The loud clanking of wheels and the rhythmic gallop of the many horses echoed through the forest path. A luxurious black carriage slid over the road, its inhabitants in unquestioned comfort. Behind the carriage was an enormous wooden cart being carried by seven horses, on which was a frowning giant.

Two months had passed since the incident in Essen. In what was supposed to be a fun outing, the Kirsche family had lost their youngest within the blink of an eye.

Astolfo had disappeared.

“At this rate, we’ll reach the capital by tomorrow,” Truss informed in a soft voice.

“Is that so… I wonder how much Wolke has changed.” Vincent leaned back on his seat and crossed one leg over the other.

“Did you say you went there sixteen years back? What business did you have all the way in the empire?” Luka asked from across his father. Though his tone was enthusiastic, his expression was contorted, as if in a hurry.

“Oh, your father was born in the empire!” Ophelia clapped her hands and added as she saw Luka’s expression. The boy nodded and turned to his sister sitting next to him. Charlotte had her hands lightly clutching the hems of her skirt as her gaze didn’t move from the carriage floor.

“T-there's a lot of things we didn’t know, right Charlotte?” The child’s face hardened at her brother’s question as her nails started digging through her skirt and scratching her palm.

The kids had seen a whole new world in the past two months. From their parents’ sudden decision to uproot their lives in Frucht and move to the capital of the empire, to their journey towards the capital itself ridden with stops the adults decided to make, there was a lot they had learned about the world and themselves as well.

A lot of things they had experienced as a family.

An incomplete family.

No matter how much time had passed, there was no ignoring the fact that Astolfo had disappeared. And yet they were going on with their lives, they were changing things, how could they just ignore Astolfo like this? Why?

A lump remained stuck right between Charlotte’s throat while a veil of black covered her sight, she couldn’t look her family in the eye nor could she speak to them from her heart.

Everything will be fine. Everything will be fine. Everything will be fine. Everything will be fine. Everything will be fine. Everything will be fine.

Just how many times had they said it now?

Nothing was fine.

As each day passed, the others all stopped crying. They were trying to smile and kept repeating how it will be fine and how they’ll find him.

Charlotte couldn’t forgive it.

Their family was gone. Their weak youngest brother was missing. How could they act that way? Before she could even notice it, Charlotte had started blaming her parents. They were the ones who decided to go to move to the empire without Astolfo. They were the ones who went to look for him. They were the ones who left him alone. They were the ones that brought them to that city. They were the reason Astolfo went missing.

The carriage bobbed up and down when a loud cough rang out from outside. Vigsius had gotten off his cart and was peeking into the carriage doors.

“Vincent, this is the place,” he said.

The carriage wheels screeched to a stop and Vincent got off with Ophelia.

“We’ll be back in some time, alright?” Ophelia smiled at the kids.

“Y-yeah, sure,” Luka answered while Charlotte only nodded. As the two of them left with Vigsius, Charlotte let out a long sigh.

She could breathe a little easier now.

**

Vincent, Ophelia, and Vigsius went into the woods from the forest path and navigated deep within. The enormous trees towered above even the gigantic giant, reaching well above his height of fifteen feet.

No roads or paths indicated where they were going, they didn’t even have a map or compass on hand. Vincent looked for the radiant white blossoms peeking out from the stumps of various trees and moved to them, his path shifting from one Magi Lily to another. He always found it funny how a parasitic plant that fed on magic and was called the ‘end of the road,’ served as the guideposts in the expansive forests leading to Wolke.

He jumped over a log and extended his hand towards Ophelia. She gently grabbed him as he helped her cross over. Vigsius secretly shivered at the sight and turned his eyes away.

Soon, a thread of white fog crept towards them as they went deeper into the forest. The fog covered their legs and inched up to their faces as it grew in size the further they went.

“Hah, this part is the worst,” Vigsius muttered. His every breath pulled the fog closer and pushed it in. The giant’s feet grew wobbly and he swayed from left to right. “Uhh, where are we going again?” he asked.

“Hm, the curse has gotten stronger. Isn’t this a [Superior] rank spell?” Vincent asked.

“Yeah, it’s a little stronger than that, actually” Ophelia replied with a nod.

“It’s still annoying.” Vincent raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

As if the world had collapsed, all the mana in the forest gathered towards his finger before dissipating out. In a second, he had taken control over the entire forest. The white fog faded away and the path cleared up once more.

Just as the fog disappeared, the dizzy Vigsius came back to his senses and firmly planted his feet on the ground. He puffed out a large amount of fog out his nose and shook his head.

Ophelia looked at the giant with a slightly impressed gaze. “This guy just keeps getting tougher, huh?”

“He does. He would have made it the whole way through the forest even if we had left him alone.”

Vigsius rubbed his nose and looked down. “Are you saying something?”

“Not really.” Vincent shrugged and continued.

After walking for another half an hour, they reached a wide field of Magi Lilies. The parasitic flowers swayed in the air, blushing under the faint rays of light the trees let past. Between the field of beautiful blossoms was a small wooden house made of cut logs and planks. With a cane in her hand and glasses on her eyes, an old woman stood at the door of the hut in a purple robe.

“Hah, I was worried about who would show up when my curse was dispelled, but it was just you, Vincent.” The old lady smirked and tapped her cane on the ground. The swaying flowers danced around and cleared up a path, leading to the front door.

Vincent smiled and stepped on the cleared path. He stopped in front of the woman and stretched his hand. “Mumbaha… How have you been?”

“Look at this runt,” Mumbaha scoffed and swung her cane at his legs. “Did you just ask to shake my hands?”

Vincent playfully smiled as he raised his leg and shouted out some ouches. Mumbaha finally shook her head and turned around,

“Come on in, you too, Ophelia.” The door disappeared as she stepped forward and the couple followed behind. Vigsius barely stepped on the cleared path when a voice came out. “You stay outside, giant. You’re too big.” At the end of her words, the missing door reappeared and the flowers danced back to their original spot.

“D-damn you! The giants are proud of me for my unnatural height, ok?” Vigsius cursed out, but there was no reply.

Back inside, Vincent and Ophelia stood in the empty house with Mumbaha.

“Why don’t you take a seat?” She said and flicked her hand and a sofa set appeared out of thin air. Vincent and Ophelia didn’t seem too surprised and sat down across the old companion.

“Fourteen years… what has brought you back after fourteen years?” She asked as she leaned back into her sofa.

“Mumbaha…” Vincent’s gaze fell low as he swallowed his words in. Ophelia gently placed her arm on his shoulders and looked at him with a worried gaze. Sensing the mood, the old woman straightened her back and coughed to seem more proper.

“My son was kidnapped.”

“What?” Mumbaha’s face scrunched into a tight frown as she bent her back again. “Why are you joking—”

“I am not.” Vincent finally looked into Mumbaha’s eyes. The old woman gulped and straightened her back yet again.

“N-no way? How did your child get captured?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know how it happened. He just disappeared.” Vincent leaned towards the old woman with his hand against his chest. “We’ve been looking for two months now, but he’s nowhere. We can’t find him, Mumbaha, we can’t.”

He is dead.

That was the foremost thought in Mumbaha’s mind. The old woman had been living for over five hundred years now, she had seen more than her fair share of heartbreaks. But this was Vincent. She had known him since he was a wee kid flailing around with a sword.

Be it back then or even now, he wasn’t one to be out of touch with reality.

Hardening her heart, Mumbaha narrowed her eyes and gazed at the two across her. “Is your child alive?” she asked.

Ophelia’s eyes glistened and she bit her lips, but Vincent leaned even further. “He is. I am sure.”

At his words, Ophelia’s jaws loosened. They had stopped many times over the two months to ask old friends for favors, and no matter how many times they were asked this question, Vincent had replied without a second’s hesitation.

“I’ve taught him myself,” Vincent continued. “Even if the whole world went against him, he’ll find a way to survive no matter what it takes. He is alive, Mumbaha.”

The old woman’s eyes lightly shook at Vincent’s impassioned words. For the first time, she couldn’t tell whether Vincent’s words came from his unshakable confidence or his unconvinced heart.

“Vincent… are you going to join the empire again?”

“Yes. I will do whatever it takes to find him, anything.”

Mumbaha shifted her gaze to Ophelia. The nervous look from before nowhere to be seen. Ophelia nodded resolutely at Mumbaha as if affirming Vincent’s words.

Loss. Had this invincible foe even shook the all-powerful Vincent or were his words true and the child was still alive? The answer didn’t matter. As long as she didn’t know, she would bet her all on the latter.

“Tell me everything about him. I’ll do everything I can.”

**

“Are you done, young sir?” Truss called out.

“Yeah, it’s good to go,” Luka announced as he stepped out of a tent. The suns had gone down while the three stayed in wait. With nothing much to do, they set up a tent and campfire for the night. Luka and Charlotte set up the tent while Truss prepared the dinner for the night.

With the sizzling sound of the stew, their work came to an end and the others came back. Vincent clasped his hand and joined Luka and Charlotte in their circle.

“You guys have already done everything, huh?” Ophelia said as she came up from behind and rustled the kids' hair. “Thank you,” she said with a gentle smile.

Lastly, a grumpy Vigsius appeared too and a sat little further than the others to not hit them with his legs. Truss stayed shut and served the stew in bowls to everyone.

“Ah, um, your work is done?” Luka asked, hoping to get a conversation running.

“Yeah, it’s done.” Vincent nodded.

“No more stops now, we’ll be going straight to Wolke tomorrow.” And Ophelia added.

“Hey Truss, tell them about the cool things in the capital.” Vigsius patted Truss's shoulders who smiled wide and began listing off all the attractions of the Great Himmel Empire's capital city.

An awkward, yet lively air lingered as they had their dinner. Only Charlotte refused to participate in the conversation, not responding with more than a nod or shake for every one question asked of her.

Soon, the group finished dinner and tidied up. After another short chat, the four humans retired to the tents while Vigsius begrudgingly slept in the cart.

The night deepened as some of the many moons climbed overhead. Luka was unable to sleep.

Today too had been an extremely difficult day. No matter what had happened, the thoughts of his missing brother didn’t leave his head.

Even now, he wanted to cry. He wanted to scream at Charlotte for being selfish. He wanted to blame his parents for not looking for him every waking moment. He wanted to curse out fate for taking his brother away, and he wanted to scream at himself for being unreasonable.

Tired, Luka quietly shuffled out of his tent and looked at the sky. The hundreds of stars coupled with the radiant colors of the many moons made for a beautiful sight.

Luka walked around. Deeper into the woods, sitting atop a fallen log were both his parents.

Ophelia had curled into herself while Vincent had his arms wrapped around her. He couldn’t hear them, nor could he see their faces, but Luka knew they were both crying.

They were crying desperately.

Luka looked at his parents for a few seconds before closing his eyes and turning away. He walked out of the forest and went back towards his tent. His raging heart had calmed down again. Everyone else had it rough. If he were to fall under it too, they would all break.

His family needed him.

Before moving into the tent, Luka looked up one last time.

“Are you seeing this, Astolfo? The sky is pretty tonight.”