Aiden walked with his limping friend by his side, an arm around his shoulder.

Both of them appeared to be in a rough condition, with the man being carried by Aiden covered in bruises from the Edouard boy and stab wounds inflicted by the Barbosse boy's spear. Aiden, on the other hand, was missing an arm that he had lost while fighting Aryan, the only other known teleporter across the continent who was still alive besides him.

"What was that! What is it with these people? What’s with that girl?!" he lamented, advancing into a calm alley in the noble district, trying to get as far away as possible from the place invested by the aristocracy.

In the span of half a day, Aiden managed to lose everything; he could feel it to the bone. All his teleportation beacons within the facility were gone, meaning that everyone there was dead, even the Archbishop, and also meaning that he was now more vulnerable than ever, as unlike what seems to be the case for that other teleporter or any other teleporter boy, Aiden could only teleport using beacons he had the Archbishop scatter across the facility beneath the city. In other words, calling his teleportation magic teleportation magic would be a stretch because all his magic did was fast-travel between his beacons. With all of his beacons destroyed, he was left with nowhere to go.

"What... should we do now!"

As of now, the thing Aiden had been focusing on was getting as far away as possible from the facility—from that crazy boy, that girl, those girls—that boy who even had him almost killed. Even though he was lamenting what he should do from now on, Aiden understood that his current goal was to get to the nearest church's property to get proper medication and have them guarantee his safety.

On the long run, it was still unclear to him what he should do, but he knew that he needed to find another patron to take him in. His magic may not have been as powerful as the boy's teleportation magic, but it was still able to achieve similar results.

Even though the archbishop was gone, he knew that patrons would soon come swarming for him and his magic. However, for the time being, he needed to focus on getting himself and others to safety. There was no other way around it.

"Hey, Aiden," he heard his friend call over his shoulder."

"Clein, You’re okay? Hold on, we should be close to the near—"

"Behind us,... we’re followed."

Aiden's heart skipped a beat, if not several, upon hearing his comrade's feeble words.

They were in the worst possible part of the city to be followed, as they were walking in an unfrequented alley on an unfrequented street.

Choosing between all the courses of action left to him, Aiden chose to forget about what he just heard, leaving everything up to luck.

He was just a few streets away from safety; if nothing happened until then, then everything would be fine. Aiden made up his mind. Unfortunately for him, not even a couple of seconds after that decision, something happened.

From the other end of the alley, in the direction they were heading, someone was walking in their direction.

It was a single person, a girl, who he immediately recognized from her red hair, her crimson eyes, her uniform, the sigil she harbored, and the sabre she carried around as someone who meant everything but anything good to them.

"Ramia Aubrecht…" Aiden mumbled, his lips trembling, coming to a halt.

"Oh, you know my name? Well that spares me the burden of an introduction," she commented, slowly approaching the duo.

"That can’t be… That can’t…" Aiden squealed in despair, his face paler than ever.

"What can’t be? Tell me, I would like to know, what can’t be?"

"Stay away from me!"

"Stay away from you? Sure, I could do that, but first I’d have to know. Is it you, the one I heard causing trouble here and there across the city with your teleportation magic? For I’d say you fit every description of that troublemaker, but I have yet to see you use that teleportation magic. So tell me, are you the one I am to strike?"

With these words, calm though they may have been, she made her sinister intent clear.

"Stay away from us!" Aiden screamed at her, backing off, forgetting about the one his comrade had warned him about. "We’re important members of the church! Would you strike us, the chur—"

Mid-sentence, Aiden was painfully reminded of the presence behind him that he had forgotten. A light from just above him struck, engulfing his injured comrade.

The man who the instant before was crutching onto Aiden and was engulfed in that light was now gone, leaving behind little to no ashes and his arm still around Aiden’s shoulder.

Distraught, Aiden started looking for the person responsible for that attack but found no one.

"Well, well, how unexpected," Ramia commented, approaching Aiden as if she hadn't just witnessed the death of a fellow noble.

Aiden deduced that surely the responsible party was someone working with her, so, in his distraught panic, he reached for the first thing he could think of to ensure his survival.

"Die!"

Aiden, who did not have any offensive spells at his disposal, used the ring-artifact he wore on one of his fingers to unleash the lightning that Dani had imbued into it for him to use to protect himself. Until today, he had never needed to use it.

Aiden's lightning, which was originally Dani's, shot towards the girl but vanished when it came into contact with the red lightning dancing around her body.

"Die? That’s quite the claim. Especially from someone wielding puny lightning that isn't even his. But I guess that spares me the bother of having to come up with an excuse."

Calmly, almost torturously, she approached Aiden, unsheathing her saber, with the clear and bare intent of striking him down.

Against the threat of death coming at him, Aiden was left with no other option but this desperate and hopeless one: to flee in the opposite direction.

Perhaps a miracle would happen and save him, he reasoned.

It did not.

The only thing that came at Aiden was a strike that left nothing of him but ashes.

***

Standing beside what remained of the boy, Ramia sheathed her blade before seemingly asking into the wind, "You intend on remaining hidden for long?"

It was at that moment that, from a corner of the alley, a boy, no younger than the one Ramia just struck, appeared.

With features reminiscent of a young maiden and a youthful mug screaming innocence, it would be difficult to believe that this seemingly innocent long and blue-haired boy was responsible for a man's death just moments before.

"Attacking that man from the shadows and having it look as though it was of my doing was such a low blow."

"Said the girl who struck a man on his back."

"Humph."

"Besides, I doubt either of us cares about such things when it comes to individuals like them."

"So… care to explain, why did you have him dead?"

"That man fought against my brother."

"How did you know that?"

"I could feel his presence on him."

"You can feel things like that?"

"Yes, we’re brothers after all."

"Eh, creepy."

"There were also the wounds he bore. Those, I was certain, were from my brother’s spear."

"I see. Say, Uriel, there is something I would like to understand. Out of you two brothers, you’re the reasonable one. You seem well aware of whatever mess your big-brother is up to, yet how come you never interfere at all. First, allowing him to take over that duty as the rose's blanche protector, then allowing him to dive into this mess, which we both knew from the beginning was involving the church."

"You’re asking this for Mael?"

"For Mael, but mostly for myself."

"The answer to that question of yours is that it’s because that’s simply the way it is. I appreciate Mael’s protectiveness toward us, but for a long time, he and I have always been on our own, together. I know it might be hard to understand for an outsider, but as brothers, it happens that we will be lying to each other or hiding things from each other, but in the end, we know that if we were to do that, it would keep each other out of harm’s way. You asked me why I didn’t interfere; it was because he chose to involve me in it. I knew it was to protect me, so I didn’t. I will only do so if the situation truly demands it. Your relationship with Mael might be based on different beliefs and values, but I’m sure you might understand where I’m coming, since you do seem to freely let him be as rogue as he feels like."

"Well, I used to be the rogue one, so I guess all I'm doing now is repaying the favor," Ramia laughed. "I think I understand you two better now. And I understand that you two will always be a headache-inducing bunch, but still, I would ask you, Uriel, the same thing I asked you when you just joined the academy. Join us. Join the ascending nobility. I have no advantages in joining to propose to you since none of them seems to interest you, but I once again present the offer. Join us."

"I might have accepted under different circumstances, but the fact that the ascending nobility, or the people at the top of it, has allied itself with the aristocracy forces me to decline your offer. I recognize the utility of their current involvement, but I condemn everything else they stand for."

To Uriel’s words, Ramia didn’t answer anything else but, "Is this your final answer?"

"It is."

"I see, that’s a shame."