"…"

Caine sat in his tent, the flap open so that he could gaze upon the surroundings. The knights of the Barong duchy were incredibly conscientious with him, they had even brought along a table in case he wanted to get some work done while on the expedition. But currently, the table only served as a surface his fingers could drum.

"Azu… Gabriel… What the fuck are you…?"

He could still see it if he strained his eyes a little, the rocks that now littered the area around the camp. A while ago they used to be lava, now hardened by the cold. Makar, Lava, one of the fused elements that would normally be discovered after another ten or so years. Naturally, thanks to him and Abigail, its existence was revealed to the world a fair bit earlier.

It technically went against their restrictions because it could be considered a large change to the world, but they got around it due to two loopholes. The first was that it was a rarer one of the fused elements so there were only actually two users, not counting Alice, right now. The second was by not saying what it looked like on the mana affinity test, technically leaving it ambiguous as to whether someone recently tested had it or not.

They hadn’t even trained any of the two users so the words that could be used with Makar were still mostly unknown. And forget about telling Alice that she had it, telling Alice anything about her magic would be considered an instant breach of their restrictions because of the impact she had on the world.

And yet, last night, she had called forth lava and illuminated the night. It was smooth and easy, clearly something she was used to. How? Well no, asking how was a bit stupid. It was Gabriel, it had to be. But… how?

The souls currently crammed in that body, vying for supremacy of it, the ones related to this world that could know about Makar would have to follow the same restrictions that he and Abigail followed. As for that special soul… If it really came from a world outside the loop as he suspected then it shouldn’t know anything about this world, much less the future. Besides, even if it did, the main restrictions should still apply to it. So…

"Things are really starting to go off the rails…"

Really, just what the fuck was becoming of the world?

————

"Gabriel. Today I want you to join the fight against the demons. Teresa, you can still wait a bit, I’ll need you later on."

When morning came and the knights were starting to pack up camp, Alice made her request. She was sitting on a stool in front of a mirror that the knights had prepared, allowing Gabriel to fix the unruly hair that she had every morning.

Reflected in the mirror she could see some of the knights that were moving about outside. Some of them kept peering into the open tent, a tinge of awe and shock in their eyes as they looked at her.

Well, it was just to be expected, she lit up the night, and their attackers, by tearing lava directly from the earth. For the first time in an unknown number of years, the frozen north was greeted with a tinge of heat. Hell, it was probably the first time any of these people had seen something like lava, volcanoes were only really common in the Dead Lands after all.

They were starting to recognize her. The strength she showed, it was worthy of the north’s admiration, worthy of a noble. But it wasn’t enough. It shouldn’t be just her, it had to be her knight as well.

"Understood, my Lady."

Gabriel naturally agreed and continued working on her hair, quickly finishing the morning duty he had gotten used to so that they could continue the expedition.

The camp was quickly packed down and the make-shift perimeter they had sat up was taken down. Were it not for the hole in the ground and the blackened stones scattered about it would almost look normal again now.

Raising his head slightly, Gabriel could see the number in the sky, constantly looming above him. He’d been observing it every day, calculating the changes as he compared it to his memories. It was lower now, definitely. Ever since he took part inn the sparring matches, the number had dropped by a great deal.

Well, calling it a great deal was a bit of an exaggeration. It was just that it had finally dropped below 1.1 billion. It constantly rose and sank, but it always stayed at around 1.1 billion. But now it was different, now it had dropped a bit below it, and it hadn’t shown any changes of climbing back up. It allowed him to breathe a bit easier, his thoughts were moving a bit more smoothly when he saw some progress.

"We’re moving out again, light the incense!"

Arioch called out the order and the knights acted, the slightly spicy scent once again tickling Gabriel’s nose as they set out once more. The knights, especially the ones on either side of Alice’s group, were markedly more relaxed this time around. Knowing that the one they had to protect wasn’t powerless made it a bit easier for them to breathe since it meant that they didn’t have to keep an eye on them at every moment.

"She’s stronger than I thought, I guess the blood of Vritra flows strongly in her body. Did you know from the start?"

One of the knights in the front-most line started chatting with Gabriel, who had taken Caine’s spot in the vanguard. His face was covered by a visor, but the voice was a bit familiar so Gabriel remembered him from the previous night. Almanar, he was among the oldest knights here, already in his early fifties.

He was guarding the perimeter last night so he was among the first to see the leopards that Alice decimated, he got a front-row seat to the sight of them getting evaporated. Prior to that he had been of the same opinion as the other knights, that Alice only had the Vritara name going for her but hadn’t inherited any of the power that should come with that blood.

"I’ve always believed that my Lady is unparallelled."

Gabriel was very vague about his reply. Know from the start? He knew how strong Alice was before she herself knew it. Almanar wasn’t offended by the vague nature of Gabriel’s reply, all knights had their own personality, what tied them together was something else entirely.

"That’s a good spirit, gotta be proud of the lord you serve. If not even the knight trusts their lord, then who in this land will?"

Loyalty. Whether they served a good or a bad lord, whether they were kind or cruel, whether they were taciturn or talkative, loyalty bound all knights together. It was the one thing they all had in common and could understand. Those who had no loyalty would never be considered knights, yet even those who only had loyalty to give would be considered knights. Gabriel expected the conversation to end there, but no demons were detected yet so Almanar kept talking, changing topic entirely. Or perhaps he had started speaking just to get onto this topic.

"But you should work on your position, kiddo. You’re still just a knight-in-training, right? She may not be next in line for the seat of duchess, but you’ll still have to be at least a Viscount if you want to marry her, gotta aim for at least Earl if you don’t want others to whisper behind her back after you’re married. And that’s only if she doesn’t take the seat of duchess, gotta up those ranks by one level if she does."

The man spoke with a little chuckle, but there was a certain solemnity to his tone, like a grandfather teaching his grandson a lesson in how to handle himself at his first job. Gabriel’s first response to those words was to tilt his head, eliciting an equally surprised tilt by Almanar.

"The two of you are together… right?"

His eyebrow couldn’t but rise slightly as he tilted his head and looked at Gabriel. Judging by what he had seen yesterday, especially the way they looked at each other, they should be sharing that kind of relationship. Gabriel had even slept in the same tent as Alice and tended to her in the morning. So… surely, right?

"No? I’m just her knight."

Together? Him and Alice? One was an abused child who just barely got out of her horrible childhood and the other was a tool that had only just recently become human. Granted, Gabriel felt that if he was to love someone then it would be Alice, she made him human after all.

But what was love?

It was a question he wasn’t confident in answering, a tool didn’t need emotions like that so he couldn’t say that he had felt them before. As for Alice, what she saw him as was probably closer to a maid. He’d helped her bathe and dress ever since they were children, she wouldn’t let him do that if she harboured something like romantic feelings for him.

"Just her knight? My friend, you slept in the same tent as her last night. You were the only thing she was looking at while using her magic. And you’re telling me you’re not together?"

Now Almanar was completely dumbfounded. Was Gabriel just playing ignorant? No, looking at the eyes that peered at him from behind the helmet, he should be serious. In that case, was he just dense? Broken? Ignorant?

"My Lady picked me up from an orphanage when we were just seven, we’ve been together since. I only had her to rely on, and she only had me to rely on. It’s only natural that we’ve grown that close after so long, it’s all just habit."

Habit. Yes, it was all just habit. The thing all childhood friends had, habits that made the lines blur, habits that made it hard for others to tell their relationship. But in the end, habits were just habit. He almost killed the knights during the sparring matches out of habit and Alice treated him carelessly out of habit.

In the end, that was all…

"Ah…"

Almanar got his answer. Gabriel spoke decisively, but Almanar could see his eyes, and the eyes were a gateway to the soul. Not ignorant, not dense, just broken. A child that did not know love, a child that did not believe it could be loved so it convinced itself of a fake truth. He spurred his steed and manoeuvred it closer, a clank sounding out as he pat Gabriel’s shoulder a few times.

"Kid, you must have come from a shitty orphanage."

Really, orphanages were supposed to take in the most unfortunate children and give them a chance at a normal life. They didn’t have parents to love them so it fell onto the caretakers to love them enough to make up for it, otherwise the children would never be able to know what love was, be it giving or receiving. But well, this one’s eyes weren’t entirely broken, and he too had smiled yesterday so there should still be hope there. And where there was hope, there was worth in giving things a little… push.

"I’ll believe you kid, it’s just habit. Yeah, sometimes people are just like that, nothing wrong with it. So you’re her knight, one she has been able to rely on for years, and she has been someone you can rely on for years. That’s a great relationship, but since you’re so close you need to make sure you think properly about the future. Think about the possible nobles she can marry in the future to secure her position and life, think about other knights you can entrust her to whenever you go on a distant mission. They gotta be trustworthy, right? I mean, they’re gonna be by her side at all times while you’re gone so you need to be able to trust them. It’s best to start thinking about it now, her coming-of-age ceremony should happen in another two or three years and by then the proposals will start rolling in so you should start working on a list of acceptable people in advance."

Almanar could see Gabriel’s eyes darken a bit as he spoke, a thoughtful light surfacing in them. Right, marriage, he hadn’t thought about that approach yet. For nobles, political marriages was the best way to stabilise their position, or even increase it. Of the current nobles…

"I’ll leave you to stew on that, Kiddo. Have fun."

Almanar chuckled once more before he spurred his steed and returned to his actual position, occasionally glancing over at Gabriel, who sank further into thought.

Hmmm… The people of the Vritara duchy were naturally out of the picture, all the nobles there were loyal to the people who treated Alice like dirt, he’d never allow any of them to stand at her side. The east… They weren’t a good choice because they weren’t a formal duchy so only the Woodime family held some position there. And that family only had Caine that held the appropriate status, but that was due to his relationship with the Crown Princess. And Alice had shown no signs of falling in love with him so he didn’t want to push her into a relationship with him.

Arioch was the same, he had the right position for Alice, but Gabriel didn’t want to push her into a relationship with him. The other nobles in the north… … … He kept going through the list of nobles that he knew, but each one was cut as quickly as he put them on the list. He just couldn’t see himself pushing Alice to be in a relationship with them.

Besides, none of them were worthy of standing next to her. Hell, even Caine, the protagonist of this world, wasn’t worthy of standing by her side. Sure, his Unique magic was strong, but Alice broke it several times in the story, constantly forcing him to come up with new ways to fight her. The only reason he wasn’t dead was because that now dead Alice had loved him. No, out of the question, he couldn’t stay beside her.

Then in the west… That Marquise… That Earl…

His thoughts kept going in circles as he cut noble after noble from the list. Unworthy, not good enough, too weak, too faint-hearted. He cut the ducal inheritors, cut out the marquess inheritors, the Imperial Family, the Earl families. He kept cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting…

"Kiddo, heads up!"

Almanar’s voice reached him as his thoughts kept cutting out noble after noble, each one unworthy of his Lady. Apparently, he had gotten a bit too caught up in thinking about what sort of nobles would be worthy of being with Alice. When he raised his head, he saw that some demons were already coming towards them, attracted by the incense.

"Ah, thank you for notifying me. I’ll take the two on the left then."

He shook his head to discard the list he had been working on, none of the nobles seemed worthy so it seemed as if he would have to think about it more in-depth at a different time. For now, he could do a nice bit of mindless work like he was used to. He hopped off of his steed, his feet sinking a bit into the snow as he strode forward.

5 demons. Centipedes again, just like the first group. But these were a bit larger, their carapace thicker, so they were probably somewhat older. It made sense, they were getting closer to the jagged mountains so they were marching deeper into the demon’s territory.

"Alright kiddo, don’t overexert yourself, you still need to think about the future when someone other than you stands at Lady Alice’s side."

Almanar chuckled again before he rode off, but Gabriel found that he didn’t quite like the way he said it. It made him itch somewhat, an uncomfortable creeping sensation on his ribs. Huh, not often he found the way someone said something uncomfortable, it was rather annoying.

Cchrrkkk.

The centipedes were making noise as they rushed over, a clicking from both their mandibles and the sharp legs that kept clacking against the ice hidden beneath the snow. He’d have to deal with them before he got rid of that creeping sensation on his ribs and got back to working on the lis… Ah, the sensation got worse. Really, that old knight had made his head think of something really annoying.

He grabbed his sword and emptied his head, his eyes glazing over with a calm sheen. Right, time to get to work.

"Waraya, Hatau" (Strength, Magnify.)

"Waraya, Hatau."

"Waraya, Hatau."

One cast for his body, one cast for his sword, one cast for his armour. It was a simple spell, easily one of the least flashy spells in existence. But he was fond of it still. He was used to working with his body so it was his body that he trusted the most.

The centipedes were still charging at him, but one was a bit ahead of the other, the second seemingly hiding behind the first. They were a bit smarter than the first group it seemed, one of them even knew to let someone else charge ahead and take the brunt of the first attack. But oh well, Gabriel had never been the kind to let a bit of intelligence allow a target to escape him.

Spread the legs slightly, hold the sword tightly, raise it high. A firm stance, a simple stance. The centipede charged, its mandibles closing down on Gabriel when it got within range. And then the sword came down.

A crack.

A crunch.

A rumble.

The centipede’s charge came to an abrupt halt as Gabriel brought his sword down. Carapace cracked, mandibles crunched, earth and ice rumbled. The sword tore straight through its head, the hand holding the hilt of the weapon crushing down everything it came in contact with while the other hand was free to block and shatter the mandibles. Strength was simple. Strength wasn’t flashy. But strength was extremely efficient.

Its head was crushed down into the snow and the back part of its body rose into the air thanks to the momentum it still retained. Gabriel couldn’t see it, but he could tell it was there, just behind the body of the first centipede, his second target.

He raised his arm again to bring up his blade. The weapon, and the hand that held it, tore up through the body of the centipede that was now vertical, splitting open a path just tall enough for him. He stepped forward and tore at the edges of the path, extending it so that he could pass through what remained of the centipede’s head.

And indeed, there it was, its charge already starting to tilt to the side so that it could veer around him. But when Gabriel set his sights on a prey it would not be allowed to escape, that was simply how he was trained.

"Katush, Motak Tarman Hui Alect." (Water, Heat Gather And Rise.)

His fingers twitched as the magic formation was drawn, a bit warm water appearing beneath the centipede. The heat of the water melted the snow and made more water, which gathered into the original water and then completed the spell by rising into the sky like a geyser, a mutter escaping Gabriel.

"Ah, weaker than expected."

The plan was to just launch the centipede into the sky with the water and then deal with it as it landed. But be it because the centipede was weaker than expected or the water affinity he got from Alice was stronger than expected, the geyser tore through the centipede. Both sections were thrown into the air by the force that tore them apart, scattering murky yellow blood for a moment before they fell.

Quick and simple, and had it not been for that last hiccup then it wouldn’t have been overly flashy. Yes, that really was the way Gabriel liked to work. Well, with it being a bit flashier than expected it should be better for Alice since it made the knight she chose stand out a bit more.

He had taken care of the two he picked out so Gabriel sheathed his blade again. The other knights were working on the final three centipedes, allowing the knights-in-training to help them so that they could get some training. Should there be a need for it then he would probably step in, but for now he simply watched.

Right, the list, he could keep cutting out unworthy nobles while he waited.