‘It’s weird,’ Lone thought to himself while he ate some of the food the elves had offered him and Soph.

The two of them were sitting on a log within the elven camp. The talk with Chieftain Rewal’eh had ended fairly swiftly after she had requested his aid.

Lone didn’t want to commit to anything. These people seemed sympathetic, but he had lied to them.

Not only that but they seemed… on edge. Untrusting, even. Beneath their kindness hid a darkness Lone had seen before. Specifically, in his father.

‘They’re hiding stuff from us, I’m sure. I just don’t know what or why…’ While he was guilty of the same thing, he felt certain their reasons differed wildly.

Before long, he had finished his food and discreetly stored Soph’s. Call him too paranoid but he didn’t want her to get poisoned.

At least if their food had been spiked, he could likely heal from the effects quickly and maybe even get a skill from it. Soph was their escape artist, after all, what with her Teleportation.

Thankfully, no notifications came up and everything seemed to be well with the food.

Once they were finished, Lal’roh approached them. “Will you be staying here? We have little room but we’re happy to offer you our protection. Though we come from different species and backgrounds, we share a similar fate.”

“Thank you, but no. We should return to our cabin. I know you don’t think it’s very safe, but we can protect ourselves. It has been a great experience to meet you all and to learn we’re not alone,” Lone replied with a smile.

He put Soph’s hand in his own and added, “We should get going before the sun sets.”

Lal’roh frowned and creased his brow but ultimately nodded. “Allow me and a few men to escort you back at the very least. I know you said you have eliminated an entire scouting party of the green devils, but it would give us some peace of mind.”

‘I don’t know if that makes them less or more suspicious,’ Lone thought with an internal sigh.

He never was very good at deduction games though he was trying his best. Perhaps he’d earn a skill that would aid him with enough effort.

He nodded and smiled. “Thank you, that would not go unappreciated.”

----------------------------------------

Once they were back in their cabin and after Soph had made sure there was no one monitoring them, Lone used his new skill.

“Illusionary Dome,” he chanted.

He felt his body almost go limp as a dull pain entered his mind. Damn-near every drop of MP escaped his body and slowly became a far smaller and thinner barrier than the one at the elf encampment. It barely covered the entirety of their little cabin.

It only had a diameter of 10-meters and it clearly drained Lone more than he was comfortable with. However, it offered an extra layer of protection that they couldn’t just ignore.

‘If it’s good enough for the elves, it’s good enough for us,’ Lone thought as he flopped down onto the boar-skin blanket and winced as he endured the pain.

Congratulations! The illusion magic skill [Illusionary Dome] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 2.

Thankfully, he still had 80 MP leftover, so he wasn’t completely spent and the pain was, ever so slowly, becoming more and more bearable.

Soph laid down next to him and asked, “Are you okay?”

‘God, how can she just… crawl up next to me on a bed so nonchalantly?’ He chuckled and said, “Yeah, I’m fine. Thank you.”

“Mmm…” She grabbed onto the tail that he had moved her way and asked, "Why couldn't we stay with those people, Lone? They seemed… helpful."

There was a hidden reluctance in her voice that he could sense. Lone felt that the more he got to know Soph, the easier such things became to spot.

He scratched his cheek and answered, "I don't trust them is the long and short of it. They were helpful, certainly, but I feel like we stand to lose more if we stuck around with them for too long. I dunno. Something seems fishy with them."

“Huh…” Soph paused to think on the matter for a moment. “What does ’fishy’ mean?”

“Hahaha… I didn’t expect that. Right. You can’t speak English, can you? That was a surprise to learn this morning,” Lone said as he closed his eyes. The headache was starting to fade a bit now since his MP was regenerating.

“Fishy just means suspicious,” he said casually. “It’s a term more so than it is a word.”

“Huh… I don’t even know what the language I speak is called…” Soph expressed with a bit of longing in her tone.

Lone furrowed his brow. “I’ve no clue. It could be Old East Slavic, Old Novgorodian, Gothic, Old Norse. Lots of options. The world was a very split place back in your era. Hundreds of kingdoms, dozens more languages and local dialects. Y’know, diverse as all hell.”

He grinned a little before saying, “Your accent is nice though. I just thought you could speak English for some reason. Dumb of me, thinking on it a bit.”

“Yours is pleasant too. It’s rough, like mine,” Soph said with a warm smile before something seemed to click with her. “Did you s-say Novgorod?”

Lone raised an eyebrow. “Yeah? Old Novgorodian. I don’t know nor could I pronounce the actual term but that’s the English for it. I have no clue how you’re hearing it though. Why?”

“… I’m from Novgorod,” Soph said with a deeply nostalgic yet pained tone in her voice.

“No fuckin’ way. Really? That’s awesome. Considering how you look you must’ve been someone pretty important, huh? Maybe the daughter of some noble or something?” Lone laughed softly. “Hell, you’re 971, right? Maybe you were even the daughter of Vladimir the Great, Prince of Novgorod, himself, hahah.”

He grinned a bit more before he noticed that Soph was silently trying to hold back tears spurned on by memories. “No way… really? But… No, well, he did have nine daughters... But he was such an important person, only dwarfed by his son, your brother, Yaroslav the Wise, Grand Prince of all of Kiev. Why would the church have so willingly started crusades just to get you when you have such a grand backing? No, even better, how did the crusades end up in the middle east? Or did you leave the Slavic lands?”

“I-I don’t want to talk about t-this,” Soph said as she curled up into a ball and began sobbing.

Lone felt he had been punched in the gut. It was never nice to see a woman cry, especially not one so… naive. Doubly so when he was the main cause, though, admittedly, not by choice or intention.

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He respected her words and stayed silent. Time passed. At first, minutes, before long, hours.

His headache was all but gone when Soph finally spoke again.

A fluffy tail found its way into Soph's arms. She grinned happily as she squeezed it. "I-I don't want to become 'breeding material'. That’s what will happen if I’m caught by the goblins, isn’t it? I don’t… I don’t want to be abused again…"

Once again, his heart sunk in his chest. “Did the peasants or the templars…?”

The girl shook her head. “No… God commanded them to catch me and seal me where I would never be found. They didn’t dare go against his word or take liberties… I was to be untouched and l-left alone until I died… Which obviously I-I couldn’t. But it was abuse nonetheless…”

“Abuse…” Lone wore a distant look in his eyes. “It comes in many forms, huh? Don’t worry, Soph. I’ll protect you. I know you don’t like it but The Summoning Room will keep you safe. So long as I live, you won’t have to go through anything like that again. I’ll keep you safe until you’re strong enough to keep yourself safe, deal?”

She beamed the most beautiful smile Lone had ever seen in his life. “Deal.”

At this point, he had no doubts left if Soph’s story was fabricated or not. In his mind, she was undoubtedly who she claimed she was.

A 971-year-old victim who had been hunted by the commonfolk, then the Knights Templar before being ultimately captured and locked away.

She then somehow escaped and killed God, the man behind her imprisonment and then resided in his dimension for centuries until she met Lone.

Also, she was more or less a Russian princess of the Middle Ages. He couldn’t help but smile a little. ‘It is absurd, isn’t it? Then again, my life, while less magical, had plenty of ups and downs. I wonder how Hazel’s doing… It’s been a few days now since I disappeared…’

"Lone?" Soph turned to look at him with puffy eyes from crying.

Shaking his head softly, Lone replied, "I was just thinking about Earth."

"Why?” Soph asked as she scootched a little bit closer to him.

"Mmm, I have a sister. I was wondering how she’s coping with my disappearance. Knowing her, she's likely doing fine. She was always stronger than I was," Lone explained.

Soph's eyes opened wide. "Stronger than you? Did she have ten tails or something? Your family sounds kinda scary…"

Lone burst out laughing. "I already told you that I wasn't a Foxkin before we came here, didn't I? Your memory really can be flaky at times, huh?"

"S-Sorry. I’m trying…” Soph replied with a blush.

“I know, and that’s what’s really important at the end of the day, trying,” Lone said with a warm smile. “Now let’s catch some shut eye, huh? The dome should keep us safe. I’ll work on improving our defences more tomorrow though.”

----------------------------------------

Hazel arrived at high school 15 minutes late today. She practically ran into her first lesson of the day, History. She’s already missing homeroom today, unfortunately.

"Sorry I'm late!" She bent over and caught her breath before raising her head. "I was busy posting u-"

"Posting up missing person flyers, yes, yes. Please, Hazel, sit down and unpack your things. I'll hand in the necessary paperwork for your lateness during first break, so see me then," the teacher, a spindly man with glasses and straight black hair, said in a slightly dismissive tone.

"... Thank you, Mister Black." Hazel did as she was told and sat down next to Alisa, a short blonde girl with extremely long hair.

Alisa silently passed a note to her. Apparently, it was a handout from homeroom announcing that Mister Black was now taking over full time for Mister McCullen since he hadn't been found in over a week.

The position would be his again if he showed up but hope was grim and the school had to move on at some point.

Hazel scrunched up the note and shoved it in her skirt's pocket. She was intent on binning it at the first chance she got.

First and second period came and went. During first break, as promised, Mister Black helped Hazel fill out the late form before he told her that she needed to relax a bit.

“It’s really not good for your mental health, Hazel,” Mister Black said. “We all miss him dearly but I don’t wish to give you any false hope. You know as well as I do that the first 72-hours are critical. More than twice that time has already passed.”

Hazel bite her lip and replied, “I know. Thank you for your concern.”

Mister Black sighed before he reached over the desk in the teacher’s lounge and grabbed her hand. “If you need anything, let me know. I’ll help however I can.”

Hazel felt chills go up her spine. The way he had said those words and the manner in which he was looking at her while he grasped at her hand… it made her want to vomit.

She quickly rose to her feet, separating herself from him. “T-Thank you, but I’m fine.”

Without looking back or giving him room to respond, Hazel damn-near bolted out of the room and down the hallway towards her next lesson.

The double period lesson of English would have bored Hazel beyond belief were she not still shaken up by Mister Black’s attitude.

‘What a creep. I’m 15, for God’s sake! I should report him… though I doubt anyone would actually believe me unless he actually assaulted me and was caught in the act. Fucking predators in decent positions of power… Protected by the system,’ she thought with venom.

Darren was right. He had told her about how he got a weird feeling from his substitute teacher, Mister Black, on the rare occasion the two of them met.

Only now did she realise just how right her currently missing brother had been.

After the double period of English came to an end, Hazel chose to have her lunch in the school's courtyard. By herself, this time.

Her mind was busy mapping out her route for posting flyers after school when her train of thought was interrupted by a hand coiling around her shoulder.

Looking to her left, Hazel was relieved it wasn’t Mister Black but also annoyed greatly that it was, instead, one of her classmates from her History, French, Computing and Business Management classes, Ben.

Ben was somewhat of a jock. Short brunette hair, a well-groomed stubble that didn’t fit his age, muscles, rich parents, the boy had practically everything that he could want at his age.

"Yo," he greeted as he entangled one of his fingers into Hazel's hair.

She felt her stomach churning. "Sorry, I'm busy."

She then tried to stand up but found her wrist being gripped by Ben.

"Why are you in such a hurry? There's still 30 minutes until fifth period. Wanna skip the rest of today's classes with me? My folks are at their vacation home in Milan, so I've got the house all to myself. Oh, and don't tell anyone I told you, but I also stole the wine fridge key from the old man before they left." Ben winked at Hazel and tightened his grip on her wrist.

'This dirtbag! There are hundreds of other girls flocking around him! Why does he have to bother me?! First Mister Black and now this cunt!' Hazel felt powerless.

She started weighing her options. On one hand, she was half of the mind to just slap a few teeth out of his skull before telling on him, but she figured that wouldn't do her any favours.

On the other hand, her only other viable choice was to follow along with his insane demands. That, she did not want to do.

"Hey, loser, leave the girl alone. Can't you see how jittery she is? Sheesh. Is there an afterschool class on how to become rapey or something? All of you douches somehow nail it perfectly without fail," a loud and fed-up voice said from across the courtyard.

Now that all of the attention was beginning to centre on him, Ben let go of Hazel and scratched the back of his head a bit sheepishly. "I just wanted to comfort her. Y'know, since Mister McCullen's disappearance hit her so hard and all that... Haha... Ha..."

The other boy who had spoken up for Hazel, a fifth-year - one year higher than Ben and Hazel - Scott, brushed his fingers through his gelled-up hair and spat on the ground.

He intentionally flexed his bodybuilder-like muscles and looked down on Ben. "Sure thing, Sport."

Ben audibly gulped. This wasn't the first time that Scott had shone a light on him in Hazel’s memory, just the first in which she was also involved.

In fact, he'd actually beaten him up once before, somewhat traumatising the 15-year-old playboy who was allergic to the word ’no’.

"Sorry. Looks like something came up," Ben said apologetically as he got up and left.

Hazel could hear Scott's deep sigh. "Seriously, just 'cause you're pretty he goes and hits on you. I wouldn't be surprised if he thought you were an easy target since you're all upset about Mister McCullen. Kids are so fucking thirsty."

'You're a kid too!' Hazel noted mentally before she rolled her eyes. "Thanks, I didn't know what to do back there."

Scott gave Hazel an inquisitive look. "You should’ve. Show him who's boss and he acts like a bitch real quick."

"T-Thanks, I'll keep a note of that..." Hazel was starting to feel uncomfortable again.

Scott just shrugged and sauntered off. With that peculiar encounter behind her, Hazel finished up the school day and returned to her task of posting missing person flyers.

As the night was ending, Hazel finally returned home and laid down on her bed after some light dinner her mum had prepared for them.

Even she seemed to have gotten over her brother’s disappearance. Hazel couldn’t help but wonder if maybe she was the crazy one for actually giving a shit.

‘Why isn’t there more coverage on it? Sure, Darren wasn’t anyone special but who disappears without leaving a single trace or hint or clue or whatever the fuck else?! He had no enemies and no one has a motive to kidnap him! A body hasn’t been found either so it wasn’t suicide…’ she shoved her face into her pillow.

Tears spilt out of the teenaged girl's eyes as she buried her face in her pillow. Hazel missed Darren. She missed him so much that it hurt just thinking about him at times.

She felt so regretful. Why did she only call him once a week instead of actually visiting him? She knew why.

He lived like a slob outside of his job and that disgusted her. But…maybe she could have helped him fix that if she’d just tried.

It wasn’t his fault for keeping her at a distance and for absolutely despising their mother when neither of them helped him.

She was barely older than a toddler when it happened so he didn’t blame her but that didn’t mean she magically had a pass to ignore him when he moved out.

Now, worst of all, it was only when she would likely never see her older brother again that Hazel had finally come to realise how much she actually cared about him.