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Fido opened his eyes, feeling pain from every corner of his body he sighed. He looked around and the white curtains told him all he needed to know.

“The cleric's ward…Ow-owhh”

“You’re finally awake, huh?”

Fido looked to his side and there he saw a skinny man lying on a bed beside his own and smiling cheekily at him.

Fido sighed. “Guess we’re lucky he didn’t kill us.”

The skinny man said nothing.

“But what was that..?” Fido muttered.

“What’s what?”

“That fighting style.” Fido tucked both of his hands together trying to replicate the mysterious man’s fighting stance. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“You’re hung up on that..?” The skinny man asked in disbelief, “It’s that strange mana barrier he had that you should be asking about!”

“That too…” Fido muttered as he stared at the ceiling recalling the recent events.

The skinny man began gesturing with his hands. “It had these strange shapes and there were tons of them forming a shield around the guy! And one moment it was blue, then next it’s red, what the hell is that about?”

“And he could even form only a section of it and make it as big as necessary…” Fido mused. Mana barrier in nature wraps around the entire body of a user and not something you can easily do partially. Constantly resizing and reshaping a spell while it was active was at the level of what diamond ranked adventurers could do, and even then, only a select few could do them. No–.. even then, doing both at the same time was almost unheard off and only a master of mana control could do what he did. And only two people came to mind. “Just who was that guy..?”

The skinny man balled his fist in frustration. “If he was that strong, what the hell was he even doing at that damn rundown inn??”

“No use thinking about it.” Fido said with a sigh, lying down. He was too tired to think about anything and his body was aching all over. Still, everything around that man was too strange and he didn’t want to think about it anymore.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I’d thought my forcefield wouldn’t react to mana but that worry is out of the way.” Lazarus hummed, walking along a dirt road with the vast grasslands occasionally blowing cool air. Just recalling the recent events made him feel giddy for some reason. “Not too bad for a first bout of science versus magic.”

Bleeding off the last of his excitement with a sigh, Lazarus issued a mental command and a screen hovered in-front of him. It displayed the map he had copied from before and pointed to an area with a wooden structure surrounded by a body of water.

“Araiah port. It shouldn’t be long before I get there.”

-’Still becoming an adventurer huh?’- If Lazarus didn’t know any better, this fantasy-like adventure would’ve sounded absolutely ridiculous and would’ve only been possible via VR. Not that he ever tried a lot of that genre since a lot of the games he used to play as a child tend to lean towards sci-fi since fantasy was something he never had any interest in.

Just remembering his childhood memories made him feel a swirl of both nostalgia and a tinge of pain.

“Sena and Smith…” Lazarus muttered softly, recalling his two A.I. friends.

No… Now wasn’t the time to think about such things. Lazarus shook his head and continued to look at the long road ahead. Having all this time to himself just walking is sometimes a pain. He had to remind himself that he’s here to build the comms tower to allow him to send a signal in space and direct his father to Valeria so he could come and pick him up from this god forsaken world.

Still, what was his childhood like? Lazarus vaguely remembers his childhood before Earth because a second in the real world was 10 seconds in VR. 10 Years had already passed in this world, but to Lazarus, it felt like a hundred had gone by.

Lazarus recalls being in a royal family. He also recalled the fact that he was ostracized, but that’s it. Just the fact he was ostracized but as far as details goes, he can’t really remember.

“That’s funny.” Lazarus furrowed his brows. With his neural chip, it shouldn’t be a problem recalling these memories. But maybe these memories were before he had the neural chip installed in his brain. Maybe that’s why?

In any case, Lazarus didn’t really care much about his past. What good was remembering a world that didn’t give a damn about him anyway? He was a citizen of earth, that’s all that mattered.

With that thought in mind, Lazarus looked towards the path once again and sprinted.

It shouldn’t be long till he reaches Araiah port. He’ll just have to sprint day-in and day-out. He didn’t need to sleep that much anyway and because of his neural chip overseeing his bodily functions, his metabolism was quite efficient which meant he required less food but had more than enough energy for days on end.

“Still, I wonder how Kratos is different from Assail?” Lazarus muttered, striding through the vast grasslands at speeds which even a horse couldn’t fathom.

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a small diner with a round table, a group of three hooded individuals casually sipped some tea whilst glancing at one another. One, a beautiful elven maiden with hair and eyes a shade of blue much like the morning sky. The second one, was a young black haired beauty with eyes the color of a fresh dew in the wake of spring. And lastly, a man with long purple hair and lavender eyes that hid a feel of a certain mystery.

The elf was the first to say, “So, why’d you people bring me here?”

“It is only appropriate to have a relaxed discussion whilst having breakfast rather than standing in that desolated forest is it not?” Reisha said with a smile.

The elf, having felt no animosity from the girl, crossed her arms brashly. “Maybe.” she didn’t plan to return the gentle tone nor did she feel the need to.

“Mind your manners.” Falon finally spoke out. The elf shot him a challenging gaze and he returned her stare. The atmosphere seemed to be filled with hostility till a loud *clap* made the two look to their third companion.

“Please, control yourself.” Said Reisha, scolding Falon before turning to look at Sylphi, “I apologize for my companions' behavior. I do hope you find it in the kindness of your heart to forgive us.” She lowered her head slightly.

The elf seemed to want to say something but sighed and let it go. At the very least, one of the humans was more diplomatic.

“Still you asked about ‘a man wearing strange clothes’?”

Sylphi nodded.

Reisha and Falon looked at one another briefly, nodding to each other as Reisha asked, “Could you describe him more?”

“He wore these strange clothes–” Sylphi hummed to herself and continued, “I believe it had many dots with green, brown and some other color I couldn't recall.”

Reisha’s eyes widened. “T-that’s–!”

“Indeed, wasn’t that perhaps the same man we met yesterday?”

Having recalled the way the hooded man ate his steak made Reisha’s heart squeeze tighter. For some reason she couldn’t just believe it would’ve just been a random person who had the same habits as her beloved older brother.

Reisha felt a surge of emotion.

“Have you seen him beneath the hood?!” Reisha asked hurriedly, wanting to know more. But then she furrowed her brows, seeing the shocked look on her companions. “Is something the matter?”

“Princ-..Ermm, my lady.” Falon muttered softly as he tugged at Reisha’s cloak. Reisha looked around and realized that the people had stopped eating and were staring at her. And– she was standing up with both of her hands on the table, leaning in.

Embarrassed, she hurriedly sat down. “S-sorry..”

Sylphi was also taken aback but seeing her desperate reaction, it was quite clear how important this mysterious person was for this person and said, “Nevermind. In any case, you’re right I have seen him with his hood down.”

“What did he look like?”

“I recall he had black hair and blue eyes and–”

“Really?!” Then–!”

“–He stole two of our sacred Azalea flowers.”

Reisha’s smile thinned to a line as Sylphi’s brow started to furrow. “Did you perhaps know this man?”

“Perhaps..? I may be mistaken…”

Sylphi hummed thoughtfully trying to recall the events. And as if a light bulb had appeared on her head, she mentioned, “I think he said his last name was Hargreave..? It’s the only thing I can remember since it was quite an unusual last name. Still–” Sylphi’s gaze sharpened as she smiled viciously, “If you do happen to know, could you point me in the right direction?”

“Hargreave..?” Reisha’s heart sank. Still, she couldn’t but help but feel as if Lazarus could’ve lied about his identity. It was just too much of a coincidence that the man the elf described had the same exact hair color and eye color as her beloved big brother. Wanting to know more, she asked, “Could you perhaps recall his first name?”

The blue haired elf shook her head. “Maybe grandpa knows, I don’t really care for human names that much but that guy… if only I’d–” Veins were popping in her forehead as she recalled his smug attitude and even ran away teasing their soldiers.

The elf heaved a sigh, “In any case, I don’t have a lot of time for suppositions. I’ll be taking my leave then.”

Sylphi stood-up and left. Reisha hurriedly reached out a hand but stopped half-way. She was already imposing too much and it was quite clear the elf didn’t think too highly of humans. Reisha sighed.

“She didn’t even finish her meal.” Reisha noted.

“Elves who’ve fought the war against humans still live to this day and tell stories to their children. To humans, however, it was already generations ago.”

“That’s…” Reisha sighed, “Perhaps someday, we can come to an understanding.”

“Still, Hargreave. That is indeed a strange nickname.” Falon muttered under his breath. “In any case, we must go.”

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A woman with lustrous black hair sighed as she looked out from her balcony, gazing at the night sky filled with luminous dots. Her gentle blue eyes looked longingly into the distance as her black night gown swayed with the breeze.

“Reisha…” Emilia muttered softly. Ever since that incident from a long time ago, her beloved daughter has never been the same. From the ever so cheerful and kind daughter to someone who wore a solemn expression always.

Emilia had rushed an important discussion with a neighboring kingdom when she’d received a message that Reisha had returned to Valheim Palace, only to arrive and be told that she had left shortly after.

They haven’t spoken properly since Lazarus was exiled. And…

“I never told her about it…” Emilia couldn’t bear to tell Reisha that when she’d gone to Erelune forest where Lazarus was kept only to find that it was ransacked and he was probably kidnapped or worse…

Emilia’s heart tightened painfully.

There was never any ransom so she could only assume the worst.

Just the thought of how that child might have feared for his life haunted Emilia to no end. Scenarios played in her mind multiple times where Lazarus screamed her name for help. She wasn’t there when he needed her the most. She was the reason he was gone.

The pain was almost unbearable and her hands began to shake.

She had to break the news to Reisha. She was old enough already.

But-...

“I-I can’t..” Emilia plopped to the ground and began sobbing. “If only *Hic…* if only I’d never agreed.”

Besides pleasantries, Reisha never said anything to Emilia at all throughout the years. Maybe they’d have full on conversations if it was relating to the Kingdom and her missions but that’s it. If Reisha found out what happened to her beloved big brother, Emilia was afraid she’d go on a rampage.

But because it was her fault, she needed to take responsibility and tell her the truth.

“I have to..” Emilia muttered between her sobs.

Somehow, maybe it was for the best that Reisha wasn’t here.

If only Lazarus was still alive. Emilia couldn’t help but want to see him. To see his cheerful smile once more.

But she knew all too well that he was long gone from this world.