann, my honey. I would recognize his stupid, smiling face everywhere! How often did I tell him to get rid of that annoying beard! He was always happy with the world as long as he had his family.

How does the grumpy, sadistic, idiotic hermit know this scene? Is he the little Siegfried? Or the baby Friedrich? Wawawawa! Worst outcome ever. What if I was his ‘mother’ in a past life!

He can't be Johann! My Johann was a nice guy! Not an idiot who laughs at the misfortune of others. He always tried to solve the problems of the world.

The stupid hermit never smiles as Johann did. Johann was a saint!

But… Johann was really good at science… and he always had some strange machine to play around with. The stupid hermit is really good with that stuff too. Was Johann also a good magician? There was no magic back then, so I can't verify that point.

I have to know!

“Angrod? Who is that?” I ask.

“Nobody,” he answers, considering the sculpture. “Just a lost, wonderful dream.”

Is he sad? The hermit is sad. That is the first time I have heard him saying something with so much sorrow. How could somebody with Johann's character change into something so twisted like the hermit!?

I turn around, but the hermit already walked off in the direction of the car! He left me behind!

So cruel!

Hurrying, I run after him and reach the car where Rose is waiting for us. Angrod is already inside, so I enter the car and Rose closes the door.

While we drive home, I remain silent and Angrod just looks out of the window.

I have to verify his identity somehow. But how? Does he remember our names from back then? I could ask him to tell me the names. That would be the only way to make sure.

B- But we fought each other for so long. Wouldn't this revelation turn our epic battle into the biggest domestic quarrel ever? I need to talk to the hermit alone and I need to… argh! There is just no good way to do this. First, I have to calm down and wait and think.

My brain feels like mush.

۞۞۞

Okay. I have something like a plan. Angrod is inside the library and reading a book. So he is distracted. I will open the door, walk inside, close the door, and ask. Yes.

If he has to answer in the spur of the moment, it should be relatively safe to assume that he isn’t lying.

So I open the door. He is sitting on the couch, just as planned. So far, so good.

I walk inside and close the door.

“Angrod, tell me the names of that family.”

“Huh?” He looks up.

“Tell me the names of the ice sculptures! The snow-family!”

His eyes return to the book. “... Why should I?”

Damn!

“Tell me!” I shake a fist at him.

“Don't scream! Whatever. I was the bearded guy, Johann. The woman was my wife, Sandra. The kids were Sofie, Siegfried, and Friedrich. It's a scene from a past life. Happy now? What do you need the names for anyway?”

My brain shorts out and I just stand there, gaping at him.

“Are you alright? Why are you crying?” Angrod furrows his forehead, looking at me as if I am about to lose it.

“You can’t be him!” I screech, indeed cracking up.

“What?”

“Give him back!” I jump his bones, grab his shirt, and start shaking him like a ragdoll.

“No violence!” He twists, ripping his shirt in the process and getting away.

“Don’t run!” I follow, but he gets the oaken reading desk between us, so I crush it.

“What!?” He runs back to the sofa, using it as an obstacle between us.

“What did you do to him!?” The sofa doesn’t fare any better against a rage-fuelled kick. “Did you steal his memories?” Jumping forward, I finally get a hold on him, so I lift him up and shake him. Somehow I will get him to talk, even if it requires spilling his guts!

He raises his hands, trying to negotiate for peace. “Ow! What's wrong with you? Don't shake me like that. Do you have your first menstruation cycle or something?”

My vision is blurry. “I am Sandra! What did you do to Johann!”

For a brief moment, he seems shocked, then his normally stoic demeanor crumbles. “You can't be Sandra! She was a nice woman. She always assisted me in my work. She wasn't violent or a control freak. She knew no martial arts!” he answers.

I let go, dropping him to the floor. “If you are lying... and... and... I find out that you did something to Johann’s soul, I will rip you to so many tiny pieces that even Seria can’t put you back together!”

Wiping at my eyes, I start babbling. “Our country was peaceful for our whole life! There was no need to fight. And as long as I was with Johann, I always had enough money! He was a perfect money printing machine with his genius mind. What happened to you to become like this?”

I hug him, trying not to bawl like a baby. Well, it’s already too late for that.

“I could throw the same question back at you. Do you really want to imply that you are Sandra and that she just stayed with me for the money?” Angrod doesn't move, apparently afraid of escalating the situation.

I don’t reply and keep hugging him. What is there to say, aside from the fact this multiverse is a shitty place.

“It seems people change with time... and you can't get them back,” he says. Disillusioned, he pats my back.

I scold myself for losing it like that, but I really liked Johann. I guess a woman should never tell a guy that she is thinking about money.

“This is worse than knowing that you are just out there somewhere in the multiverse and I just can't find you,” he mopes.

I really don't know if this the worst or the best day ever, so I say nothing. I don’t want to say anything right now.

“I guess it is better to continue as we were. Don't you think so too? We are not the same people we were back then. Trying to go back is probably impossible. You yourself said that you want to go forward.” He tries to comfort me.

“You think?” I wipe at my face, ashamed for having a meltdown. “You are right. You are not Johann and I am not Sandra. I hate this situation! B... But you came for me, instead of hiding in the shelter! So maybe there is still a good guy somewhere inside you.”

I am mad at myself, I should have just forgotten about this and said nothing. Some things are better to be forgotten.

“I said you shouldn't misunderstand my actions!” He replies while turning red.

It makes me smile. So cute! He just can't be sincere. Johann also always tried to hide his true feelings.

Suddenly, the door opened and Ireth peeked inside. “I heard some noise... what happened here!? Did a bomb explode!?”

Then her eyes fall on us. “You two fought! Again!”

Angrod hugs me back instead of just patting my back. “Hahaha! We just had a small lover’s quarrel! Isn't that right my Sugar-Cat?”

My stomach turns upside down when I hear my old pet-name.

“Sure, but we already made up again. I can't be mad at my Little-One forever! It was just a minor misunderstanding.” I join him out of reflex and he turns stiff.

A rope appears in Ireth's hands and she walks in our direction.

Now I am crying for a different reason while hugging Angrod. He is crying too and hugs me in turn. Somehow, this feels like those forgotten times. It's just that our reasons for crying changed.