When I woke up, it was already morning, and as soon as I did, a familiar voice resonated in my head.

"Good Morning, Princess. How was your sleep? Nightmare Less? "

"Shut up already."

"That’s what I get for trying to be nice? People are extremely ungrateful lately. How dreadful.

Once again, I fell asleep against Heon, and something was lying on my lap, completely numbing it.

I knew it was Nia’s head, so I didn’t move much to not wake her up, but as if she was aware of my intention, she woke up.

Maybe because she noticed how she slept the previous night, she sat bolt upright, missing hitting her head against my chin by a hairbreadth. She then proceeded to put some distance between us.

In an attempt to ease the atmosphere, I ventured, "Good Morning."

At first, I assumed my attempt failed, but after a few while, I received an answer back.

"Bonjour."

Oh, I know what that one means.

Well, she responded, but past that point, I had absolutely no idea as to what to say next, so another long awkward silence took place.

Thankfully for me, something thunderous came to break that silence. It was a gurgling belly, not mine, not Heon's, and certainly not Han’s, but hers.

"I guess we’ll have to find something to eat first."

Just as I was about to rise up to find something to eat, I was stopped by her with an "Eeeh!"

"Hum, what?"

She then proceeded to spout some words that, like most of the words uttered by her to me, were a mystery while also sketching on the ground to convey what she wanted to say.

"Hey Hon, it might be just my imagination, but I think she’s complaining about the food."

Complaining about the food, huh?

I guess monster meat isn’t for everybody.

"I guess we’ll have to find something else."

***

A little while later, we finished eating what any normal human would refer to as breakfast. It consisted mainly of strange mango-like fruits. We'd been eating whatever monster Heon had brought back with her for the past few days, so the taste of something sweet was a welcome change.

Well, you can’t really blame Heon for never bringing fruits back with her. I really can’t picture a giant wolf carefully picking fruits from a tree.

"OK, fair enough."

Thinking back, it was my first time leaving the camp since then. I may have been at death's door a few days ago, but I was, optimistically speaking, in quite decent shape. It was also the first time for Nia, besides that one time she tried to run away.

In addition to our short errand, we found a small pond at which we, at each turn, did what we had to do, so here we are back to the camp.

We were once again in an awkward silence, so maybe to waste time more efficiently, I thought about trying a certain aina-trick I thought of, but before I could start, I was approached by Nia.

At first, I wasn’t sure about what she wanted to do, but when she invited me to sit where we sat yesterday while narrating our journey and our encounter with her father, I immediately understood what she wanted to do.

While drawing something on the ground, she said, or I believe she narrated, "Me and mon père nous vivions dans une..."

"Han, it's all up to you, or at least a part of it."

"Leave it to me."

With the words coming out of her mouth being completely a mystery, I had to understand her story through her sketch on the ground and her mimings, all being something visual. I let Han analyze those and describe them directly to me.

From what I understood, her story started with one of her first memories. As far as she can remember, she has always lived inside a giant tower with her father. Apparently, her survival, or at the very least her health, was closely related to that tower. Apparently, she had a sickness that forced her to live healthily only inside that tower.

That tower's primordial use was apparently to serve as a house for her father, but then eventually, as his house became the axis from which a giant barrier was cast from her father’s magic. Just like the church’s barrier purpose, that barrier served to protect humanity from monsters.

For decades, her father lived alone, dedicating his magic and lifetime to generating the barrier.

It was inside the tower from which that barrier was spread that her father met her mother, and it was also there that Nia was born. Her mother lost her life while birthing her, leaving her alone in the care of her father.

From here, several particular details attracted my attention, but to not interrupt her story, I kept those questions to myself.

Nia’s mother being the only person who was particularly close to her father, he was left with no one else, so her father took care of her almost all by himself. I said "most" because, apparently, there were two people who would from time to time help her father, two people she referred to as "Uncle" and "Aunt". That pretty much summed up every human she knew, or at least interacted with.

Despite how few their close relatives were, they were happy together, at least until a mysterious illness began to progressively ravage her health as she grew older.

As the year progressed, these symptoms worsened to the point where when the illness reappeared, she would fall unconscious, and the previous symptom would be some sort of aftereffect of the recurring sickness.

In the short eleven years that have been her life, seven have been spoiled by that sickness. Not only was she unable to leave the tower that was like a prison to her, in the last year before her eleventh birthday, she was no longer able to perform basic activities without the assistance of her father.

Then, a few days after her eleventh birthday, it happened. Death was coming for her. At that point, there was nothing else they could do. Her father and her were both aware of that, so they had nothing else to do but wait for it to happen. The said time came on a starry night. That night, for the first time in her life, she left the tower and saw the sky not through a window but from a ceilingless sky.

She didn't seem to remember what her father had asked her, but when she heard the word "together," she simply acquiesced.

From there, it seems that there was a long gap in memory, but the facts are that her father found a way to heal her, a way that somehow led him to the state we found him in back then. The next instant she regained consciousness, she was in a dream.

This part of her story was very hard for her to narrate, but also complicated for me to understand, from what I understand of it.

According to how she described it, our actions, while battling her father, were what woke her up to a fully lucid state and triggered her awakening from the great beyond, or wherever her spirit was. This most likely happened at the moment when I stabbed him with the severed half of my sword.

From what I understood, the egg-shaped thing was a magical device fueled by her father's remnant that kept time from interfering with her while also keeping her in the state she was in, and that device must also be why he visibly returned from the dead. The means are unknown to me, but I believe he, or at least a part of him, was sealed within that egg-shaped thing, and that by stabbing him, I brought that part of him back to this world of the living.

One has to admit that this whole thing is so nonsensical that I won't even question how this is possible.

Her father appeared to be very aware in her dream that he was fighting us on the outside world. He was literally having a pep talk with his daughter while also fighting us.

This is really laughable.

Having defeated him with that attack and with Hon’s sacrifice, the dream Nia and her father were in came to an end.

"Phew, that was a lot to digest."

"Too much, you mean."

The last part of her story is a complete brainteaser. I’m impressed that she was able to explain all of these.

I took a deep breath. With her having finished narrating her story, I could finally proceed to ask the questions that have been tingling my nerves since the debut of her story.

"I understand most of your story, but I have to ask, what do you mean by your mother being different from your father?" I asked while also drawing something that would more or less illustrate what my question meant on the ground.

It took her some time to get what I meant, but once she did, I started to draw what I believe was a drawing of her mother and her father. "Maman, Aina, and mana." Then she vigorously shook her head, then added "Papa, Aina, and mana" before nodding.

With her words, I immediately got confirmation of what I had initially assumed was true.

Her mother could neither use Aina nor produce mana, but her father could, which means that her mother was the equivalent of her time as a commoner while her father was a noble.

Though the part of her being unable to use magic or aina was a mystery to me, she was, like me, someone born of a noble and a commoner.

When she mentioned that part of her story, I was shocked because I assumed that, besides being possibly like me, the reason for her father and her being her could also be similar to mine. In other words, I thought they were exiled or at least hunted down to an extent, but it turned out, they were here for another reason.

The real reason for their presence in this place was that the last time she was conscious, her father promised her to go on a journey together. He kept his promise. Her father journeyed with her, but in the end, despite being accompanied by her, one may say that he did the whole journey alone. His journey had one clear objective: to find a way to heal Nia.

And by Nia’s words and from what I see, it is obvious that he succeeded.

He succeeded in saving her, and it was most likely that that brought her to the remnant-like state he was in when we found and fought him.

I still thoroughly despise that bastard for what he did to us, but hearing Nia’s story, I couldn’t help but feel something I would call respect.

Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, another sudden realization struck me.

"Nia, I’d like to know: what is your father's name?

So far, she has referred to her parents as "Papa" and "Maman," so she has never even once mentioned her father's name.

"Mon."

Hearing these words out, I breathed a sigh of relief, just to once again gasp in realization a few minutes later.

Do you know what the terms "épique and," "encyclopedia," and "reverie" mean?

It seems that the words haven't changed despite the year. For instance, I mentioned these three words, and she seemed to instantly recognize them.

What do these three words have in common? Well, three things.

One, they sounded weird,

Two of the three of them were literary and, over the years, became literature genres.

Three of them share a common pioneer artist.

Things got clearer and clearer.

"Did he have another surname, title, or anything like that?"

It took me a short while to explain it, but once she got it, she explained what other surname her father went by.

Slowly, I put together the pieces of the puzzle.

A barrier similar to one of the church’s, a shield and sword, a powerful magic user from a long-lost era, someone known for his many works, but most importantly that... Wordplay

"Mon... Mon the Loner, Solomon."

Who is the bastard who came up with that?

There was no way it was just coincidental. Her father was known by the Cult of the Seven Apostles as the one who abandoned humanity in pursuit of strength, the one known for being alone and family-less, and also the one known as the pioneer, or at least inventor, of genres varying from books like Annalle of Crusader, Encyclopedia, and many children's stories involving generally cynical stories about slaying monsters. Monsters, which are generally fictional but heavily influenced by real monsters that can be found in the aforementioned Encyclopedia.

There was no doubt that Nia's father was the one known as "Solomon the Loner".

An apostle

No wonder why he was so strong.

"Wait, this means..."

We’ve brought down someone from that career.

At that instant, I personally didn’t know what to feel. In a sense, I felt something similar to pride but wasn’t quite that; I also felt something that I knew very well was disappointment, along with a bit of anger.

Over what exactly, I couldn’t tell.

I knew what I was fighting; despite everything we'd been through, what we were fighting was a human; it was strong, very strong, but nothing resembling a godsent being.

Wait, if Nia was really his daughter, then shouldn’t she be known to an extent as well? There was literally no mention of her anywhere. The church was created not so long after Solomon’s departure, and there was no way that the record of a daughter of someone that important could be lost. In fact, it was especially cited that Solomon was very well known for not having descendants. That, plus the fact that he abandoned them in pursuit of strength, were what took most of the unpopularity of Solomon’s authority.

Could it be that there was a reason for the church to hide Nia’s existence? Was this because they didn’t know whether or not she had survived? No, even if that were the case, it isn’t still a reason to completely hide her identity. Could it be that this is linked to what happened that night? Was it because there is a reason the church doesn’t want the existence of people like Nia and I to be known?

As then once again, another question rose, or to be exact, it was an assumption. Wouldn’t the church also hunt her down as they did to me? I don’t know.

"Sigh, that won't do; didn't I agree with myself to stop asking those stupid questions, knowing I'd never find the answer here in this forest?"

I was served thanks to Nia’s help with answers to many of my previous questions, but now a lot of other unanswered questions have popped out of nowhere.

Yeah, that’s it. There is no use in wondering about these. My focus right now should be on obtaining a vessel for Han.

"Oh..." Lost in thoughts, I didn’t notice that Nia was in front of me, waving for my attention. "Sorry, what?"

She then explained, to the best of her ability, that she was curious if I knew anything about her father, and that, based on her explanation, she was curious about other people.

If I were in her shoes, I admit that I would also be curious about other people.

It all made sense after all. Yesterday, while explaining what led us to fight her father to death, I started with the beginning of our journey, at the outskirts of the Vaovao, the hell in hell.

I’m even certain she doesn’t seem aware that 3900 years or so have gone by since the era she lived in.

I had the feeling that this would be very energy-taxing, but I nonetheless told her what I could. She seemed to already know that we were deep within one of the most dangerous forests in the world, and explained how today’s world works out for humanity.

It took me a while to explain the whole thing, but it also took her a long time to digest, once again leaving me in a well, this time not-so-awkward silence.

To be fair, it was a lot to digest. The situation was such that I had absolutely no idea as to what to say, and in the end, I ended up asking one of the stupidest questions ever asked in this situation.

"What will you do from now on?"

At the spur of the moment, I thought it was a good or at least a decent question to ask, but then I realized how awkward it was to ask, especially for me, when she muttered "Je ne sais pas.", which I believe would translate into "I don't know."

Being awakened from a long sleep of 4000 years, I can’t really imagine what it would feel like. After all this time, most of what she had must’ve already decayed away a long time ago. Her father could’ve been the exception, but well, we all know very well what happened to him. Meaning that she’s all in her own no-"

While thinking about Nia’s situation, something else particularly disturbing crossed my mind.

Wait, wait, wait, there is something that doesn't add up. In fact, given context, it adds up so much that it feels out of place.

"So that was it. Why didn’t I think of it earlier? "

"So you finally noticed it, young man? I'm just kidding, I just realized it too. "

A particular detail of her story came to complete one of my missing pieces of knowledge. After all this time, I finally got some answers I had left in suspense for a long time.

I’ve learned a lot today, but the dots keep getting together.

While still immersed in a deep inner monologue, my attention was suddenly brought to Nia, who had gone completely silent for a long time since my earlier question.

She summoned a beautiful sky blue bubble trait for traits similar to the one, and please allow this humble one to refer to him by his name, Solomon, who used to blast us.

There was only one difference between this one and Solomon’s; this one didn’t harbour the killing intent Solomon’s bubble did, nor did aina and mana feel so well combined in Solomon’s.

Maybe due to the fact that hers seemed to be summoned through mana alone and devoid of any trace of aina, her bubble felt more like one, empty from within.

Imitating how I perceived Solomon’s way of conjuring his bubble, I tried to create my own version of their bubble with just aina alone.

A uniform, spherical, but chaotical mass of light took shape in my hand.

When she tried, her bubble popped off in the same way that any other bubble would.

Having failed her, she stared at what I was doing before trying to do something similar on her end.

Her story made me realize something very important.

"Hon, about what we talked about last time, don’t you think it is the best moment? You’ve heard her story, haven't you? We won’t see ourselves moving backward, right? And there is no way she would be able to reach the human continent by herself, besides who knows what would happen if she were to get there. "

"From her story, from how we were able to beat Solomon, an apostle on our own, we almost did it. We’re getting close to it, Hon. With just a bit left, we would have flawlessly accomplished our initial, yet forgotten, goal for this journey. You remember what it was, don’t you? "

"Yes."

"Lost vessels and broken bones aside, we did great despite being by ourselves. We even found company with Heon. So let’s do it. At this point, we are already on the home stretch of this journey. This journey might end, but there is still so much to do, right? "

"Yes."

"Lately, we’ve been wondering what to do, especially after the loss of all my vessels. What else could become my final vessel? Now, we’ve found it, haven't we? "

If we could beat one of the strongest apostles, as the church preaches, there is only one type of creature that was rumoured to be superior to the apostles.

Originally, the term "mythical beast" was used to describe a handful of categories of dragons. Over the years, the terms have generalized to highly powerful monsters, such as mere dragons or powerful magical beasts.

These creatures' numbers could be counted within the palm of the hands, they were:

"The primordial dragons."

Those creatures were immensely powerful. They stood atop the food chains.

I knew preying on it would be suicidal, but I'm still going to do it.

"That's the spirit! Let's get this last job done in beauty. "

"Yes."

"So far, we’ve been going south. Once we’re done with this last stretch,... we’ll be traveling with the sun rising to our left and dawning to our right. We will march north.

"We will show them."

"Hahaha... That’s right. Of course, we will. So go ahead, tell her, at this point, I think we can afford this. "

I stood up and walked once again in front of Nia. I remained silent for several minutes, drawing something on the ground. It was the drawing of us on our way, and her.

"Listen, unfortunately, we can’t bring you back to the human continent, which I believe you belong to, and I doubt you can reach that place by yourself. I’m sure you might not be quite eager for it, but why not accompany us? Since we will eventually go back to the human continent, we still have something important to do here. Until then, we can’t leave the monster continent. In the meantime, you can train that magic you’ve inherited from your father to a point where you will be able to venture through the Iharana Great Forest to the Human Continent on your own. " I said, but with how we were communicating, it definitely came across as blunter than I would’ve liked it to be.

Though our current situation is quite messy, we don’t have any reason to hate her; it was her father who was the asshole, not her. I still haven't forgiven him for what he did, but he is dead now.

A child shouldn’t be held accountable for his parents' sins.

"So what about it? Why not go with us? "

She didn’t immediately answer. After neither a short nor a long while, she muttered, "Oui, mais je voudrais..." and began scribbling and drawing something on the ground.

It took me a while to finally realize what she wanted to say.

"Oh, I see."

It was a request, a strange one, but still a request.