“A new swordmaster in the Black Lands?” Anne straightened the hems of her pink dress and addressed Johan from behind the leather jackets of her guards. She tilted her body forward inquiringly and the light coming from the window further back cast additional shadows on her generally tired features.

“Surely, you’re not talking about Skullsong? Well, if he can be called a swordmaster at all.” She frowned. “Better ask the Root, or Shadow, or whatever he calls himself presently.” She lifted up her strong chin to point to the youngster calmly watching them converse.

Johan noticed that the cut on the youngster’s face had stopped bleeding already – presumably thanks to infusing martial aura to the wound.

“Waihaihai... Something the organization doesn’t know... Surely you’re not so ill-informed?” The youngster shrugged off the sudden attention.

Anne raised her hands in the air in resignation. “Believe it or not, since your country’s very …hospitable... service, we’re hard pressed for resources, especially in this god-forsaken place. Otherwise you wouldn’t be standing here.” She glared at the youngster.

“Secretary, if I may.” Without turning around, the guard with the green Mohican spoke. His voice was gruff. It matched the tight muscles under his leather jacket but starkly mismatched his polite tone. Overall, Johan decided that its suitableness was uncertain.

“Yes?” Johan eventually placed his attention on what the man was actually saying. However, he didn’t relax his guard, just in case.

“My trainer once mentioned that there were rumors of a sword-wielding disciple in the Barren Peak, further in the interior of the Black Lands – I believe this is the mountain south of here.” While the man spoke, his fists remained clenched in front of his face, maintaining some sort of defensive stance too. It would be highly inaccurate -if not a blatant lie- to say that trust kept overflowing from both sides.

“He’d say that, often, faint slashing sounds and screeches would echo from the mountain” the man continued his explanation. ”People thought that someone was clashing against the beast there many times each moon. It kept the beast’s activity to a minimum for over a decade.” The man’s -also dyed green- eyebrows came slightly together when he tried to recall.

Bingo! Johan wasn’t particularly on top of things in the Black Lands. That is to say, he knew nothing. But the story sounded just vague enough to warrant investigation.

“Waihaihai! What a legend!” the youngster carelessly laughed from the side again. ”I’d say, a disciple surviving against the legendary beast... Now, that’s what I call strong. Whoever it was, they should have definitely become a master by now.”

“Hm... unreliable-” Anne started.

“Nah, that’s fine.” Johan cut her off, raising his left palm. Compared to what he was used to find when looking for that person, this was a high quality clue. Was he even following the same person all along?

The Barren Peak to the south, eh? Johan took a mental note.

“Thanks for the intel. Make sure to free your captives and you’ll see me next spring.” Without waiting for further replies, he moved towards the door. After all, as per Taliesin’s plan, he was supposed to finish this quickly and start the real show against the town’s guards.

“Waihaihai… So impatient! At least tell us your name!” the youngster called out when their positions became symmetric with respect to the debris in the middle of the room. He seemed pleased.

Johan made a poker face to refrain from smiling. Although he acted indifferent, he had been waiting for that question.

“You can call me Philidor, Philidor Mu.” He called back, as he swiftly entered an unfamiliar wooden corridor leading outside the wrecked room’s interior.

He vividly remembered the otherwise beautiful face of his martial aunt getting stuffed into tarts while he timidly nibbled some across the table. ‘Remember that name well, little hatchling. No true powerhouse would dare double-cross if you call yourself such.’ She had mysteriously said.

It would be the first time he would be making use of the advice. After all, the central continent were a barren land south of the Wilderness; they only hosted some small villages and bandits that respectively convenienced and inconvenienced the few caravans seeking to cross the Great Desert. Disciples -often way weaker than Johan- were the overlords in those places the same way that master Skullsong was the overlord of this town. In short, Johan hadn’t come across anybody important enough in the past decade to test the name on.

However, judging from the complete silence that followed his words, he figured that it should have worked.

As always, the effectiveness of his school’s teachings caused a searing pain to pass through Johan’s heart. He quickened his already purposeful stride, eager for a battle that would move his prowess one step closer to revenge.

“Bzzz bzzz” The hum of partially structured magic fizzling made Markus’s headache worse. He moved his hands out of the clean white sheets to massage his temples. Bur he dared not complain.

On a wooden chair at the left side of his bed sat the bulk of the not-so-old law enforcing elder. The fact that such a mass remained balanced while shifting around was a wonder by itself.

Admittedly, the chair protested angrily, but the elder didn’t take heed and carefully peered inside a transparent spherical crystal he was slowly moving around. The magical hum filling the cozy room came from it.

Small silver torrents twirled and changed shapes and colors inside the crystal. Markus vaguely recalled that they were formed from magical energy condensed enough to be visible to the naked eye. He tried to calculate how many ideas of magic would be needed for such a feat, but his headache made the calculations impossible to complete.

“Bzzz. Tic!”

Suddenly, the humming came to a halt and the colors inside the sphere stabilized. Markus had seen similar devices before, so he didn’t panic when a face appeared to float in its interior.

It was the face of a woman. Of a breathtaking woman. Although Markus was used to seeing beauties, he almost gasped.

Her raven-colored silk hair flowed into the foggy interior of the sphere, waving in an invisible wind, revealing her straight thin eyebrows, phoenix-shaped blue eyes and delicate nose. Her lips were thin but had a healthy rosy complexion.

Her gaze shifted inside the sphere, examining their surroundings. The instant Markus made eye contact, he felt a thrill of fear that made him involuntarily lower his gaze.

“KABOOOOM”

Contrary to the woman’s unclouded demeanor, an immense explosion came from her end. It gave her skin a yellow tint for a moment.

“Gaaaaah!”

“Move around!”

“We need a healer here!”

“Get ready for the next one!”

Muffled shouts could be heard near her, accompanied by the clamor of boulders breaking and trees falling. But the woman paid it no head. Only her hair constantly changed the direction they were flowing from.

“Hello uncle?” she asked as if nothing happened. Her voice had a melodic but detached quality.

“RAAAAWR” a sound that could only be made by a beast partially covered her words.

The law-enforcing elder smiled brightly, his jovial expression very relaxed. He produced a muffin out of thin air and almost swallowed it whole.

“Gulp. Ah, first niece, for a moment I thought I couldn’t reach you. Any luck finding a partner?”

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAWR” the sound was deafening and, for an instant, her hair and a looming shadow worked together to obscure her beauty. Markus thought he also saw the glint of metal fleet through the sphere. With a sense of reluctant admiration, he realized she should be engaged in combat.

“KABOOOOM” another explosion gave the same yellow tint to her face, but she completely disregarded it.

Voices kept shouting in the background, but they were dwarfed in volume and Markus couldn’t really make them out anymore.

“Reporting to uncle! I’m not partnering with any of these buffoons! After this mission -” she paused and her eyes flickered in an odd direction.

“YOU PREHISTORIC DOODOOS, DO YOU WANT TO CAUSE AN AVALANCHE? LURE THEM AWAY FROM THERE!” she suddenly turned and shouted to the side. She may be closer, but the volume of her voice easily rivaled that of the previous explosions. Despite her anger, she remained elegant, giving Markus double the scare.

“RAAAAWR – KABOOOOM - KABOOOOM”

Two more explosions sounded back-to-back this time.

“Ok, fine. I’ll get you a new candidate then.” The law-enforcing elder generously agreed. ”In fact- nevermind, that’s for another time. Anyway, change of plans. The fragment pulled a fast one and entered the Black Lands.”

“It what?” her well-proportioned face remained astonished only for an instant, before she nodded gracefully. “Clever. Very clever. But now that we know it turned into foolishness.”

Thudding and clanging sounds echoed alongside a frenzied beastly panting. Nobody paid attention to it though and it wasn’t Markus’ place to point things out.

The woman’s eyes darted around for an instant.

“Bzzzz” the image twirled but immediately restored itself.

“Ah, sorry. Accidentally used some magic. Will move at once … after we disentangle. We got a white Ronom bear and a pack of exploding boars on us, so-”

“IS YOUR MIND EMPTY AIR? THIS IS A BREATHKILL! OH, FOR THE LOVE OF-” her hair fluttered some more and she started shouting again, before she remembered that she was in a conversation and unknitted her smooth brows.

“Right, we also have a hive of Breathkills to deal with too. Permission to use my full strength?” she seriously asked.

“…. Denied. We have a pact with the Sword Emperor on the amount of force near his territory. It’s not that he’d mind, but his wife…” the law-enforcing elder shuddered, causing the image to slightly distort. “I’ll find a solution. The instant your team is safe, you’re to head to the Black Lands. Ask for co-ordinates on the way.”

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWR” A mighty bellow interrupted the last statement and a humongous claw -that Markus judged to be as thick as his arm in real life- appeared within the sphere in the elder’s hand. It halted a hairbreadth away from the middle of the woman’s forehead and this made her reveal the greatest reaction to the threat so far; she fluttered her long eyelashes once.

“Roger, uncle! I’ll get in touch soon.” She nodded while the claw withdrew from her face. Or, Markus realized from the way her raven hair flowed towards her front, because she was retreating at an extreme speed.

“KA-KABOOOOM” two almost simultaneous explosions resounded again. But her visage gave way to a random swirl of colors inside the crystal and they quickly turned back to the pleasant hum of magic, leaving behind only an echo.

“Great!” the law-enforcing elder smiled into thin air. Under his breath, he murmured something that sounded like “e-eth”.

He then returned to Markus.

“Now, I suppose I shouldn’t keep the little princess away from her beloved brother. Expect an official hearing about rewards and punishment soon.”

He pulled another muffin out of thin air.

“Don’t you want one?” he offered. ”They’re really good!”

This time, Markus took it.