Suta POV

'The lineage of dawn again,' Suta thought to himself, his brows furrowed deeply before his gentle expression reappeared.

"It's a pleasure to meet you... graceful knight Ector," Suta replied with a boyishly charming smile, trying his best to be polite this morning.

' Besides, I need someone I can somewhat trust to provide me with information.' He had spent most of the new dawn thinking about his next play, Demoria was somewhat compromised and left him with all the work of discovering clues on where they were and how to get back home. And one of the easiest plays Suta could make, was certainly befriending one or two of these whimsically odd creatures.

"Eh! Wh-wh-at... th-thank... y-you... s-s-s-sire." The tiny fellow stammered nervously,

"Oh dear, oh dear, wh-what do I do..." Suta stood there amused, watching it fidgeting restlessly, whilst its iron plates clattered noisily.

'Is the little guy shy? Or is it a girl?' He pondered, the more he observed the flat footed fellow the more intrigued he was becoming.

"Aha! I've just thought of a great plan!" The floating feline's pointed hat appeared first, followed by a smoky black wisp forming into a sleek violet-furred cat.

Suta took a strong gulp watching the cat materialize into existence again.

'I don't think I'll ever get used to that.'

"Why don't you spend the morning with our noble knight Ser Ector? Fufufu..." The cat suggested with a mischievous grin.

Suta's gaze trailed down to the miniature knight, who shared in his surprise and pointed at itself in disbelief.

A sudden idea came racing into Suta's mind then

'This might be a good way to learn more about this world and plan our next move to find our way back home.' Although he was almost certain that the shady talking cat held its ulterior motives, Suta saw it as an opportunity as well

"I also believe a prince of dawn would benefit from basic combat lessons, no? It gives us ladies a chance to study the more arcane ways of the world instead~"

"What are you—" Suta started to protest before he found his words cut short by a sudden blue-haired girl's spirited arrival.

"That sounds like a great idea Suta!" Demoria's face was beaming with excitement

'Why is she eager to split us up?' He thought worryingly, but he very quickly recalled the conversation they had the previous night. Since then, Suta had been thinking about how he treated Demoria, forgetting between the two of them, she was in fact the one with more experience as well as strength.

'I suppose she has a plan...' He sighed to himself scratching the side of his head in defeat. He was already beginning to question his decision to trust her more, fighting against that voice in his head telling him not to steer his mind away from the truth.

"Looks like I'll be in your care then... Ser Knight," he begrudgingly agreed with another one of his fake boyish smiles in place. Demoria jumped into his arms,

Taken a back momentarily Suta could feel her delicate frame relaxing within his hold. Her heartbeat gently resonated through their embrace, and Suta felt something he wasn't sure how to process. A sense of...warmth nestled within his heart.

"Thank you, Suta." she whispered tearfully.

***

Suta and the noisily clanking knight crossed the lowered drawbridge into the warm, still air. Anxiety plagued Suta's every thought.

'Will she be okay? Was this a good idea? What if something happens? Damn, I should've refused. That cat can't be trusted! A cat in a pointed hat, seriously? Maybe I should turn back...'

Amidst his tumultuous thoughts, a shy, muffled sound caught his attention.

"Excuse me, sire, but you seem to have a lot on your mind," the little knight stammered.

Suta raised a brow in surprise hearing that. "You can tell?"

The helmet nodded up and down with a soft clatter.

Suta chuckled mockingly to himself

'I've never been good at hiding my feelings. Old habits die hard I guess.'

"It's okay. I tend to have many things to consider too." The little knight revealed.

"Oh? Like what? Tell me of the great troubles that plague you, Ser Knight," Suta smiled slightly trying to probe further.

"W-well, there's the matter of... you know. Getting caught outside during the eclipse." It announced with a slight tremor in its muffled voice.

'An eclipse? ' Suta pondered, his lingering gaze beheld the little fellow deeply, spurring the fellow to continue.

"I've never been permitted to leave the castle so close to an eclipse. But if I don't find my mount, then..."

'Ah, so that's what this is about? A lost horse.'

Suta felt relieved, he was very much trying to reduce the risk of any dangerous situations this morning.

"I see. Do you know where you lost this mount of yours?"

"Hmm... I think so." The fellow twisted its iron helm up towards him, "First, we'll look at Whispering Lagoon. And if not there, then... No, we can't go there. F-forget I said anything."

Suta chuckled childishly. ' Did he think I'd let that slip go unnoticed?' He could see just about any time the little fellow was either nervous or pondering something. The noisy armor was a dead giveaway also.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Come on, you can tell me. We're companions for the day, aren't we? Don't companions share everything with each other?" The little fellow flinched, and Suta tried to hold in his amusing smile, he could hear its iron practically rattling as it showed signs of nerves

"C-companion? With sire? I am unworthy," it mumbled breathlessly.

"Pfft, don't be silly! The moment we agree on something, we've already become companions. How about this! Instead of 'sire' or whatever you're mumbling there, why don't you call me... Suta." He suggested. Secretly he was rubbing his hands together like a villain, he had almost succeeded in acquiring his first companion from this strange world.

Suta's words practically rendered the knight a babbling, criss-cross walking mess.

"Oh dear, no! How could a lowly servant like me be graceful enough to speak sire's true name? A name only our mother utters! No, I must humbly refuse, s-sire."

Suta frowned. 'This guy, tsk!'

"What if I ordered you?" He asked more brashly this time.

"Then I'd have to personally reject it sire and march myself to the dungeons for such blasphemy!"

"And if I refuse that punishment too, then what?"

"Then I will fall on my sword, sire! I would be unable to live with such shame!"

'My goodness! Why so extreme.' Suta observed the little knight with wide eyes for a brief few moments.

"Ok-ok si-sire is fine, but riddle me this at least. What's so special about this eclipse? It sounded like something bad might happen if we were caught up in it. How is that possible." There was nothing good from a process known as the eclipse.

The tiny knight remained silent for a moment or two.

"For you sire, there will be no problem at all. After all, those born of dawn do not share the same accursed fate as us native inhabitants of candy."

"And what kind of curse are we talking about here?" he pressed the knight

The tiny fellow twisted its closed helmet towards him again and said with a slight weariness to its muffled tone.

"The kind of curse...th-that turns every inhabitant of candy into monster sire."

3 Miles West of the Blue Castle...

Suta narrowed his gaze, watching the distant horizon create an intriguing contrast of colors layered between the purple skies and cyan grass. He had to admit, that the strange hues and tints of these peculiar surroundings made for quite a picturesque scene. Not to mention there was a vast array of strange critters and insects around. From singing ladybirds with human faces, to strange fusion of furries and other creatures running around.

He continued trailing behind the lead of the little fellow, whose presence Suta found to be a surprising breath of fresh air. Compared to the other weirdos he'd bumped into, at least the slightly anxious little knight was rather straightforward, the kind of fellow who couldn't lie to you under any circumstances.

The downside, however, was that Suta quickly realized the fellow couldn't keep any secrets to himself.

They walked for what felt like half a mile until Suta noticed a stark change in his surroundings. The matted cyan beds of grass slowly became more sparse, giving way to patches of uneven, earthy ground. Whitish, stony surfaces began to appear, and Suta eventually found himself face-to-face with a tall, random limestone plinth.

He stopped by the face of this slender monument, attracted by the hard-to-miss swirl of symbols etched into the surface at eye level.

"There's something unusually familiar about this. Hmm… I wonder…" Without thinking too much more about it, he slowly closed his eyelids and allowed both his body and mind to sink into stillness.

He rehashed the breathing technique Granny had talked him through that one time. Thankfully, Suta still upheld the same oddities he carried from his past world, he only needed to experience things a single time before his memory stored it.

"Eight breaths in… eight breaths out… allow my thoughts to trace along the pathway of my meridians. Although the path is clogged and covered in stones, trace the faint route towards my bosom. Towards the hollow cave where my dormant core sleeps."

He felt the presence of his inner self, slowly approaching that unfamiliar yet very real dormant core in his gut. Unlike the first time Suta vaguely remembered sensing it, this time he could just about feel every frail web latching desperately onto the core's shell.

The shell itself was like a silvery, translucent stone, floating on a pool of glittering carmine ink.

"I'll call you… Slumbering Silver," Suta mused to himself playfully.

Next, he began to draw the tiniest wisps of mana away from the Slumbering Silver. With the deftest precision of a heart surgeon, Suta drew away what felt like small, warm currents from the stone. The thinnest webs of warmth began filtering through his body, along his blood vessels, up through his channels, before settling against his nasal area.

An uncomfortable itch appeared behind his eyes, making Suta forcefully blink a few times. Upon opening his irritated lids the fifth or so time, his vision had surprisingly changed into a blurry mask that turned his view into a colorful spectrum, through which every object he could see was arrayed in colorful particles.

A short gasp freed itself from between his lips. Finally grasping hold of what this meant, his dry mouth curved into a wild grin.

"Heheh… well, well… I did it."

Reinforcing Granny Baba's earlier declaration, he could, in fact, understand the ancient language of Arcane, the very first step of casting incantations.

"If only my core wasn't dormant… how depressing." He rued what could've been, as Granny had informed him that having the ability to understand not one, not two, but five different arcane languages was nothing short of a miracle.

Suta scanned across the shimmering, glowing words aligned against the slab of stone.

"Here lies a remembrance of their union.

Beyond the hills asunder, unveils the point between two stars where he, her beloved, conjoined two blazing stars into one, with a strand of the sunset at his fingertips, a most glorious birth of a new element was born… Starfire."

This pillar marks the point where they first met. Both he, the Golden Prince, and she the Princess of the Frosted North."

As he thought about the increased difficulties he was set to encounter along his Arcane journey, Suta couldn't help but strategize the possible ways for him to overcome this problem.

He suddenly felt a throbbing headache, followed closely by his vision blurring. Suta momentarily lost his balance but luckily found his footing before he toppled over. His hand smoothed against his temple; there wasn't much panic from him, considering he kind of expected this outcome.

'Channeling the tiniest wisps of mana is still causing me this much strain. So I was right when I regarded the process of reading runes and incantations as a form of spell casting,' Suta thought to himself, smiling bitterly. His plight seemed quite the problematic endeavor.

"Eh-s-s-s-sire?" He heard the slightly high-pitched voice sounding beside him, dutifully awakening him out of his stupor.

"A-a-are you al-alright?" The little fellow asked him.

For some reason, Suta felt a musing warmth dousing the cold feelings he nestled in his heart. In response he lightly folded back the loose strands of electric pink dreadlocks covering his face. A profound gaze lingered within his stare as his gaze lowered down slowly.

"Y-yes I'm fine. Shall we continue?"

'There's nothing I can do about this body's problems, but I can focus on the road ahead. Raito Suta… hehe, shan't we see what adventures await us in this strange world then,' A warm smile birthed across his youthful features. For some reason, meeting this strange towering stone had renewed him with vigor and confidence