- Urie -

Urie wasn't sure what to think of it. A magic creature showing up inside of the city never crossed his mind.

All his years living in Daerin and not once has there ever been such an incident. They were all held back outside of the Wall or confined inside the Tower.

Seeing the creature's hand grow larger as it drew towards his face, he shut his eyes as he prepared himself to be struck, but... the blow never came.

“Huh?” Urie opened his eyes to take a look at the creature once more.

Comparing it to the two magic creatures he had seen earlier, it was larger than the shadow wolves but smaller than the rock drake. The black fur covering the shadow wolf complemented its description as a predator, but the darkness cloaking the creature in front of him was different.

Except for around its glowing eyes, its body was covered in a mist-like absence of color, drawing towards it any visible light from the surroundings. It was pushed back a few meters away while its hand, the one that was used to grab at Urie's face, was on fire.

Urie took a step back noticed something flickering on a spot above the middle of his two eyebrows. A small red glow independent from his control had appeared where he remembered he was hit with the headmaster's finger. With no time to think about it, he saw the creature lunging at him whilst ignoring its burning hand. He dodged to the side only to be met with the creature's other arm.

The red glow turned into a small flame and moved to slap the creature away before returning to its spot on his forehead, its shade growing noticeably dimmer.

“The headmaster called it insurance, but why didn't it come out when we were attacked by the shadow wolf?”

Knowing that he couldn't rely on the headmaster's so-called insurance and that the creature moved fast enough to be able to outrun him, Urie chose to stay and fight against it as he did with the shadow wolf. Only this time, Elicia and Celeste weren't here to help him.

“Come at me monster!!”

Yelling at the top of his lungs in order to disperse his fear, Urie gathered mana in preparation to ignite his body once the creature was upon him. But different from usual, he felt the difficulties in controlling his mana seed, that had plagued him over the year, had disappeared.

The flow of mana in his body was much calmer and easier to handle. Instead of just haphazardly spewing out flames like he was used to, he imitated how Elicia would fire off magic and pointed his hands at the approaching monster. His forearms started glowing vermillion before a column of flames emerged from his hands and held the creature in place.

Urie didn't stop and continued bathing it in flames until the excessive mana fatigue forced him to stop. The feeling of smoothly manipulating mana for the first time had caused him to exceed the amount of usage an eleven-year-old boy's body could handle, and he started to sway.

In his clouded vision, he saw the creature covered in flames staggering towards him, before losing the last bit of his consciousness. The small flame on his head, still flickering, flew towards the creature before exploding in front of its chest. The creature flew across the air and landed on the ground without a sound, it remained unmoving and was eventually eaten by the fire spreading across its body.

As it used up the entirety of its remaining mana, the small flame no longer returned to Urie's forehead and was extinguished.

Attracted to the flames left scattered on the ground, a couple more dark patches on the ground approached from the surrounding shadows and, while burning themselves in the process, devoured the leftovers. A few of them separated from the group and headed towards the unconscious Urie. Their bodies rose from the ground in a similar fashion to the one that Urie had just won against and reached for him in the same manner.

“Hyaah!”

The hands of the Nifyr that were about to grab onto Urie were cut from their elbows and fell to the ground, as a sharp weapon, glowing crimson, swung down following a loud cry from a woman with light brown hair.

“Luca hold them off!”

She picked Urie up from the pavement and yelled at a man with red hair that appeared and stood in the way between her and the Nifyr.

“Go! I'll take care of these guys, head towards Simone and the others!”

Conjuring two walls of flames to make a path through the Nifyr, the red-haired man spoke.

“Alright, be careful, there's a lot of them.” She replied.

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The woman ran through the path with Urie in her arms and safely made it through.

“Celeste...?”

Stella Varethe flinched in surprise and looked at the boy in her arms as she heard the name that the boy had muttered while staring at her in a half-conscious state. She stopped herself from shaking the boy awake and continued to run as she still needed to secure his safety.

“Simone! You're here!!”

Her brother, Simone, had arrived together with a few members of the Brilliant Flame Brigade. Simone's eyes were drawn to the boy sleeping soundly in Stella's embrace.

“Stella—That child??”

“We found him outside Erden's Tower. He's unconscious but unhurt.”

“Where's the Captain?”

“He's still at the Tower, hurry up and assist him, even he can't hold that many Nifyr back by himself.”

Simone left Stella and rushed to Luca's direction with his group, while Stella headed to the house that she had left unattended for a year since the disappearance of one of its occupants.

- Varethe Residence -

Urie opened his eyes to the sight of an unfamiliar ceiling. It looked like it was still nighttime as he could see through a window at one side of the room that the sky was still dark.

“It wasn't a dream?”

He remembered what had occurred prior to his blackout and tried to make sense of his current situation. Drifting in and out of consciousness, he recalled how he was carried by someone he at first thought was Celeste. The thought of that little girl cradling him in her arms seemed funny to him.

“What happened to Celeste and Elicia?”

The thought crossed his mind as he worried about the safety of his two companions. He got up from the bed and exited the room as he planned to look around the house. Once he reached the stairs going down to the first floor, the smell of food coming from below had caused his stomach to rumble, indicating it needed sustenance.

Following the aroma, he made his way down to the kitchen where he saw the back of a beautiful woman with light brown hair taking a batch of freshly baked bread rolls out of the oven.

“I knew it was about time that you'd wake up so I made you something to eat.”

She spoke as she had noticed his presence at the door and turned around to look at him.

Urie finally got a good look at her face. He knew where he was. He was no longer at the city of Daerin which he had lived in for eleven years. He had an inkling of the location once he had seen the large orb of light hanging up in the sky. And his suspicions only grew once he had looked around the room he had woken up in.

Getting up from the bed, he noticed a few fine strands of red hair scattered on the sheets, and a room filled with nothing but the belongings of a little girl. The ornate blue cardigan he had seen Celeste wear on the day of the Harvest Festival was in plain view, hanging inside the open closet.

“Good evening Mrs. Varethe.”

Urie saw no reason to be impolite and bowed as he addressed the woman by Celeste's last name. The woman furrowed her brows at his demeanor and spoke,

“It's morning actually. If this is how you people act normally on the other side, then she must be standing on pins and needles every time you talk to her.”

“Ah, no ma'am. I'd like to believe we're on casual terms.”

Hearing his reply, Stella dropped the tray of bread rolls on the kitchen counter and crossed her arms while flashing Urie a mysterious smile.

“Hoh? And who exactly are you to my daughter, little man?”

Urie didn't notice the slight change in her tone as he thought about how to phrase his answer. He opened his mouth and spoke in an innocent manner.

“We're living together ma'am.”

Stella held herself back from flying into a rage at the thought of her daughter living with an unfamiliar man. She reminded herself that she was talking to an eleven-year-old boy. Stella placed the bread rolls on two plates and passed them to Urie. She prepared some refreshments after gesturing towards the dining table across the room, adjoined to the kitchen.

As they sat down at the table to eat, she asked, “How is Celeste doing? What has she been up to the past year?”

Stella listened closely as Urie began his story from the time his father had found Celeste outside the wall.

“—Celeste usually didn't voice out her thoughts, so I had to learn how to read them through her expressions. She wouldn't openly show emotion, but once you differentiate between all the minute gestures she makes, you would understand what she likes and what she dislikes—“

She listened to the boy's description of her daughter being a quiet little girl and nodded her head in agreement. She felt sad at how she didn't seem to speak as much as she would with herself and her father.

“—One day, I saw her sneak out some bread rolls from the kitchen to eat them out in the garden. I asked Patty to prepare some tea for us as I had planned to join Celeste outside, but once she saw me approach, she hid the bread rolls behind her. Maybe she thought I would take them from her. After that, I asked Patty to keep our supply of bread in stock and leave them in a basket on the kitchen counter—“

She felt reassured at how this boy paid close attention to her daughter's melancholy and did his best, in his own way, to help her through it.

“—Also, she always avoids putting rice on her plate during dinner at home. She doesn't seem to be fond of it. The only time she does eat rice is when grandfather comes to visit and cooks for her, although, I'm unsure as to whether she likes grandfather's cooking or if she just can't refuse his good intentions—“

Listening to Urie speaking so fondly of her daughter with a warm smile on his face, she was thankful that her daughter had met this kind boy and his family after she was separated from her own.