"I'm sure the priest who gave first aid already told you, but he's going to need extensive care. He might not wake up for...for a while."

"...I see. Well, I'll leave him to you then. Can I bother you to send someone when he wakes up?"

"Of course."

"Thank you."

Glenn and an Onnea priest were quietly talking, right next to a hospital bed. Redan, the Ice Wolf, lay there, his eyes peacefully closed and his chest slowly rising and falling. The scent of medical herbs perfumed the air, and only the chattering noise echoed in the soundproof room. Half an hour ago, the team left the premises of the Occult Wanderers' summoning room, bringing with them the unconscious old man and painful memories. Even though Glenn had cheered her up slightly, Milena immediately left for the Dormitory as soon as she could, excusing herself with a fake smile.

Javier also left, when he realized his help wasn't required anymore. Where to? As always, Glenn had no clue. But he knew he could find the Pale Son if his presence was required. Sahro came with him as he went to the nearest Onnea's Church, transmitting Norstan Vendor's request for support while asking for a healer. The Church sent the little support they could afford while assigning a priest to Redan. Glenn and Sahro both went through a few rounds of treatment as well. Glenn because his small adventure in the Beyond had damaged his innards, and Sahro because he had received superficial wounds from his fight against the knight army.

Now, the Black Heir was watching silently, leaning against a wall as Glenn and the priest finished talking.

"...I see. Anyway, thank you for your help," Glenn smiled at the priest, who smiled back.

"That's my pleasure. If you want an update on Sir Redan's status, ask for Valentin."

Glenn shook Valentin's hand, before leaving the hospital's room, Sahro closely following behind him. They silently walked through the medical aisle of the Church of Onnea, both lost in thoughts. As soon as they were out of the Church, Sahro opened his mouth.

"Should we go get the Mayor now?"

Glenn rubbed his chin, before grimacing.

"I'm low on Mana and could use a bit of time to Meditate it back. What about you?"

Sahro shook his head.

"I'm also exhausted," the Black Heir looked at the sky, "...Quick break in the Dormitory?" He proposed. Glenn nodded in approval, and the two left for the Cleaner's Workshop and their luxurious Platinum suite. As far as they knew, Mayor Lazarre wouldn't be going anywhere, waiting for Walker Blight, his contact with the Occult Wanderers. And since Glenn had personified Mr. Blight, he was free to make the Mayor wait as long as he wanted.

'Making him wait for too long might not be too good of an idea,' Diamanes remarked. Glenn shrugged as he flexed the muscles in his left, purple arm.

'An hour or two shouldn't be too problematic. If I got it right, he has King's Rise army to use as he likes, thanks to that Count backing him. And we need to take into account that Tomorr as well, who should be either a Knight or a True Initiate. If his colleague Novraar could wound Javier in the back, that means he should be a bit tougher than the usual meat shields.'

Glenn stretched, bathing in the setting sun. The operation had taken the whole day, and with the twilight coming, he was wondering whether he shouldn't just go visit the Mayor the next day.

'...Hmm...And since he has so many forces with him, it's better for us to go rested and at one hundred percent. There will probably be a fight, not as big as the one that just happened, but still.'

Diamanes didn't reply, acknowledging his host's words. Glenn and Sahro soon arrived at the Cleaner's Workshop, welcomed by a sweaty bald man with thick, steel-rimmed glasses.

"Glenn, Sahro, what the hell have you done?" He asked with a pale face as he pushed his glasses back up his nose. Glenn and Sahro exchanged a gaze, before sighing in synchronization. The Black Heir opened his mouth and left it this way for a few seconds, before smacking his lips.

"Loran, let's just say we cleaned up a huge chunk of the Eastern Town, alright? We need some rest, and as soon as we get it, we're getting back out there. A rapport will have to wait," He said dryly with Glenn listening silently. Loran grunted and turned away while shaking his head.

"More work for me, that's for sure..." he mumbled, before gesturing dismissively with the back of his hand. Glenn and Sahro didn't linger and took their leave, straight for the Dormitory. As they arrived in front of the stairs leading to the top state, they sighed once again.

"I'm starting to hate these stairs..." Glenn muttered. Sahro chuckled.

"I already do."

They still climbed said accursed stairs, reaching the Platinum floor. Sahro didn't utter another word and grunted as he stabbed his Dark-Gold identification dagger into his suite's door, and entered it without a second thought. Glenn imitated him, entering his suite and heading straight for the bathroom. He didn't need a bath, since he had already used Mundare to clean himself, but still. He couldn't get over the feeling of being dirty, despite the spell's help, and only taking a bath seemed to get rid of the said feeling.

If he thought back to it, Mundare, or Cleaning Touch for its academic name, was an insane spell. It got rid of filth, blood, and anything dirty. Wars would probably be fought on Earth for access to this spell. After all, that meant true disinfection, easier access to proper facilities, and so many more things he could probably not imagine. That led him to think, why wouldn't King's Rise just clean away the sewage instead of dropping it in the Sewers outside the city? That'd probably be way easier to just give Mundare to the whole population and force them to use it on their filth and all that, instead of creating a sewer system that barely worked.

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"Hey, I'm pretty sure the Cleaner's Workshop facilities already work with this system," Diamanes remarked aloud, the hand free to speak in the safety of the bathroom. Glenn looked at the water of the bath he was taking. The water was summoned magically with a Water Shard and was cleaned away by unplugging a hole. The young man also realized the insanity of a Water Shard.

"A bit of blood or Mana, and unlimited water pours out...Shit, this would also change everything on Earth...Man, why did I never think about those things before?" Glenn asked confusedly as he found himself in wonder in front of magic. Every day he used said magic, and yet, every day he found it to be even better than he thought.

"You never thought about that, probably because you never tried so hard to think about something else?" Nelg tried. Glenn grimaced and sank his head in the water. After submerging himself for half a minute in the hot bath, he came out and sighed. He didn't have the time to lose on that; he still had to go "meet" the Mayor, and maybe kill the bastard. Or...or he could trick him again?

Oh, that was an interesting thought here. Glenn dried himself and picked a bathrobe among the many he had at his disposition. He then headed off to his salon, sinking in one of the sofas with a grunt.

"Life is just so hectic these days..." he muttered, before leaning his head back and closing his eyes. He began Meditating right there since the comfortable sofa allowed so, and also because he was too lazy to go to his bed or someplace else. Meditating just needed him to have a calm mind and dive into his Mana Heart to observe the changes inside and try to understand them while allowing for more Mana to fill his reserves.

That also was something that was beginning to annoy Glenn. "Mana reserves". It was bothering him a little that he was unable to put a number over said reserve. He'd love to have some kind of mana bar, like in a video game, with the number of mana points he currently had and how much was his maximum capacity. Oh, and his mana regen would be great as a date too. At least he'd be able to be more precise in his spell usage.

"But no, this shit is so fucking blurry...Hah...Onnea, is it that hard to create a video-game-like system?" Glenn asked dejectedly as he watched the three Circles spinning around the Magellanic Clouds. Sadly, no one replied to him. And so, he went to the only person who would reply to him. Nelg was standing with his arms crossed in front of his own Mana Heart, frowning as he looked at a wristband. He turned his head as he sensed Glenn approaching.

"Ah, I was about to go look for you. Killing these cultists netted us quite a few souls, you see," Nelg said as he threw the wristband at Glenn. The young man grinned as looked at it closely. The number seventy-four was engraved on it. Glenn's grin disappeared, replaced by a frown.

"Wait, I didn't kill that many guys, did I?"

Nelg shook his head.

"Nope, but some souls are worth more than others. A crappy soul counts for one, while better souls can go from two, to even three. I didn't get anything above that for now."

Glenn looked at the wristband for a few seconds, before shrugging and throwing it back at Nelg.

"Huh. Well, at least your Circle is expanding steadily."

Nelg caught the wristband and played with it for a few seconds. He dismissed the wristband and turned toward Glenn, his eyes filled with determination.

"Glenn, you need to face reality," he suddenly said, not giving a second to his bewildered host to reply, "...You can't continue pushing down your feelings like that."

Glenn's eyebrows creased and he opened his hands confusedly.

"What are you talking about?"

Nelg winced and shook his head.

"You're scarred. Both physically and mentally. And that's not good, be it for you, or me."

Glenn laughed dismissively, floating away from his sword's nonsense.

"And there again, just running away from the problem," Nelg said, making Glenn stop dead in his tracks. The young man drew a deep breath and turned back.

"Alright, then. Tell me, what is scarring me exactly?" He asked defiantly, and Nelg replied without a second of hesitation.

"You're homesick, and because of that, you're subconsciously thinking of your sister each time you meet a kid. That's why you reacted this way back with Liam, or with the kids of Lark's Avenue, or those poor children in the Beyond."

Glenn lifted his hand, his teeth clenched.

"No, don't talk to me about them—"

Nelg slapped Glenn's hand away violently, refusing to listen to his host.

"Fuck off, I'm not done talking," he interrupted viciously, his eyes burning desperately, "That all began with you waking up in that field of corpse, right? Then killing your first monster, surviving the Blood Moon, and meeting Diamanes. Then there was the Thorn's Church torture, the Auberge, the Harvest—oh, that shit is the worst. There also was the Blessed Grove and the Heart of Darkness, Palancar and the Fallen Mother, Doyle Malory, and now this bullshit with Redan, the Beyond and the Occult Wanderers."

Nelg took a deep breath as Glenn took a step back and fell on his ass as if the words had struck him directly.

"You don't see it, but you're playing with your fucking luck. Each time you survive, it's practically thanks to a miracle. All that because you're too much in a hurry; you need to do this or that, and because of that you're always rushing head down into your problems, throwing Mana at them. Somehow, it's working, and somehow, you're still alive. But don't you realize that you could have died, hadn't it been for the timely appearance of that Hell Knight, or whatever that was?" Nelg spat, angry. Glenn listened with wide-opened eyes, his jaws tightly clenched as he looked to the side. He couldn't even say anything.

Nelg knew him because Nelg was him.

"So yeah, I get that we don't have time, that we need to take the bull by the horns because Redan's in danger, or someone else, or someone else, but fuck you, man!" Nelg shouted as he stabbed his gloved finger into Glenn's chest.

"My life and Diamanes depend on yours! If you die, so do we!" Nelg took a breath, before changing his tone to a calmer one, "...And what about your sister? Do you realize that if you die, you'll never see her again? So stop going into fights like Lady Luck is going to save you again, and again, because one day, luck is going to stand on the other fucking side. Shit!" Nelg kicked at nothing and turned away, fuming. Glenn was still on the illusory ground of his Mana Heart's space, speechless and dumbfounded.

He felt like he had just been stripped down of all his defenses. After all, he could lie to himself, but Nelg didn't have that need.

"Fuck...I can't even refute your words, haha..." Glenn laughed dejectedly, at a loss at what to say. He knew he was pushing himself quite a bit these days, Meditating instead of sleeping, fighting horrors one after the other. But he didn't have a choice! He had to fight, to protect the ones close to him, to grow stronger, to survive! All so he could maybe find a way out of this hell of a world.

And then Glenn realized that even if he found a way to leave this world and go back to Earth, he would still lose something. It cost him to admit it, but he cared about his friends, about these people he met along this painful path of reaching for something that might not even exist. Nelg turned back toward Glenn, calmer.

"What you don't realize, is that you got used to it. The horror, the deaths, the murder, and this whole world's nature. You've changed, Glenn, ever since you came into this world, but you truly had no choice in the matter. But like the good boy that you are, you toughened up, and acted like everything was normal."

Nelg walked up to Glenn and patted him on the shoulder compassionately.

"This world isn't normal. Having to fight like we do, isn't normal. Hell, even King's Rise isn't normal. So it's okay to admit it and take a break. After all, he isn't here to stop you."

Glenn didn't have to ask who that "he" Nelg was talking about, he already knew. The young man looked at his hands emptily, as images flashed in his eyes one after the other. Glenn broke his Meditation, gasping as he was back in reality. He thought back to these kids, to Winston, Carys, and Laurence, the hearty lady baker.

He thought back to each of them and, like a dam finally breaking, he swore.

"Damn it..."

And he cried.