-Present time-

Fractured hills Dungeon, one of the dungeons that suddenly rose up from the ground on the last days of the Great War. The dungeon stood between 2 hills at the southern of Marama District area. It has four flying square towers with purple-ish pointy roofs, twenty floors level high and surrounded by lush trees and bushes. It was one of the favorite dungeons for most new adventurers. It provided decent experience and loot that consist of silver ores which lay on the walls of the dungeon or sometimes attached on the fur of Lou; a small type of bear like a beast around four and a half feet tall. They were easy to identify with their round big eyes and cuddly brown fur, as innocent as they may seem they were as deadly as any other beasts in their gang-raid attack style. Besides Lou, there were also Sheebals, giant cats like beasts that have expensive golden fur and crystal fangs. They rarely appeared but when they do, it was best to run away for your life than facing it, for their claw and teeth could shred any armor lower than golden armor. Only those that have the skills and better armor would try their luck in gaining the rare golden fur coat and crystals teeth of a Sheebal.

All of those dungeons were sealed with shining portals and small pedestals stood by; it has a slot where you need to provide an emblem that was catered by Adventure Guild. Every eligible young adventurer had to go through a series of tests to get the emblem. The emblem itself has the capability of grading the owner skill and power, the higher the ability and strength the owner has the higher chance for more dungeons to be available to explore. There were also some rumors saying that somewhere inside those dungeons lay hidden areas with legendary treasures, though after more than sixteen years no one had ever been able to prove the existence of the legendary treasures.

Yurika stood in front of the portal with Zeke standing behind her, waiting for her to enter. She rose her hand to place her emblem to the slot on the pedestal when suddenly she stopped.

“What’s wrong?” Zeke peeked curiously.

She turned her body facing him with a quizzical look. Zeke tilted his head waiting for her to shoot her question.

“Thinking about it, this emblem, isn’t it supposed to keep the owner safe from entering wrong dungeons?”

“Yes, it is.” Zeke's tone was flat, “why?”

“So… how did that happen?” she looked at her emblem, starting to turn it up and down.

“What do you mean? What did happen?” Confused at her action, the man walked next to her trying to see what she was doing.

“You know, that time when we first met,” Yurika returned her attention to him, “don’t tell me you already forgotten that.”

It took Zeke a couple of minutes before finally he chuckled and nodded; it was like a couple of months ago when he found her entering Fractured Hills.

“At that time I wasn’t strong enough, but how did the portal allow me to enter?” she started to poke her emblem curiously, “don’t you find that strange?”

Zeke took a deep breath and put his hand over hers, to stop the girl from poking at her adventurer emblem any further, “you will break it for sure if you keep doing that.”

“… don’t tell me it actually read me as a Fanaura?” she gasped.

“ Maybe.”

“Now I wonder how did the adventure guild create this tool,” Yurika started to poke around her emblem once more, “Oh! Oh! That brings me to another question...”

Zeke's eyes were gazing at her with a strange peer; there seemed something in his mind.

“Okay, are we going to stand here all day and questioning everything or are we going to enter the dungeon?” He cut her random wave of questions, “I don’t have all day you know?”

“Aww okay, let’s go then!” she sounded unsatisfied, but she decided to stuff all of her questions in the back of her mind.

Yurika then placed the upside down arrowhead shaped insignia - which has embossed pattern code and Adventure Guild sign crafted on it- to the slot of the pedestal. A soft blue light started to radiate from the embossed pattern. The light was moving, tracing on the pattern and by the time it completed the portal in front of the dungeon started to swirl in bright colors. The girl turned her head toward the swordsman before taking a step into the twirling light, as it swallowed her and send her into the dungeon.

---

“Are you that sure if the one who you were saving back then was me, as in Eireen?” Yurika started her questioning session again while they were gathering their loot. They were on the fifth floor of the dungeon.

“I mean… How could you just give out your True Name to some stranger like that? I don’t even remember my life as Yurika before Taft found me at that time, moreover as Eireen.”

Zeke grunted loudly hearing her question, all through their dungeon run just now she has been throwing questions at him randomly. Sometimes it was just a question that wasn’t even directed to him, more of her rambling to herself. All of those trails of thoughts and questions made her less focused. More than enough he got to warn or save her from getting hit by the beasts. They were pretty lucky there wasn’t any Sheebal on all of the five floors they had been through. Seeing on how indistinct was Yurika, the garnet haired man decided to stop their excursion.

“You and your questions, can’t they wait or watch the situation? Don’t you realize how hard it is to keep you safe while keeping myself alive on this whole run?!”

Yurika face flushed with guilt, “Sorry… I just have … uhm.”

Zeke watched her stammering, her guilty face and how she said sorry kind of reminded him of her past life. He couldn’t stay mad at that kind of face, not back then when she was Eireen and most likely not now. He always couldn’t help to helplessly succumb at her charms and forgave her easily.

He flicked his finger on her nose, hard enough to make her winced in surprise, “Focus!”

“Sorry…,” Yurika automatically rubbed her reddened nose.

“Save your questions until we are out of this dungeon,” he gave her a comforting smile, “I promise I will try to answer them if I can.”

Yurika smiled and nodded, she then bent down to take care of the rest of the loot. Zeke was going to join her but suddenly he stood still, his gaze looked far and vacant. His brows gathered in the middle of his forehead and dark cloud started to hang on his crimson eyes.

“Yuu we need to leave this dungeon fast,” his grim voice made Yurika wary. She rushed to finish up and followed him toward the dungeon exit.

“What’s going on?” Was the first thing she asked when they were out.

Zeke glanced at her for a few seconds before diverted his gaze toward a random direction, he wasn’t sure if mentioning his name would be a good idea.

“Jace…” he finally murmured, “he called me to return to the palace just now”

By the mention of his name, Yurika face went pale, “J-Jace?? He is still a-liv—er I mean around? Even the palace? I thought Ursa kingdom had succumbed and that’s why Adventure Guild took charge of everything?”

“Yeah, he is and also some of the elites. The palace…,” his garnet eyes darken, he averted his eyes to the horizon and left his sentence hanging.

“Well I am still alive, ain’t I? Why did you never question that before?”

Yurika gasped, “Yeah, I never really think about that before, It just seems so natural for me to see you. It was like just yesterday I bid you goodbye when you were dispatched to the frontline, but now thinking about it... it’s been like seventeen years ago since I last see you. Why are you not growing a day older ?”

“I guess it’s true that you are different. You aren’t the same girl like the one I know before,” he snickered trying to lighten the air

“Hey what is that supposed to mean!” Yurika objected.

“For one she wasn’t as chatty, impulsive, and naïve like you,” his face looked wistful the moment of her name flew out of his lips and a yearning smile rose upon his face, “Eireen… she is spe—“

“That’s because I am Yurika,” the girl cut him, she was miffed on how he mentions that name; her own name in the past, “having her memories, doesn’t mean I am her. I might have her memories fragments of life but this is Yurika’s life, not hers.”

He shrugged realizing her hostility, “anyways… no one realized that we are given eternal youth gift until around five years after the Great War ended.”

“Do you think it’s her doing?”

“Who?”

“The Goddess, Aine…” she muttered, “she must have been the one who did that to you guys, just like how she made me as a Fanaura.”

“Who knows,” Zeke rubbed his jaw thoughtfully, “but given the fact she had ordered us to find the one who would inherent Fetuu La Rossa at the last days of the Great War, might giving her the reason to do so.”

“So, Amiera, Lyall, Marc…, all of them still alive and have the same gift ?” She started to mention the names of those in the elites troops one by one which answered with a quick nod by Zeke.

“But we lost Dietra in our final battle…,” Zeke informed before she even mentioning her name, “Lyall… he is not the same man he used to be anymore since the day we lost her.”

Lyall Ursa in Eireen’s memories fragments was a guy who always laughs at everything. He was actually much stronger and talented than Jace but he refused to join the bloody competition over the seat of the king and decided to support Jace his younger brother. For him the king position was such a hassle and stressful, he rather wishes to live his life in a more relaxed way and far from all the responsibility a king must carry. He helped Jace with his meticulous plans and strategies in the struggle of winning the king’s seat.

Yurika saw in Eireen’s memories that she hardly saw him angry, he always has this relaxing and calming air around him. Even Jace couldn’t stay mad long enough at his older brother no matter what. Dietra, Lyall's wife was a really young girl, at the age of fourteen years old she was sent as a peace offering from Stilla kingdom. The small kingdom lost the battle against Ursa kingdom and as a sign of submission and loyalty, they gave Dietra their first daughter to be wedded by one of the princes. Even though she was young she was quite mature and it didn’t take long for everyone to admire her diligence and hard work.

Lyall at that time was at the age eighteen years old. His first thought that marrying her was a burden, but after a year of marriage he finally able to see how special she was and fall madly in love to her. It was almost impossible to see Dietra without Lyall around. Yurika couldn’t imagine how heartbreaking it was for Lyall to lose her.

“Anyway save all your questions for later. Jace wanted to see me now, for some reason he questioning me about you,” Zeke broke her walk in memory lane. He then stepped away from her, took out a teleport scroll; a rare and expensive magic item that has the ability to beam the owner to a certain place within seconds in a limited distance. It would require more than just a couple of jumps for Zeke to reach Ursa Palace from where he stood. But that scroll definitely helped to lessen the time spent for the journey.

He started to read the chanting spell on the teleport scroll when a tug on his cape cut his chant, he turned around and saw an ashen face grappling for air.

“He knows?” Yurika breathy voice filled with fear and panic.

He quickly grabbed her shoulder trying to calm her down, “No, I don’t think he knows about you as Eireen, calm down Yuu!”

“You said a few of the elites are still alive, is that including h-hi-him?!” the girl’s face was almost as white as her hair, her teeth chattered in fear, “He is the one who possessed Taft, right?! I should have known..., only that man who has the ability to steal Taft’s True Name.”

She clawed his front armor like a freaked cat, trembling and shaking at her memories, “he knows, Zeke! He knows! He is the one who brought the stone to me!”

Zeke devastated seeing her state, if Jace frightens her, the other man was in another level. He never really knew what he has done to her in the past but he suspected that the man might have something to do with Eireen’s death. There were regret and anger flaring in his eyes.

“Shhusshh calms down, Yurika….,” he hugged her, “He had lost his memory because of your awakening causing Fetuu La Rossa explosion. He got pushed out from Taft mind pretty violently and lost all the recollection while he was inside Taft’s mind.”

“A-are you s-sure?” Her chattering teeth slowly ebbed, her wary eyes bored straight at his garnet eyes looking for certainty.

“Yes… I am 100% sure,” Zeke ensured her. He took a step back while rubbing her arms softly. The man then leaned back and examined her face, “Are you okay now, Yuu?”

Yurika nodded weakly then her body slowly sliding down toward the ground, her weak legs had failed her. Zeke tried to hold her up but she shook her head; asking him to let her sat on the ground.

“You should go. You know how Jace doesn’t like to wait.” Her voice was raspy and her face looked drained.

Zeke contemplating on leaving her, “I better take you to Wen first. I can’t leave you in this kind of state.”

“NO!” She stopped him immediately, “I’ll be fine, don’t worry. I just need a little rest.”

“Yuu,“ he fretted.

“I don’t want Wen to see me in this state. She will be worry and I don’t want her to ask any questions,” she firmly shook her head, "I’ll be fine, promise!”

He sighed in defeat, he knew that her request was final and nothing could change it, she was as stubborn as she was before.

“Fine… I’ll see you later at the lake house. I should be back by midnight,” he moved away from her and started his teleporting chant.

“Zeke, please hide my identity from everyone? Promise me that.” Her voice entered his mind just a few seconds before he finished chanting.

He smiled reassuringly and mouthed ‘I Promise’ at her at the last second before everything became blurry and his body dashes toward the teleport tunnel.