What does it really mean to have an identity? I had asked myself that question countless times throughout my life, yet I’d never been able to come to a conclusion myself. Is it finding something you’re really good at and making that your identity? Or is it discovering a passion and making it your own? Perhaps it could be your most defining personality trait? Such a simple question and yet it has caused so many people throughout history to struggle and stumble as they make the journey to discover their identity. For her and I, this was a question that we would not know the answer to for a long time. This is that story.

The cold winter months had fully arrived and every step he took made his body shiver. Putting his hands in his pockets wasn’t enough even with the gloves he had on. For Charles Bartholoid, it was a lifestyle he still wasn’t used to even though it had been nearly 3 months. He never had any issue with the cold in his life up until this moment. After all, he had always been able to use his mana to maintain a regular body temperature even in the coldest regions of the continent. Yet here he was, wearing thick layers of clothing he had bought for dirt cheap and shivering in a regular winter.

The city of Marucia he had been staying in was one of the largest cities in the Castorian Empire and he couldn’t stand it, since large crowds was something he always dreaded. The worst part of staying in such a large city, however, was how disparate the people in the city were from each other. On one side of the city he strolled, he noticed the horrendous conditions of the slums. The stench of rotten food and excrements from different pests made walking near that place almost unbearable. The people there simply sat at the side of the street in front of their poorly constructed houses that looked as though they might collapse if the wind was too strong. Some begging and some busking in hopes of making what little money they could to survive. It was a sight he had seen hundreds of times in the past, yet before, the city would at least try to hide the ugly nature that comes with any major city. Here, however, that ugliness was on full display for all to see. He found it reprehensible that the city government didn’t even pretend to make an effort.

On another side of the city, Charles could see the opulent and grandiose that came with living in the wealthier parts of town. In contrast to the slums, the roads here were well maintained and properly taken care of. The people who walked the streets wore clothing made of the finest silks or cloths. They wore the finest makeup and spent their days shopping and indulging in the finest luxuries they could find. Of course, these were simply the two extremes that the city contained. A large portion of the city was still occupied by the working middle class. It was one of those districts that Charles was currently heading towards.

Arriving at his destination, he opened the door to let the warm air inside overtake his entire body as he took a second to let the heat embrace him. He immediately noticed the person he was meeting with today. Making his way toward the table, he was given weird stares from everyone he walked past as he drew closer to the table.

"You’re late today aren’t you?”

He spoke with a light-hearted tone and a sly smirk on his face.

"Well, it wasn’t very pleasant leaving my bed so I took a little longer than I thought I would.”

"Well can’t blame you on that, no one wants to leave their house in this kind of weather. It’s just not worth it.”

Taking a sip of the coffee that had already been ordered for him, Charles took a deep breath before relaxing in his seat. The person in front of him was Koren. A dwarf, which was an extremely rare sight in the most human-populated Castorian Empire. This was why Charles was getting so many strange stares from people all around him, since it was rare for the elitist humans of the Empire to speak with other races, much less sit down and enjoy coffee with them. Charles, however, had a particular reason for meeting Koren today.

Retrieving a small pouch in his pocket, he tossed it over to Koren who carefully inspected the contents with such concentration that the people staring at him faded from his mind.

"Yep, everything’s here. 50 ducats for your payment this month.”

With a satisfied expression on his face, Koren kept the money in his bag before taking a sip of his own coffee.

"Still though, by paying 50 ducats a month. You’re gonna need at least 10 years to fully repay your debt huh?”

"Please don’t remind me. I’ve got enough on my plate working odd jobs just to repay your boss.”

"Come on now, don’t be like that, the boss did save you from an eternal slumber in that ice. Plus he’s pretty appreciative of all the help you’ve given in navigation and other things. It would have taken you 20 years if the boss wasn’t such a nice guy. I still remember the day we found yo-”

"Yes, yes. I’ve heard this story too many times. Let’s not do this again alright?”

Cutting him off before he could go on another one of his long tangents.

"Well, I’ll spare you from that story today.”

Koren replied with a dejected expression.

"So, what sort of big news do you have for me today? I travelled all the way here because you said you just had to tell me about it in person.”

Koren put his cup down and excitedly slammed the table.

"About that! You see, I’ve found a way for you to get out of this crippling debt.”

Just hearing that sentence was enough for Charles’s eyes to widen as he eagerly listened. After all, he didn’t want to spend the next 10 years working odd jobs just to pay back a debt he never even wanted to owe.

"You see, the boss came to me the other day and told me to tell you this. We’re looking for someone to serve as a servant to a noble household. However, this particular role requires quite an extensive knowledge of the continent and its geography for some reason. The boss says the person didn’t elaborate any further than that. Well, that’s beside the point. After hearing the job request the boss immediately thought of you. So what do you think?”

Earnestly listening to everything Koren had just said, Charles considered the proposal and asked the most important question.

"So… what’s the pay like. Or more specifically, how long will I need to work there before I can pay off my debt.”

Koren had expected that question and immediately raised his fingers to give him the answer. Charles almost dropped his coffee cup after seeing the number he raised.

"Are you sure? I just have to work there for 2 years and I’ll be debt-free.”

"Yep, the boss has guaranteed this number himself. Although the job is in the Kingdom of Pavone, so you'll have to travel a certain distance to get there."

Now Charles was seriously considering accepting the job, even though he didn’t have the best experience with nobility in his past and the idea of being a servant didn’t sit right with him. The offer of being able to cut 8 years of working out and pay his debts was too tempting to turn down.

"Well… I can give it a try I guess.”

"So you’ll do it!? That’s good then.”

Koren laughed out loud and caused the attention of the entire café to be on him again. Although he didn’t seem to care much.

"What’s up with you?”

Charles wondered as he questioned why Koren was laughing so loudly about him accepting the job.

"Oh, nothing… it’s just that it’s nice to see you be able to finally do something worthwhile. You’ve been working odd jobs ever since you woke up. Not to mention you’ve been forced to stay in this city by the boss. An old relic of history such as yourself should do more with his life than just this. You’re older than me for goodness sake. Besides, I think it’s for the best that you leave the Empire, for now. Things haven’t been the best recently.”

"Do something more with my life huh…?”

Charles stared at the empty coffee cup and then at his own arm. That offhand comment Koren had made was not something he wanted to hear right now. He was a relic, a man of a forgotten era. He wasn’t even supposed to be alive right now. His entire life had been turned upside down that night, during that fight. He had braced himself for death, and yet death did not come for him. Instead, all he got was the current life he was living.

"Anyway, since you accepted the job. You gotta come with me to meet the boss and finalise some things.”

"Sure, let’s go.”

Paying for the bill, Charles and Koren headed out of the café only to be met with the loud screams of fleeing civilians, followed by a loud explosion not too far off from where they were.

"Oi, Oi! What in the world is that?”

Koren couldn’t believe what was going on and Charles was dumbfounded as well. Marucia was a large city in the Empire. Needless to say, the huge walls and well-defended city should never be under attack, especially since the Empire wasn’t at war with any nation now.

Watching the fleeing civilians, Charles believed that he should run as well. After all, he was no longer able to fight. His body was destroyed and he would be of no assistance in a fight anyway. Yet somehow, he couldn’t run. Every cell in his body was directing him to that fight. The dilemma caused him to stay frozen in place as Koren called for him to run.

"What are you doing man!? We have to get as far away from whatever that is.”

After a long silence, Charles finally responded to Koren

"I can’t…”

"What? Don’t tell me you’re going towards the explosion? Are you crazy man?!”

Koren expression was full of shock and bewilderment as he desperately tried to convince Charles to run.

"Even if it’s crazy, I still have to go.”

He had spent his entire life fighting. How could he just abandon everything he stood for. Even if his body was in no condition, his instincts were simply too strong to ignore.

(So you’re going huh?)

"Yeah, I am.”

(Well then, it’s been a while but let’s see what this body can still do.)

As he began sprinting as fast as he could towards the explosion, Charles seemed as though he was speaking to himself. However, he was speaking to someone he had known since he was a child. A long-time friend.

"Yeah, you gotta help me out here Pandora.”

(Well, there’s only so much I can do with such a battered body like yours.)

The voice in his head resembled that of a young man in his early 20s. Yet the true identity of the person who resided in his soul was only known to a few back then, and now Charles was likely the only person who still knew.

Arriving at the site as quickly as they could, they found the place destroyed and wrecked. Holes of barren earth were in place of the once scrappy buildings of the slums. There were several bodies of the residents of the slums, lying motionless on the ground as others desperately tried to flee, it was mayhem. The main thing that caught his eye though, was the huge beast standing there.

It was a wyvern, a beast who resided in the south. What was such a beast doing in the central city of Marucia? No one knew. What Charles knew though, was that it needed to be stopped now.

"Seems the military response is pretty slow.”

(They’re probably still panicking or shocked that a wyvern infiltrated their city. It’s quite funny if you think about it.)

"How inefficient the garrison here is? Well, what did you expect from such a wealthy and peaceful city?”

Taking a deep breath, Charles readied himself for a confrontation with the wyvern. He wasn’t expecting to beat it or anything, he was too weak for that now. He simply hoped to stall it long enough for the garrison to arrive.

"Well, let’s do this!”

Wyverns are extremely passive creatures, they never bothered anyone and always stayed in their natural habitat. But this one was extremely agitated and angry. It had just attacked a city far away from its home.

Opening his palm, Charles used everything he had to gather the mana in his body to that one location. The pain was excruciating, it felt as if every vessel in his body would burst any second now. But somehow through sheer determination, he managed to do it. In his hand was a sword. It wasn't the best he’d ever made from his own power, but it would suffice.

(Haha, it seems you and I are both in a pretty pathetic state right now.)

"Aw come on, don’t say that, we managed to create a sword.”

Charles sarcastically replied as he finally prepared himself.

As he locked eyes with the wyvern to stop it from attacking the civilians, it seemed to have focused its attention on him. Soon it opened its mouth to fire a long-ranged flame at him. Instinctively Charles dodged it without much trouble, but he could feel how much slower he'd gotten.

"Oi! What are you doing you idiot run!"

He could hear Koren scream at him from a distance, he was trying to get Charles to follow him and run but he knew the wyvern would just attack the civilians who still haven't evacuated.

(What a strange person. He decided to follow you.)

Charles quickly turned to Koren and shouted at him.

"I'll buy time, help me evacuate everyone still here."

"Are you insane!?"

Charles looked at him dead serious, he wasn't about to watch innocent people die. Not when they still had futures waiting for them. He would readily sacrifice his non-existent future if it means saving a few people.

Koren sighed and gave in

"Fine, but don't you die on me. I still haven't gotten all the money you owe."

"Sure."

His arm illuminated as a transparent energy shield appeared. It was his standard light shield that Charles had seen him use multiple times to block attacks. He began running to the trapped civilians.

"Nice, good job man. Now I just have to draw the wyvern away from the civilians."

Running up to the wyvern Charles did his best to dodge every single one of its attacks since most of them were long-ranged. Unlike dragons, wyverns have close to zero prowess with close-quarters combat, so once you closed the gap between the wyvern and you. It was a definite win.

However, right before he was in range to swing his sword, the wyvern fired another shot which he avoided, however, Charles didn't realise it shot two fireballs with one hiding behind the other's shadow. Not noticing the other fireball, Charles quickly ducked to try and avoid it but his arm made contact with it causing a part of his arm to be burnt.

"Tch! That hurts really badly. To think I'd get hurt from a wyvern's attack. Man, I'm really pathetic in this state."

(I told you so.)

Quickly running up to the wyvern, Charles struck its neck with his blade, but this particular wyvern's skin was much more durable than normal, thus it did not suffer as much damage as it normally would. Quickly flying away from him, the wyvern once again went out of close range. It probably recognised the threat the blade posed should it come in melee range again.

However, all of a sudden the wyvern began charging up something. Charles immediately knew that it was an attack all wyverns used when it felt threatened. It was a long-range fireball capable of demolishing a small village.

"Shit do I really have to use my last forbidden seal here?"

(Are you crazy? You’re gonna die if you do that. I’m not sure a measly wyvern is worth it. Besides look above you.)

Suddenly the attack was completely nullified as a giant blue shield made of mana appeared before Charles

"This is..."

"Fire-resistant shield, Lerocious."

Suddenly I could hear a voice from above, looking up I noticed two people towering above everyone else in the air, one was a pretty tall womam with blue hair and the other was a guy with brown hair. The girl was wearing some sort of suit with a skirt and the guy was wearing a military outfit. Suddenly the girl stretched her hand out and a huge spear formed. It was massive and entirely blue in colour.

"Claudia spear, blue rain!"

Suddenly the spear was shot right at the wyvern at a speed so fast the wyvern couldn't dodge it and the spear instantly pierced the wyvern killing it as its screams slowly faded. It was such a fast attack that you wouldn't notice it if your eyes weren't trained for combat.

Koren looked stunned as Charles noticed his expression completely change once he laid eyes on that girl.

"Koren who's that?"

"You don't know!?"

Charles looked at him confused because he was shocked he didn't know who this random person was.

Looking at her clothes I noticed a symbol carved onto her hand. It was the symbol of an eagle standing atop a mountain with two soldiers standing guard with their swords raised defending the eagle.

“That woman is a lancer, the strongest warriors on the continent.”