“We’re not participating this year.”

“W- Wait, Yuki! But the rank-up!” Embla called after her as the fox kin left the living room.

“For the last time, Embla. No. We can always rank-up by doing quests.” Yuki turned around and placed her hands on her hips.

“Yuki, we’ll be dead by the time we get to the next star. Why are you being so stubborn?” Embla asked.

“Because I said so. Now, stop asking me to sign up because we’re not going to-”

“Does it have something to do with the fact that Eschamali of the Twelve Sages is coming? Are you nervous fighting in front of a sage?” she asked.

Yuki froze. Her gaze became icy, causing Embla to back away. Without saying another word, Yuki walked up the stairs. Embla flinched when she heard the door slam.

“Looks like we’re not doing it this year either,” Cal said, walking up to her. She turned around and saw the others looking at her with a “You tried” look on their faces.

“This year?”

“Last year, Yuki didn’t want to participate because Scheat of the Twelve Sages was here,” Red clarified.

“Well, that sucks. What do we do now?” she asked, sitting down at the foot of the stairs.

“Hmmm… the parade’s in a few days. Wanna watch?” Pandora suggested.

“Yeah. I’m gonna head out. It’s my turn to go get groceries,” Embla said.

“Oh right. Here.” Red handed her a pouch. Embla took it and looked inside.

“W- Wait a minute. Red, there’s a thousand bullions in here,” Embla said, looking back at him.

“Grab some saehrimnir meat. We’re going to try and cheer Yuki up tonight with some food,” Red said.

“Right.” Embla nodded and headed towards the door. Before she stepped out of the house, Embla turned around. “Pandora, Cal, do you guys want anything?”

“Hazelnut-”

“Spread.” the two said at the same time.

Embla nodded and left the house.

“Haaah!” Embla let out a long sigh as she walked out of the market. She had spent hours there, stalking the meat aisle. One of the employees had told her that they had run out of saehrimnir meat and that there was a new shipment coming in. Of course, Embla would not let it go. She was a hunter by heart and her prey would not escape. And so, she waited and apparently other people did as well. When they dropped the meat, Embla fought other people for it and managed to snag some saehrimnir after a grueling war that lasted nearly an hour.

“Ow.” she winced as she felt a bruise forming on her side. “That old lady can hit really hard.” Embla looked down at her bags. “But at least I got the saehrimnir! Looks like we’re eating well tonight~!”

Still, what's got Yuki so worked up? Embla thought as she walked down the street. She smiled and closed her eyes, taking in the night life of the city. It was nothing compared to the serenity of the country but it was an experience all the same. Emba opened her eyes and clenched her fist.

"What would you do if this was you, Val?" she absentmindedly said to herself. Still, getting to the next star gives us more opportunities. Still, there's a chance we'll get robbed of quests but...

Embla sighed. "Promotion first, dealing with quest hoarding later. And above all that, I just realized I have no more sources on how to find Val."

She thought long and hard as she walked down the street. After a few minutes of thinking, her red eyes gleamed with an idea. But that gleam quickly died upon realizing that it could very well fail.

"At least I know I tried," she thought. Val's letter told me that all the locations I've been too were places she's investigated. But... AGGGHHH! I'll think about this later. First, Yuki is my priority. If my party leader is falling apart, then I can't do anything.

“I thought you said that the saehrimnir would make her feel better!” Embla whispered.

“I thought it would. It normally does,” Red whispered back. The two turned to look at Yuki. The girl was currently eating her grilled saehrimnir steak violently. She stabbed her fork into the meat. An audible crack was heard as her plate split cleanly down the middle.

Embla gulped. Yuki was terrifying when she was angry. The fox-kin radiated a freezing aura of terror. Frost was forming around her chair and the silverware in her hands.

“Y- Yuki, do you like your steak?” Pandora asked.

“It’s fine,” she said. The aura lessened a bit, allowing them all to breathe a sigh of relief.

“So about tomorrow. How about we take a quest?” Embla suggested.

“That sounds like a great idea,” Red said.

“Wait, what happened to bribing her w- MMMPPH!” Cal’s mouth was covered by Pandora’s hand.

“Oh Cal, we’re not going to ask her to sign up for the tourney. We’re just going to ask her if we could take a quest,” Pandora said.

“Guys, just stop. I know what you want to do. You want to enter the tournament right?” Yuki said, placing her fork down.

“Yuki, you don’t have to really. We just wanted to get this for you because you looked so down after I said the… you know, the E word,” Embla said.

“E-word?” Yuki had an amused look on her face.

“Yeah, Eschamali,” Embla said sheepishly.

“Well, don’t worry. I won’t freak out if you mention Eschamali again. I was just caught off guard when you said her title,” Yuki said.

“Yeah, anyway.” Embla hurriedly switched topics. She could see the storm brewing in those red eyes and wanted to avoid having it make landfall. “How about we take another quest? We need the money and I was thinking we should go to Ataraxia early tomorrow to beat out the other parties.”

“That’s a good idea, Embla. We’ll get up at the crack of dawn and go take all of the high-ranking quests,” Red said.

“Yeah, we’ll each take multiple quests and-”

“Guys.” Pandora stopped talking when she heard Yuki speak up. “We should do it.”

“Eh? But Yuki, she’s-”

“I know, Red. But what choice do we have? I know you’re trying to be considerate of how I feel but you and I both know that waking up early to get to Ataraxia has never worked,” she said, folding her hands. “And with the electric and mana bill coming up, we won’t have enough for water and food so we have to take this risk. So, tomorrow, we’re going down to Ataraxia to hand Annalise our entry.”

“But Yuki…” Embla began.

“No, don’t back out now. This is our only shot of getting enough money and to rank up,” Yuki said.

They all looked at each other with worried expressions on their faces.

“If that’s it, then I’ll head to bed. We need to get up early tomorrow,” she said, getting up and leaving her plate.

“I’ll go talk to her,” Red said, getting up and walking after her.

“She didn’t even finish her saehrimnir,” Pandora said, glancing at Yuki’s plate.

“So, what’s the deal with Yuki and the tournament?” Embla asked.

“Yuki has no problem with the tournament. We participated in the tournament the year before last year because she wanted to rank up like the rest of us.” Cal took another bite of his meal.

“So why didn’t she participate the year after?” she asked.

“We don’t really know. Only Red does but he never speaks up about it. We only found out that she didn’t go because Scheat of the Twelve Sages was the honored guest,” Pandora said.

“You don’t think that Yuki knows Scheat and Eschamali do you?” Embla asked.

“We don’t know,” Cal said. “Last year, Yuki managed to snag a quest that took us out of Yggdrasil for a week. And then after it finished, we stayed away for a few more weeks. Maybe, this year is different? She did say that we should participate.”

“Because we’re backed against a corner idiot. We have no other choice but to participate or we won’t be able to pay for our bills,” Embla said.

“Whatever, let’s just clean up and get some sleep. I feel like tomorrow’s going to be hectic with the parade and everything,” Cal said, grabbing his plate and heading to the sink.

The entire walk to Ataraxia was uncomfortable and awkward in some parts. Yuki walked ahead of them, radiating an aura of doom and gloom. The rest of her party followed behind her at an awkward distance as if they were trying to distance themselves from her. Embla, Cal, and Pandora looked at their leader with a worried expression.

“Red, what did you guys talk about?” Embla asked.

“I just told her that no matter what, we’ll stand next to her,” he said.

“What is that supposed to mean?” she asked.

“...” Red said nothing and continued to look ahead.

“Red?” Embla pushed.

“Don’t. He’s not going to say anything. Pandora and I tried multiple times when Scheat was here,” Cal whispered.

They entered the guild. Adventurer parties gave them a wide berth as Yuki made her way to the front. Even the higher level parties took care not to get in her way.

“Oh, Yuki, how may I help you?” Annalise asked, her smile never fading.

“Sign us up for the Ataraxia Guild Tournament. We’re participating this year,” Yuki said.

“Right away,”Annalise said, clacking away at her lightscreen keyboard.

“Well, well, well. Looks like you guys are participating too?”

They all turned to see William and Kier standing behind them. William had the cockiest grin on his face as he swaggered over to them.

“Back off creep,” Embla said, gripping her swords.

“Oh, scary. You think I’m scared of low level trash like you?” he grinned at her furious gaze. His eyes widened when a white flash struck his cheek. A trickle of blood ran down his face as he backed away in fear.

Yuki stood in front of him, her eyes glowing in anger as her two tails swished furiously behind her. Her sword was extended and slightly stained with his blood. “You’re one to talk you cowardly prick. Everyone knows that Kaguya carried your entire party during the tourney.”

“Ha… tough talk from someone Kaguya beat.” William tried to laugh it off.

“It won’t be the same this year,” Yuki said. “This year, I’ll beat Kaguya’s ass into the ground.”

“Is that so?” William and Kier’s eyes widened as they stepped to the side.

“Kaguya.” Yuki looked at her emotionlessly.

“Yuki.” Kaguya looked at her with some disdain in her eyes. “I hope you’re ready this year. Because I have an incentive to beat you down even more.”

“It won’t be the same this year. Because this year, it’s more than just stars on the line,” Yuki’s eyes glowed ominously as a white aura radiated from her body.

Kaguya grinned maliciously. “Let’s go you two. I’ll see you out on the field again.”

Red placed a hand on her shoulder, visibly calming her down.

“Red.” Yuki didn’t turn around.

“Yes?” he closed his eyes.

“Let’s go. I don’t want to be in here much longer than I have to today,” Yuki said.

“Ah, Annalise. Is our…?” Red asked.

“Your names have all been entered. All you need to do now is wait until the first day of the tournament which is in… a few days. Feel free to take any quests until then,” she said, smiling.

The group nodded and left the guild, walking out into the festive streets of Yggdrasil. Children ran past them, wearing costumes related to the Twelve Sages while balloons and flags decorated every inch of the street.

“Wow, this is festive,” Embla said. “Wanna watch the parade?”

“Yeah, let’s go!” Pandora said.

The group made their way to Main Street.

“This is more crowded than when Koji came back,” Embla said, squeezing through the crowd.

“Well, the Sages are really famous so the turnout would be bigger than having the Knight Grandmaster show up,” Cal said as they made their way to the front.

“Do we really have to stand up front?” Yuki asked, looking around.

“I’m too short,” Pandora said. “And I don’t want to ride on Red’s shoulders so that’s why we’re here.”

“When do you think they’re getting here?” Embla asked.

“In a few minutes probably,” Cal said.

“Have you seen Eschamali before? You and Pandora are from Alfheim right?” Embla asked.

“Just because we’re elves doesn’t mean we’re from Alfheim. Pandora and I are from Midgard. We lived by the southwestern coast,” Cal said.

“What about you, Red?” Embla asked.

“I have seen Eschamali before. I’ve also seen-”

“Look, there’s the procession,” Cal said.

Red and Embla halted their conversation and looked towards the mass of people that could be seen walking down the street. It was inaccurate to describe them as a mass of people. This “mass” appeared to be more like an army escorting their leader. In the middle of this army was a large carriage with an open roof.

People bowed and cheered as the woman Embla saw in the posters waved at the crowd. She looked different in person. Her beauty was unreal like a distant star she could only see but never touch. But Embla felt something else when the woman turned in their direction. Her eyes. They were the coldest shade of blue. Her entire body felt like it was freezing from the inside out. Each and every cell, organ, and pore in her body was slowly crystallizing into a solid mass of ice in the shape of her.

The woman, Mizore, raised her hand and the procession stopped directly in front of them. She hopped off the carriage and landed on the street. Everyone stood back as the Great Sage began to walk towards the group.

“Um, she’s walking toward us,” Pandora said.

“Yeah, I can see that,” Cal said.

“Do we back aw- Yuki?” Embla watched as their party leader walked past and stood in front of them.

She looked defiantly and fearlessly into the Sage’s eyes. The Sage was only a bit taller than Yuki yet her presence was extremely daunting like an oncoming whiteout blizzard.

“It’s been a while,” Mizore said. Her voice cut like steel yet it was oddly soothing like a winter breeze.

“Yes, it has, Mom.”