I felt a hand come down on my shoulder and as my wife asked, "How are you doing?"

Breathe in… Breathe out…

"I'm not fine," I admitted as much before a twitch found its way manifesting in my eye. "Our daughter is fighting for her life somewhere out there and there's nothing I can do to help bring her back."

Her hands found their way to the sides of my face before she pulled me to look directly at her as she said, "You more than most should understand why we must avoid all contact. As much as this is for her sake, we have to heed the words of the Pontifex for more than just the livelihood of the Kingdom."

"Don't remind me," I groaned. "If not for the fact that three of our other A Ranks happened to be at the capital when I broke the news, I'd long since have personally left for the Gentrant Mountain Range to bring Katherine back."

"Emotions were running high back then. It was uncertain how Katherine would react to being caught completely unsupported, in hostile land thousands of kilometers away from the closest territory of the Kingdom. But, today will mark a month since she's been left to her trial and the fires of her life only continue to burn brighter with every passing day."

It was true enough. My daughter may be classed as a Mage, but to make it as far as she has… To ignore the overwhelming odds against her, look past the loss of her uncle, and start a solo trip as a Mage halfway across the continent, all while being woefully unprepared and underranked…

A Mage she may be, she has the spirit of the strongest of Warriors.

"I say all this because you have to stop blaming yourself, Grizwald. It's not your fault that out of dozens of missions, the one you gave my brother happened to lead to the discovery of a Devil Orc Fortress. And it's not your fault that the Pontifex's prophecy almost directly mentions the importance of Katherine's trial. Our little girl has been doing well enough for herself thus far, so have faith in her."

Angela, believe me when I say that the only thing stopping me from dooming everything and everyone this Kingdom stands for is my faith in Katherine. A man of lesser restraint would have ignored the travesties of the past, and ignored the Pontifex's prophecy. I would know after having forced upon myself the obligation of reading through all the Guild's records of similar cases.

Fathers, mothers, siblings, friends… Anyone and everyone who had thought their wisdom surpassed that of the Pontifex had all been struck down by fate; usually, bringing down everyone around them in the process. It just happened to be our indescribably bad luck to not only live through a Great War, but be promised that our daughter would play a key part in resolving the "Greatest War."

I could remember it like it was yesterday, when I first felt like I was drowning in overwhelming dread at the sight of three A Ranks and the Pontifex all gathered before the King.

"The Greatest of Wars is upon us," the Pontifex spoke. He was obviously nervous as he spoke grim-faced with sweat pouring down the side of his face, "This one will be the war to end all wars. It will either end in humanity's eternal prosperity or absolute demise. I've been feeling the forces of destiny encroaching through murky darkness for weeks, but it was only until just recently, during my most recent meditation, that a prophecy was delivered unto me and I rushed over to inform the King."

"It will all begin and end with a calamitous beast; a myth that will transcend S Rank," The Pontifex continued, with no one daring to comment or ask questions no matter how badly they desired to. "The cards are already stacked against us. Our greatest enemy has already gained that strength of legends, yet they're intent on ensuring total domination. Despite their overwhelming strength, we will have until they reach the peak of S Rank to prepare for the trials and tribulations that await."

"Life, death, winner, loser… All will come down to the choices and path taken by those graced with the beast's influence and as such, all who have come into contact with the beast should be entirely isolated and unaware of their standing as it relates to the prophecy."

"They are…" The Pontifex shuddered, "They're men and women of noble blood. They're the forsaken, abandoned, unfortunate, disenfranchised, and they can just as easily save us all as they can doom us if we're not delicate in how we handle their presence. Not necessarily human, but almost certainly humanoid, they each have boundless potential. Yet none will be able to realize it without their chance encounter with the beast."

"During my meditation, I saw two who've already come into contact with the beast. One, a female Earth Mage who has since been left to start their trial at first light of the Greatest War. The other, a man without a face, without a cause, without a Class," the Pontifex concluded.

He didn't really, I had just been too devastated to hear the rest of his words. The only thing missing from his description of the first chosen he had seen was her name; the rest was obvious to all.

After all, how many Earth Mages were female and part royalty? Most would rather be married off than make a name for themselves beyond their birthright. And of the few that did go their own way, the overwhelming majority took traditional roles as healers or those in the field of support.

What once had become my pride and joy, my daughter who took so much after me that she wanted to follow in my footsteps and become a Combat Mage, was now sourcing a bottomless pit of dread within me.

My horror reached new depths when right in the middle of the Pontifex's speech, another one of Tebolt's Communication Seal materialized right in front of me with Tebolt in distress over how everything had gone awry with the appearance of a Devil Orc Centurion.

Through the grating and harsh sounds of a terrible battle, Tebolt quickly went through the things he thought needed to be said. He didn't think his party would survive the encounter and he even asked for my forgiveness for condemning Katherine to her probable death before the Communication Seal was cut off.

Immediately afterward, when I felt our link through Communication Magic itself get cut off instead of dispel, I would have started running towards his last known point of contact if not for the others in the room with me. I couldn't even try it as I knew that the moment I made an untoward move, I would be struck down with the full force of four A Ranks.

I'd been close to everyone, bar the Pontifex, in that room. They all knew where my head was at that time.

Back then, I'd hated the lot of them with unmatched venom. For them to dare keep me from rescuing my own flesh and blood, while she was left at her most vulnerable… If just one less of them were present, I really would have crossed the line and gone as far as crippling them if they got in my way.

But now, a whole month later, after cooling my head and reading through 'all' the records and knowing what it meant to ignore the words of the Pontifex… I'd come around to accept them for as long as Katherine continued to stay alive. Even if Katherine eventually returned, I would never forgive them nor forget what they did. But, I could accept why this needed to happen.

After all, there was more on the line than just Katherine's life riding on the Pontifex's prophecy. Who knows what kind of tribulation I'd have brought down upon the whole of humanity had I given into my parental impulses to rescue her as soon as possible?

...

Knock, knock.

"Come in," I grumbled as I felt Angela pull back and walk over to sit down on a chair.

When the door to my office opened, I narrowed my eyes just the slightest at the three who walked in. They were Katherine's three friends; the ones in her party… plus an unknown.

"What can I do for you today?" I asked, hoping my expression was as impassive as I wanted it to be.

"Sir," The knight, Stella I think her name was, said, "it's been a month since Kate's gone missing." She had the tact to express sadness as she continued on to say, "I know it's in bad taste to do this so soon and I hope you understand I mean you no disrespect. But with talks about another Great War starting up soon… I'm sorry, but we need a new Mage to get stronger as soon as possible."

"I see," I waved my hands and in a flicker of light, I had their party's file in my hand. "And who are you replacing my daughter with?"

"Wh— It's not like that!" She actually had the gall to yell at 'me?!' "She was my best friend for years."

"Heh," I chuckled mirthlessly, "Some best friend you 'were.'" I had to actively withdraw my Mana from escaping as I venomously said, "To not even wait for your best friend to die before replacing them in your party. Ha! With friends like that, who needs enemies?"

"With all due respect, sir," the warrior, Barin, forcefully shoved Stella back a step as he said, "I highly doubt Katherine would want to return to us if we kept lazing about in the face of a Great War. Without a Mage, our team dynamic falls apart when we've tried to clear out Dungeons or other missions for the past couple of weeks.

"If Katherine's still alive but unreachable like you keep telling us she is..." He swallowed nervously, probably due to feeling my innermost hateful thoughts cascade upon him along with everyone else in the room as pressure. "...Then she must be doing everything in her power to get back to us as soon as possible. If she were to return, we wouldn't be able to face her if we continued to stagnate as we have been for the past month."

"Save the excuses for when," I rolled my eyes, "I mean, 'if' she comes back. I couldn't care less about your bullshit, so spare me the pleasantries and identify your new Mage already."

This was one of those few and far between times I could genuinely say I hated my job. I mean, Katherine's part— former party had to deal with a decision as difficult as the one I had faced a month ago.

A party was meant to be forever. They were groups formed for the sole reason of working for the Guild and the Kingdom. Deaths were to be expected in our line of work and there was the occasional person who willingly deserted their party, so there were people available to temporarily fill in Katherine's role for her former party.

However, the temps were just that. They eventually had to be added to others who'd gone through similar situations with their groups. In the past month, I can imagine that Katherine's former party had gone through no less than five Mages. At best they would take a temp with them for a job or two before they went their separate ways.

There was no way they would be able to make any meaningful advances if they kept having to learn how to fight with every Mage their group temporarily adopted. It would be too inefficient that way.

They might have been able to hold out hope for longer had things remained as they were over a month prior. But by now, everyone knew about the next Great War and even though the King had yet to claim we were under martial law, everyone was acting like it. Everyone was working harder to prepare for the coming war and the Guild especially had to spare no effort in encouraging the advancement of our ranks.

I especially couldn't build a grudge as one of the few people privy to the fact that we were apparently not just heading towards any Great War, but 'the' Greatest War. Even if it was my daughter who was being cast aside from her own party... Just like all the other unfortunate happenings revolving around her life in the past month, this was just another one of those times I had to just accept things for what they were.

It didn't matter how upset I was. Nothing would change the reality of the situation. The only thing I could do for now was prepare to receive Katherine and support her in winning this Greatest War when the time to face her again eventually came.

I could only hope her trial wouldn't change her too drastically.