Note: If you didn't read the edited chapters, the vigilante leader who stopped the wagon has a name now, and that name is Olvir, so don't be confused when he's suddenly mentioned as if it's a name you should know.

“Freddy,” said Elise.

“Hello, Elise,” he said. “I didn’t think we’d be seeing each other again so soon.”

“Neither did I.”

Elise’s mind was racing at a hundred miles an hour trying to figure out how best to handle the situation. She was supposed to not have any memories of Ostra. If she accidentally showed a bit too much knowledge in front of Freddy, he would notice immediately. But how could she know what she was and wasn’t supposed to know? Jerry had full control over that. Supposedly, he had only wiped memories of Ostra, but what if he had wiped something out, specifically for the purpose of testing whether it actually worked?

Her best bet was to completely steer clear of any conversation that would bring that up. Anything short of that was too risky.

“Are you here about Emilia?” she asked.

“Straight to the point,” he said, nodding. “Yes, I am. Walter told me a rather concerning story.”

“She’s dead,” said Naomi. “I killed her.”

Elise wanted to slap her. If she had hands, she might have. She wanted to ask if Naomi knew how to read the room, but she already knew the answer. It was yes. Naomi was doing this on purpose to try and anger Freddy. She must have realized by that point how powerful he was though. Was she trying to take his wrath all upon herself?

“I see,” said Freddy after a few seconds of tense silence. “May I ask why?”

“You may.”

“Why did you kill her?”

“Because she was trying to start a war and get my people killed. For experience. I killed her because I had to.” She scowled. “Not that it helped.”

“A war?” asked Freddy, turning to Elise. “Is this true?”

“She told me herself,” confirmed Elise. “I swear on- on the goddess Titania that it is true.”

“Hmm. Well then. I suppose that solves that mystery. What did you do with her body?”

Elise was taken aback. Was he just going to accept that? Was an oath in Titania’s name worth that much? Or did he not even care about Emilia in the first place?

“Wasn’t she your friend?” asked Elise.

“Colleague, more like,” said Freddy. “We were cordial, but nothing more, and in truth, I was never too fond of her. This revelation hasn’t improved my opinion, as her actions have gone against everything I stand for. I’m glad that you managed to stop her, as if you didn’t, I would have had to, and as unclose as we may have been, killing a friend is never fun.

“Anyway, the body. I’m afraid I need to take it with me. Although I believe you, this was a murder, and one that my ward was heavily involved in. I need to collect it for evidence. Don’t worry though. This is for your own protection. She had a few other friends more powerful than her that would stop by if I don’t lay their suspicions to rest. So, if you don’t mind, could you show me where you’ve stored her so I can take her and be on my way?”

“I can’t let you do that,” said Naomi.

“Why not?”

“We need it. To try and stop the war.”

“If the war was over, would you let me take it?”

“Yes, but I doubt it will survive intact.”

“Oh, it’s fine,” said Freddy. “Who are you at war with?”

“The Inv- the Dwarves.”

“Ah, I see.” Freddy looked off into the distance in the direction of the dwarven caverns. “Just a moment. I’ll be right back.”

“Wait!” said Elise. “You can’t kill them.”

“Kill them? Do you really think so lowly of me?”

“W-well-”

“Relax. I’ll be back soon.”

He vanished in a puff of sulfuric smoke, leaving Elise and Naomi gagging from the smell.

“What is he?” asked Naomi.

“I don’t know,” said Elise. “But he’s strong.”

“I know,” said Naomi. “He could kill us all and there would be nothing we could do to stop him.”

“I don’t understand what he’s doing though,” said Elise. “I thought he would be angrier that Emilia was dead, but… I just don’t understand.”

“Do you think he’s really going to stop the war?”

“I think he can. I have no idea what he’s actually planning though.”

“What if he really does?”

“Then the war will be over?”

“That’d be nice.”

They sat in silence for a few seconds before an explosion shook the cavern, coming from the direction of the dwarven tunnels. Elise blinked once and Naomi was already gone, racing toward the source of the sound. When she caught up, she was enveloped in a cloud of smoke.

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Long ago, before the dwarves arrived in the cave system, there was a tall, wide tunnel connecting the Mother Tree and Sister tree. After the dwarves and drow had their big falling out, the dwarves constructed a wall, completely sealing off the two tunnels. It was made of solid stone and twenty feet thick, and magically reinforced, and it had held for nearly 400 years, up until about 2 minutes before that moment. Now, it was a pile of rubble.

Did he not teleport? thought Elise.

Naomi was listening to a report from one of her scouts–a middle-aged woman with white hair– so Elise flew over to join them.

“-just put his hand on it and it exploded!” said the scout.

“I see,” said Naomi.

“Freddy blew up the wall?” asked Elise.

“Well, I don’t think it collapsed on its own,” said Naomi.

“Weren’t there dwarves guarding that wall?” asked Elise. “He said he wouldn’t kill anyone though.”

“I couldn’t see anything because of all the smoke, but after the explosion, I heard some voices from the dwarves on the other side. I couldn’t tell what they were saying, but they stopped talking almost immediately. I don’t know what happened to them.”

“Where’s Charlotte?” asked Naomi.

“Over there,” said the scout, pointing off to her right. “Hey Charlotte!”

A moment later, another scout arrived, this one much younger, and with pitch black hair and eyes so dark a brown they almost looked black too.

“Naomi!” she said, saluting. “What do I need to do?”

“Get in a bit closer and see what’s going on over there. Do not engage. If it looks dangerous, back out immediately.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

The scout turned invisible on the spot, leaving the other three to wait. None of them spoke a word until Charlotte reappeared a few minutes later saluting again.

“Report?” said Naomi.

“There are 20 dwarves on top of the rubble!” she said, still saluting. “All of them are unconscious, and they all have some strange mana around them. I didn’t go close enough to find out what it was.”

“Are you sure they were alive?”

“Yes, Captain! They were all breathing!”

“Good.”

“What should I do next, Captain?”

“Wait,” said Naomi. “And hope.”

It had been more than an hour, and the smoke was gone and the dust had settled before anything else happened. No one said a word during that time. None in their small group at least. Elise caught a couple whispers from the other scouts in the area though.

“What’s happening?” said one.

“I don’t know,” replied another.

“Who was that?”

“Is he going to defeat the dwarves?”

“Are the dwarves going to invade?”

The whispers continued, some of them getting fairly ridiculous before they were silenced by the appearance of a tall figure from the dark of the tunnel. It was Freddy, smiling just as brightly as ever, and behind him, a dozen dwarves were marching in a single file line. Elise recognized most of them as Members of the Council, including Josef, Magnus, and Sindri, and there were two that were unfamiliar, while the last one made her blood boil. It was Olvir, the vigilante leader who had stopped her wagon when she was trying to leave the city with Claudia and Marie. He had heavy manacles on his wrists and ankles, his clothes were dirty, and he looked gaunt and worn, but his expression was just as hateful and angry as she remembered it. His presence distracted her so much that she almost didn’t notice Hallbjorn’s absence.

The drow around readied their bows and knives, but a few hand motions from Naomi gave them all pause. Freddy marched with the dwarves until they entered the cave proper, then stopped and waved at Naomi and Elise. The dwarves glared and scowled, but they did not otherwise react when they approached.

“I’ve brought the dwarven leadership,” said Freddy. “If you can do the same for the drow, we can have a nice discussion and make a peace treaty.”

Naomi glanced at the dwarves, then looked Freddy in the eyes. “I’ll be back.”

“See you in a bit,” called Freddy after her retreating form. “So, Elise, how have you been? It seems you’ve had a bit of trouble.”

Elise followed his eyes to her stumps.

“Emilia’s work,” she said.

“A shame how she turned out,” he commented. “I had high hopes for her. If I had known what she was doing here… Well, let’s just say she wouldn't have been doing it for much longer.”

Elise eyed him warily. He was saying the right things, but he was way too nonchalant for someone who supposedly just found out that one of their colleagues was a genocidal psychopath and was also dead. Either he already knew and wanted to hide his involvement, or he was just as much of a psychopath as Emilia was, so he truly didn’t care. Elise didn’t know which option was worse.

“Where’s King Hallbjorn?”

“As if you don’t know,” spat Josef.

“He’s recovering from a poisoning attempt,” said Freddy.

“I cured him of the drow poison already,” said Elise, eying Josef. “If he’s still poisoned, that means it was the work of a dwarf.”

“You lying-!” started Josef.

“Now, now,” said Freddy. “Why don’t we all calm down a little bit.”

Josef’s face paled and his anger dissipated almost immediately. Whatever Freddy had done to get the dwarves to follow him like that must have been extreme.

“From what I saw, he was indeed cured of the poison,” Freddy continued. “However, his internal organs were still badly damaged. He is being tended to by a healer and should make a full recovery within a week.”

“Are you sure?” asked Elise.

“Well, healing isn’t my specialty, but I know they weren’t lying.”

Elise looked at the dwarves again. Some were scowling, while others were pale with fear, but none of them looked like they were gloating. She didn’t trust Freddy, but in this situation, she couldn’t trust anyone else either, so she didn’t have much of a choice.

“What are you planning to do now?”

“I’m going to help everyone sign a peace treaty,” he said, beaming. “I’ve explained the situation to these fine gentlemen, and they’ve agreed that a peace treaty sounds like a good idea, given the circumstances. After all, neither side is really at fault, and the real perpetrator is dead, so what is there left to fight about?”

Olvir shot the smiling man a murderous glare, but didn’t say anything.

“I’m prepared to sit over the discussions and make sure things don’t get out of hand, and I’ll even provide a contract for everyone to sign. That way, we can all be sure that the treaty will be upheld.”

“I see,” said Elise.

“Anyway, since we’re going to be having such an important discussion, I believe this calls for a change of locale.”

He snapped his fingers, and suddenly, they were somewhere else. Elise hadn’t felt them move at all, but she was definitely not back in the cave. The grassy floor littered with broken stone from the gate was replaced by hardwood. There were now walls and a roof around them that looked almost like drywall, painted cream white with geometric gold patterns. In the center, there was a huge table with chairs and a single stool set around it.

The dwarves all flinched when this happened, and some put their hands to their weapons, but a casual glance from Freddy kept them from acting up. Elise herself lurched back a bit in surprise.

As she examined her surroundings more closely, she realized that the entire room seemed to be almost made of mana. There was a pattern to it, but it was so complex and intricate that she had no hope of tracing it. Everything in the room, from the ground to the walls, to the table and chairs, and even to the cushions, had the same incredible density.

“Don’t worry, we haven’t actually gone anywhere,” said Freddy. “This is my personal Domain. The skill itself is called ‘Contract Zone’, but I just call it my office. It’s where I make all my most important business deals. We’ll be completely safe from outside interference as long as we’re in here, and all our needs will be provided for.”

He waved his hand, and the dwarves jumped again as a table laden with food and drinks appeared. They all looked very appetizing, and there was even a plate of assorted greens and fruits that Elise knew was for her, but no one moved a muscle.

“For now, why don’t you all have a seat? I’ll be right back. I just need to wait outside to bring the others in. Don’t cause any trouble now.”

He vanished in another puff of foul smoke, leaving Elise alone with the dwarves.