- Port Südwind, Ersten, The Capital of the Kingdom of Apollyon–

- 20 minutes earlier -

Before Jeanne and the crew at the port. The place is still crowded as the citizens were trying to see the spectacle of a massive object hovering right on the doorstep of their nation. Whilst they were busy, Jaeger, Conrad and his retainers were walking around the marketplace of the port as they were trying to discuss something right after Jaeger informed the port authorities that there will be a smaller vessel going to moor at the port.

“… and when you look at this, the smaller ship which is a frigate will just moor right on the outer pier. Which is the only one that’s capable of supporting the ship since the underwater terrain is deep enough for it,” he said as he showed the map from his MFD tablet that was attached to the wrist part of his exoskeleton, a thing that he rarely showed to others as it is always on idle mode. At first, the three were surprised by the look as it could display a lot of stuff such as information about his exoskeleton, etc etc. but now, they were focused as this will be a great opportunity to modernize their main port.

“in all honestly, I’m very much stunned at the level of information that you can provide…” The first prince is in awe still fiddling around with the MFD tablet’s display which Jaeger already thought him how to operate, though there’s a thought that’s still troubling his mind

“You’re about to ask when did I get all this information about your country’s geographical mapping right??”

“Eh? How can you tell?”

“It’s written all over your face you know. Well, to be fair, you have the right to know too.” He then told Conrad that right when Yukikaze enters the atmosphere of the planet, it launched several fighter jet-sized drones to make a map of the massive continent. Though, those drones could only obtain only around the area where the World Gate isn’t affecting it, which is where the Kingdom of Apollyon itself is. Conrad understood what he talked about, but not his escorts as they were utterly confused about the new words they were hearing.

“[drones]? [fighter jets]? What are those?” the prince let out a chuckle, as he saw and experienced riding an aircraft first-hand. “My, my, you’ll see the wonders of Wolfenford’s world technology sooner or later.”

“you know it’s easier to just explain it right, your highness?”

“then try to guess it Remi~”

The female knight tried to guess with all her might but Conrad kept teasing her as she isn’t even knowledgeable about the thing that both Jaeger & Conrad were talking about. Jaeger who’s now walking side by side with William let out a small chuckle with a sigh, “Seeing them right now made me remember about my past with my friends… it’s quite a peaceful sight”

William nodded, “Agreed, I do sometimes have that feeling of yours. But still… when the [World Gate] dissipates…” he stopped his words as his worries became fear, in truth, the two never saw combat, especially William who is rather hesitant to kill or even cross swords with another person. He’s arguably one of the best in the kingdom, who also surprisingly rejected the modified [demonism] spell that was mandatory for the army at that time. The mercenary saw the knight’s anxiousness, tapping his shoulder to reassure him. William could only smile in return.

“you were very calm about this, Sir Wolfenford. Even though you weren’t raised here but somehow you’re willing to fight for us…”

“I have my own reasons to fight… uhh… can I call you Will? William is quite a mouthful” The knight nodded. “though, I’m also questioning my reason honestly…”

“And that is?”

“I followed my instincts, and I’m still pissed that I got forcefully summoned here by that damned priest along with a teenager” Will raised his eyebrows as he hears the word [teenager].

“Teenager? There’s another one that got summoned?”

“Yeah, and this kid got this fancy sword that pulls a bedsheet over and around my f*cking head whenever he did his magic or whatever bulls**t he pulls out just to blind my bloody eyes while nearly shoving his sword onto my f**king ass! And-!” he stopped his rant as he saw Will had this shocked face as it was the first time he hears someone spouting such wordings.

“ah- sorry, I got carried away” The Knight let out a laugh. “my goodness, I’ve never seen someone lose his composure that bad. That was quite hilarious I’ll give you that, but still… another summoned one huh…”

They then continue talking while walking until Jaeger heard someone’s singing echo in one of the alleyways, which is odd for him as he knows it was impossible to hear amongst the crowd and what’s weirder, when he asked the others, they didn’t hear any echoes or a singing sound. As they walked further, the echo he hears gets louder, and at a certain alleyway, he saw something odd there that somewhat drew him to walk there. The three didn’t notice him splitting apart from the group but there was only one that notice it.

[Sir, I’m detecting an abnormal activity within your dentate gyrus. What is happening?]

“No, it’s just… this humming… it’s coming from that alleyway.”

[what? There’s nothing there, scanner indica-… wait a minute… Sir!] Jaeger neglected Ofnir’s warning and rushed in. He follows the echoes through the junctions within, looking for the source. The AI, on the other hand, is in a state of confusion as its user were affected by something else that it doesn’t know.

[Sir! Calm down, this frequency wave of energy… someone’s affecting you with magic! Sir! Snap out of it!]

But to no avail, he didn’t listen, though, it didn’t take long for him to find the source. Right on a certain junction inside the alleyway, there’s a massive garden which is filled with a variety of flowers, though, most of them are roses and peonies that he knows and he doesn’t. the garden is sloped as it has some sort of hill in the middle which also has an elegant white gazebo on top of it. As he slowly walked to the top, he admired the view and the smell as it was very peaceful. Though, something is odd around this unknown garden…

[there’s too much magnetic interference here… what in the world is this garden?]

Jaeger looked at his wrist, looking at how his MFD isn’t responding to his gestures when he tried to swipe. Concerned as Ofnir, he then looked towards the way he came from, but to his realization, the alleyway wasn’t there, as if the garden was somewhere else. His eyes grew wide in realization.

“Okay, I should’ve listened to you.”

[You’re saying that NOW?!]

“Sorry! I wasn’t being myself earlier okay!?”

[Yeah no s**t Sherlock! You were being affected with some sort of magic that you’re not even listening to what I shouted to your brain!]

“fine! It’s my fault okay! It's not like I can stop something supernatural from affecting my thoughts!” He then looked at the way he came, thinking of some sort of ridiculous thing to do to escape the garden.

“Ofnir, does the wrist-mounted blades still operational??”

[It is still operational in this space, under 90% power for the very least]. Jaeger then activated both plasma blades which were folded on the arm chassis of his exoskeleton, flaring them on both sides. He looks at the edge of the garden as he saw some ripples as if it’s inside some sort of barrier

“It seems there’s some sort of barrier blanketing this garden…”

[huh, from the looks of it, there is- wait… don’t tell me…]. The mercenary grew a smirk on his face, “You bet it… full-on afterburner, we’re busting out of here”

[this gotta be the dumbest idea that was conducted by a military officer but okay then]. Right as the waist thrusters spooled up, screeched and blasted a whole jet of air behind him, fluttering his cloak and blowing some of the dead leaves. Someone went inside the bubble barrier of the garden, someone that is familiar…

“Eh? Jaeger? How did you get in here?”

Jaeger lowered his weapons and stopped. It was Aurora, though, her hands are full of a bundle of flowers which made him wonder what are those flowers for. What’s more, her appearance is far more elegant than the average royalty so to say, even though she’s just wearing a simple white dress.

“that should’ve been my line, how did YOU get in here? I was in the port a moment ago, and the next thing I knew is that I’m here after trying to search for someone’s humming”

“someone’s humming? Oh… OH! That was me earlier, I was gathering some flowers here while doing so. No! Wait! In the first place, this garden isn’t supposed to be known except for the royalties and was imbued with a strong barrier that could only be entered if you have the same magic frequency, how did you…” in her realization, she covered her mouth as she gasped. “did my [charm] affected you this much…?”

“What? Charm?? What do you mean by that?”

“wait for a moment, will you? I have something to do…” she said as she walked past him, putting down the bouquet on top of a stone formation on the ground whilst she was bowing down. It was some sort of grave, located several meters beside the white gazebo. “Mother… here are the flowers we grew back then… they just bloom again earlier, it’s your favourite, white peonies…”

The atmosphere changed as she said that. Jaeger was slightly irritated at first but now, all he felt is the remaining sympathy that he could give. He then bowed beside her, giving his way of prayers for Aurora’s mother’s grave. “We surely belong to Him and to Him we shall return…”

“hmm?”

“it’s my way of prayers in my religion, sorry if it’s different” The girl shook his head. “No, it’s fine, any form of prayer is great. Thank you”

“no need, it’s also mandatory in my beliefs to respect the dead regardless of their status, beliefs and whatever it is.”

“your religion is quite respectable I may say so myself”

He didn’t say a word as he stood up, the wind suddenly blows as he did so. Fluttering the flowers around and Aurora’s silver-blue gradient hair reflects the sunlight brightly making her ears visible, her ears resembled that of an elf but it isn’t as long as one as it has a quarter of the length. She noticed that he looked at her ears and looked away as she was looking flustered.

“Are my ears… odd to you?”

“what? No! In fact, it was unique if I say so myself. Well.. that aside, can you explain everything? Like, what is this place? What are the effects of [Charm] and everything else”

She has the face that says “Ah, I nearly forgot about that part” and then proceeds to tell the whole detail about those. Starting from the garden itself, she told him entirely about it. It’s a hidden garden for her mother’s final resting place, where most of the flowers she grew on her own. The exact location of the garden is kept in secrecy as it was only known by royalty family members and the maintainers, as it was located out on the outskirts of the capital, right on a hill around the northwest corner from a nearby village that’s dedicated to maintaining that garden. The garden itself is guarded by a barrier spell that distorts reality for the ones that didn’t have their magic signature registered on the barrier. Inside the garden, time move relatively slowly as it was to preserve some of the rare flowers that aren’t

“which is why I am quite concerned about it, magic signatures could only be registered via pouring mana onto that stone that looks like an altar over there,” she said as she pointed towards the direction beside the gazebo, “only royalty members of the kingdom could affirm the registration of one’s mana signature.”

“which includes you… as the first princess of this country, isn’t it, your highness?” her eyes widen in shock as she wasn’t expecting him to know her real identity. “how did you-“

“your brother is having a flashy entry when trying to help me win a debate earlier yesterday, I am quite amazed that my expectations were right, that being said, I wasn’t expecting you to be the first princess, your highness~” Aurora turned around as Jaeger has a teasing look on his face. Having a slight fluster painted on her face.

“well…” she looked at him from her shoulder, “I’m actually the Third Princess, my sisters were… they passed away right after birth… that said, I’m the lucky one to be birthed by her majesty the Queen.”

She was feeling slightly dejected as she told the story behind her lineage, though she put up a small sweet smile in front of him. “I’m glad that she could raise me even though it was short… she raised me well.” She had some slight tears in her eyes, which she quickly noticed and wipe away.

“oh uhh… there’s some pollen on my eyes… gosh… it’s quite windy today”

“you’re quite bad at lying huh?”

“h-hey! Don’t blame me for that… anyway, I’ll return to my room to swiftly change my attire, I’ll help you return to Conrad’s location. Ah… about how you were able to get here, I’ll explain later when we’re outside” And with that, she trotted towards the edge of the garden through the main path, the barrier rippling as she walked through it. She left him there slightly flabbergasted as she just casually walked through the magic barrier.

“she could’ve just teleported me somewhere near Conrad, couldn’t she? And here we are, being left out again”

[your fault for not pointing this out to her]

“Could you stop blaming me for 5 hours!?”

It didn’t take long for her to change into her disguise outfit, which included a common-looking robe with a cloak. As she guided him through the barrier, surprisingly, he found the group that was currently walking yet isn’t far from the alleyway he went into. “see? I told you time moved slower inside the garden.”

“huh… I guess you’re right. Say, what about me could able enter the garden? How did that happen?”

“Oh, that!” she crossed her arms as she guesses how. “I theorized that when I used [charm] onto you several days ago left some trace of my mana signature since I do it with half of my mana capacity to calm you down. That is the only thing I could come up with, which is not that logical if you ask me…”

“well, magic itself isn’t logical for me in the first place so…” she chuckled as he made that remark, which is kind of reasonable since he wasn’t raised in Verdia. “you do have a point in your statement, Jaeger. But as a magic & science researcher myself, I found this case slightly intriguing… regardless, let's meet up with my brother, shall we?”

- back where the last chapter ended -

“Jeanne, the girl you’re being aggressive to is the 3rd princess of this kingdom, which is kind of rude for you to be like so,” Jaeger said as she introduce her in a tone where people didn’t hear most of his sentence. He knows the fact that she hasn’t introduced herself to the general public as her existence is kept secret since she’s crucial for the Kingdom’s defence development as she became the head researcher of that branch right after she perfected the [Demonize] spell for general use. Though, what concern Jeanne isn’t the fact that Aurora is a princess with a beautiful appearance but rather…

“yeah right… a princess that somewhat resembles your dead ex… how coincidental”

The tensions between the two raise as Jeanne said it. Jaeger who’s now slightly lost his composure raises his voice “Could you NOT bring that up! we’ve talked about this…!”

Jeanne clicked her tongue and walked away, averting her frustration by asking the crew that was down on the pier alongside her about the condition of the ship whilst Jaeger stayed silent right after he did so. Aurora that was confused on what happened could just look back and forth at both Jeanne and Jaeger, feeling slightly guilty that she may have caused them to have a strife.