“Ho? Are you sure, my friend? You’ve been standing for quite some time, have you not?”

“…I do not mind.”

“Ha! You never change, Arthur!”

“……”

Seeing the awfully ecstatic Zed laughing before him, he narrowed his gaze and readied his fists. Loading a whole fist load of Magic into his clenched fist, he threw a punch straight at him at an astounding speed, his movements causing small shockwaves to pulse through the air.

“Hup!”

Using full use of his {Foresight}, he easily dodged the explosive attack, stepping back as quickly as he could. Looking over to his slightly annoyed face, Zed let out another laugh.

“Hmm…How long has it been?”

“…What?”

“Our last battle. Perhaps…Around 6 years ago?”

“…About right.”

The two shared a moment of silence with each other, before the silence came to a sudden close. Snapping his fingers, a small explosion occurred right next to Arthur, who put up his hands as protection.

With his hair blowing in the wind, Arthur locked gazes with his rival. He tapped the ground lightly with his left foot, and soon after,

*Bur!*

A metal long sword erupted from down beneath. Picking up the sword with one hand, he pointed his blade towards him, who merely grinned and took a stance, his left foot behind his right one.

“Are you ready…Arthur?”

“…Always been.”

After those words, their battle begun.

Dashing in with his sword in hand, Arthur swung his blade down. With ease, Zed jumped back and landed, the sword merely cut the air.

Grinning widely, Zed punched the air several times, sending a wave of invisible punches towards him. Putting up his guard, he slashed down the incoming air punches.

“Ha!”

“…”

Right after, Zed appeared behind him, before sending several more air punches, this time the numbers reaching around 20, however, he did not flinch one bit.

“[[Third Eye]]”

Using his increased vision, he slashed away all incoming attacks. Landing on the ground, Zed quickly rolled left, avoiding a metal pike that sprouted in the spot he landed on. Putting his palm over the bottom part of the iron pike, he sent a shockwave and broke it apart.

Picking up the pike with one hand, he aimed quickly and threw out the pike. Taking a step to the right, he let the pike fly by.

His eyes still focused onto his opponent, he brandished his sword and charged in. He sent a flurry of swings and slashes towards Zed, who easily dodged the incoming attacks.

“Quake!”

As he was dancing along, dodging his incoming sword, he tapped the ground with his right foot, and a terrific shock was sent outwards. Cracks began emerging as the ground below began to tear apart. Arthur merely stood still and waited for the waves to come to an end.

“[[Piston]]”

Using his spare right hand, he activated his magic once more. A metallic glove emerged on his fist. Using his magic to add some extra force, he sent a devastating punch towards him.

Wanting something different, Zed didn’t bother to dodge, and instead readied his fist. With his unique magic coming into play, he traded fists with Arthur. As their fists met, an air explosion occurred, sending waves of wind outwards. The surrounding guards, or what remained at least, quickly took cover, or simply ran away.

“Have you dulled, Arthur? Did you think this would be enough to defeat me?”

“……”

Without saying any words, Arthur simply stared back to his rival, who was grinning excitedly. But then, he caught something with his {Foresight}, and stepped away immediately.

“[[Eject]]”

“Woah!”

Muttering that word, the metal glove on his right hand was ejected out, flying towards Zed, who barely managed to dodge the speeding metal bullet. The metal glove instead landed into a wooden box filled with tools, and broke it apart.

“…I’ll fix that later.”

Putting that aside for now, he tightened his grip on his sword and dashed in once more. This time, he decided to add some more twists onto his blade. It’s been lacking lately.

“[[Saw]]”

Holding his sword up into the air, a huge amount of spikes suddenly emerged on the edge of his sword. Applying some magic into it, the spikes began to rotate around the blade, forming a deadly chainsaw-type weapon attached to a sword, not that a sword wasn’t already deadly, but moving on.

With his customized blade, he took a stance and swung it down. Upon impact, the sword sent a cloud of dust into his eyes, forcing Zed to close his eyes. Taking this chance, he pointed his sword to him slashed.

“Not yet, my friend.”

Taking use of his {Foresight}, he easily dodged the incoming attacks as he was protecting his eyes from the dust. Once they were out, Zed quickly returned the favour and sent one strong shockwave at him. Putting up his guard, he withstood the shock attack.

“…Tch.”

Clicking his tongue in a slight annoyance, he blew away the dust cloud. Glaring dangerously at him, Arthur set down his blade, and clapped his hands together. Seeing this, Zed felt a sense of nostalgia rise in him, but he quickly set it aside.

“Finally. It took quite some time, did it not?”

“……”

Silently accepting his comment, he prepared the activation of his magic, and this time, it would be catastrophic. Zed seemed to realise this, and he too prepared his own devastating attack.

It seems these two are about to end it now!

“Sonic Bo-“

“[[Iron Gro-“

“Hey! Stop it you two!”

To their surprise, before they could finish their activation chant, someone else interrupted their exchange. The two, both knowing who this is, turned to the person standing by the door leading back to the castle.

“Geez. Have some consideration, would you? This castle is being rebuilt!”

“Truly, I knew such a fact already.”

“…I’ll just fix it when the time comes.”

“What is that even supposed to mean?!”

Seeing as these two men were unable to express any worry for this castle, she sighed deeply and looked back to them. With a stern voice, she began to ramble on about the castle’s safety and whatnot.

-Meanwhile, inside the king’s room-

“F-Father?!”

“Hmm?”

Somewhat puzzled by the shocked reaction of his son, he raised his eye brow in suspicion. Looking back, everyone seems to be quite surprised to see him walking like this. Just how long has it been since the last time he was awake?

“Is something wrong?”

“N-No! I-I just thought that…y-you know…y-you should be in bed r-right now…”

“And why might that be? I am able to stand like I am now.”

“D-Did you not hear about y-your injuries?”

Now that he said it, it was true. Upon his wake, he hadn’t bothered to ask the priestess about his injuries, or what had happened to him besides his obvious loss of his right leg and left eye.

“No, I have not.”

“H-Huh? W-Well…T-They said that, y-your liver was…uhh…c-completely shattered and torn.”

“Hmm?”

“A-And…uhh…a-a lot of b-blood leaked out…”

“……I see.”

Somehow, hearing those words seem to trigger pain within his body. When he said liver, he felt an acute pain in his stomach area, and when he said blood, he suddenly felt tired. Has his child gained a new skill, perhaps?

Hmm, who knows?

Not that it matters at this moment.

He seems to be extremely worried because of those words.

“H-Huh?”

Without saying anything, the king patted his head and gently rubbed his hair. After the sudden moment of shock, he quickly showed a smile in delight.

“Although he is 14 years of age, he really does still act like a child.”

Seeing that happy smile plastered on his face, the king himself showed a soft smile as he continued to comfort his worried child.

But looking at him now, he managed to notice some slight differences from the last time he saw him. First, his short white hair, which is usually combed neatly, was slightly messy and rough.

Second, his green eyes looked slightly darker than usual, as if he had gone through a lot of physically and mentally draining activities.

And lastly, although he was still wearing some neat clothing, his dark blue coloured top wasn’t buttoned correctly, and his red cloak that he gave him when he turned 13 was worn quite hastily.

He wasn’t very well versed into nobility, but he could at least tell that much.

“Aurum, where’s Laura?”

“H-Huh? M-Mother? Well…uhh…”

“I’m here, Valdov”

Although he had asked for her location, it seems such a question was unnecessary, just like it has always been. No matter where he calls her, she will very likely show up.

He found it odd, but he pushed it aside.

Turning around, he faced his lovely wife and smiled.

“Are…you sure you’re even allowed to walk.”

“Surely not…but this is my kingdom. I must stand strong.”

Laura knitted her eye brows slightly when she heard him say such strong words while standing with only one leg. Honestly, she was worried, very worried, so much so she wanted to force him back to his resting bed, but it seems he has his own sense of duty.

But, she liked that side of him.

“But really…Are you alright? Can you even stand properly?”

“…For now, no. I’m forced to make use of this stick. But I’ll make do.”

“I see…”

Hearing his response, Laura gave him a bitter smile as her eyes fell upon his missing eye and leg. Seeing him impaired like this, forced to use a walking stick to even move, broke her heart.

This nation has participated in many battles, and he himself has fought many times, but this is the first time she had seen him take permanent damage. It just goes to show her just how devastating this attack has been.

And if more attacks came, what would happen?

It was a terrifying thought, but she casted it aside for now.

At the least, her beloved husband was still very much alive.

But putting all that aside, she finally recalled what her purpose of coming here was, and quickly informed him of some news she had found.

“By the way, we’ve received confirmation on another group of heroes.”

“Hmm? And where might they be?”

“They should be in a nearby village. I’ve sent my personal guards to come and pick them up.”

“…I see.”

Although he was grateful that some more of the heroes were found, it still begs the question, who launched this devastating attack?

Even though he had battled that ‘Thing’ as seriously as he could, and used as many magic spells as he could muster, but all the attacks he sent were easily sucked away, as if that ‘Thing’ didn’t even realise.

With one flick of its ‘Fingers’, his whole leg was blown off, and with another, his eye was gouged out. Luckily, it seems his son, who was hiding behind him, came out uninjured, but who, or what, could have launched such intense killing attacks?

The more he pondered about it, the more it boggles him.

The ‘Thing’ that he fought looked like a humanoid monster, something he had become familiar with throughout the many years he had went battling, but he had never seen something like that.

Just, what was that?

“Valdov?”

“Ah, sorry.”

It seems she noticed that he had gotten silent, and decided to call out. Her expression seems quite complex, a mix between worry and curiosity.

“Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I am, do not worry.”

-Back in Jake’s room-

“I…see.”

“……”

And so, after the one hour she spent talking with him, she came out, more confused than anything.

To summarize, Jake had a dream, where he met ‘Alex’, who seemed to mock him and in the end of the dream, presumably killing him and waking him up from that nightmare.

But she couldn’t quite understand the meaning behind such a dream. In the past, she had dealt with several people, coming to her and asking about advice on nightmares they had experienced. At first, she was quite confused, so she decided to learn more about the context behind ‘Dreams’.

By the end of her research, she learnt that dreams contained many meanings, and different dreams held different meanings depending on the person and what they saw. However, what does a dream containing such specific descriptions mean?

For once, she wasn’t able to truly give advice to the terrified Jake, and only managed to encourage him to stand up and walk around, but she wasn’t able to dispel the worry he had floating around in his heart.

Right now, Jake was simply walking around, aimlessly trying to get his mind away from the nightmare he had experienced. Meanwhile, Charlotte was still sitting in his room, intently pondering over what to say to help him recover.

When it comes to encouraging someone, one must be incredibly careful to not instil false hope into the troubled ones. Her mindset told her to always help someone, putting aside anything they’ve done to her in the past, no matter how terrible they have been to her.

Jake was innocent, so she wanted to at least get him out of that terrified atmosphere.

Especially after seeing how powerful he could be in a battlefield, seeing him like this felt wrong to her.

“Hah…I can’t think of anything…”

With a tired expression, she complained silently and dropped onto the bed she was sitting I front of. The bed felt quite rough against her cheeks, but it was still quite comfy nonetheless.

Although, the blanket’s still resting on the cold floor.

Probably should make the bed…

Getting up from her seat, she quickly picked up the blanket and set it down on the bed. After moving it around a bit, she managed to get it to fit perfectly. Seeing the job well done, she sighed in relief.

Doing this felt natural to her. After all, she was the one to neat the bed when Marie and her woke up in the morning!

“Marie…”

But just as her thoughts reached that point, she frowned as she was reminded of her friend, which was separated from her when they encountered that golden wolf.

Luckily, it seems she had become acquaintances with Jake’s best friend, Alex. And from the small descriptions Zed managed to leak out, she managed to at least conclude that he was no pushover.

And also, the fact that Zed calls him ‘Master’ causes some discomfort.

“Hah…”

Seeing as there was no hope of finding her now, she sighed deeply and dug her face into the pillow. Well, at least she’s somewhat protected now, right?

Yeah…