Empire Lieutenant Harvey’s POV

“Gerald!” I shout.

“Yes sir.” He says while rushing quickly through my office door.

“What have we learned about the situation in Candline City? Any reports on the kid?”

“No sir, not yet. We believe that now that their original plan has been ruined, they will escape the city. Afterwards, the Hound on site should be able to handle things from there in terms of tracking them down.” Gerald reports succinctly.

“Hm, how positive are we that they will escape? Couldn’t they, I don’t know, make a rush for the teleporter?”

“That is unlikely sir, considering their lack of manpower, an attempt like that would result in their deaths.”

“Couldn’t they bring backup?”

“Hmm,” Gerald stops and thinks, “I do suppose that’s a possibility, but gathering enough troops to combat the soldiers stationed there is logistically impossible. The only way to do that would be through quick teleportation, but even then, all Empire teleporters are only accessible by Empire citizens.”

“What about spies? Wouldn’t they be able to use our teleporters?”

“With all do respect sir, I think your overthinking things. Besides, how many spies could these Kingdom degenerates realistically have?”

“Hmm, I suppose you’re right. Just in case though, I want to go down there myself, make sure everything goes smoothly.”

“Right away sir, I’ll have the teleporter ready by sundown.”

“Good. Now, any word back from the Empire on what we discovered?”

“No direct messages back, but I’ve been hearing talks of supposed inquisitions in the works. Also, rapid military deployment suggests that the Empire will be responding to this slight. Heavily.” Gera;d says darkly.

“I see. Well, that will be all. Let’s hope this whole thing blows over. System knows I don’t need more trouble on this forsaken planet.”

He nods and walks swiftly out the door. A few seconds of silence pass, before I let out a deep sigh and rub the bridge of my nose.

‘Why the hell does this stuff always happen to me.’

Rowan’s POV

I collapse to the floor in mental exhaustion.

“Finally done, thank the system!” I say exasperatedly.

“Not to bad kid, pretty good all things considered. Your time on that last one almost made it into the two point fours! Plus, thirteen seconds is impressive, especially considering I sped up a little bit on those last few rounds!” Solace encourages.

“Thanks.” I say, trying to hide the pride in my voice.

We sit in silence for a few minutes while Solace waits for me to take a small break.

“Well, only one hour left, and as promised, I’ve got a bit of a surprise for you!”

This perks me up slightly, as for the past few hours, Solace has been hyping up whatever this surprise is.

“The surprise is… a movie! Well, more accurately, another immersive message like the first one you received. Thought his one is a bit longer!”

I deflate slightly.

“Why the long face? This will be awesome!”

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“No secret technique or anything like that? I don’t know, I just thought that this would be some way to get stronger…”

“We’ve had plenty of time for that! Ninety-nine hours of it to be exact! This is something special, trust me, because to be honest, I’m putting a lot of trust in you showing you this. Though, this is what the original me wanted I suppose, but still.” He says uncharacteristically serious.

“Uh, okay.” I say somewhat taken aback by his serious tone.

“Great! Now I’m going to send you in. You’ll be sent back out after this, so this is goodbye for now, young Rowan. Next time I’ll see you is when you’re a Bonafide tier 5!”

This sudden news shocks me, as I was expecting to be able to save the goodbye’s for after the ‘movie’.

I nod seriously,

“Thanks Solace, I’ll do your class proud.”

“I should hope you would! Now till next time!” He says as everything around me goes black once more.

I wake up in the body of a small child with the same familiar golden skin. The child is wandering around a pond, looking at his reflection in the unmoving water.

The kid I see in the reflection has a small button nose, with eyes like saucers that seem to shout innocence at any who looks at them.

‘This must be a young Solace. I’ve got to say, not the kid I was imagining.’

I watch on as the child wanders through around the pond, admiring the alien looking trees, with green bark and purple leaves.

Some sort of butterfly flies around his head, before softly landing on his nose. This causes the child to giggle furiously as it chases the butterfly happily.

“Solace! Solace where are you!” A worried voice shouts to the child’s left.

“Over here Mom!” He says calmly.

A rustle in the bushes reveals the most beautiful four-armed lady I have ever seen, though surprisingly, her skin is a pale white.

“Oh thank the system! I was worried sick about you! You can’t keep running off whenever you like young man!” She says sternly.

Solace proceeds to tilt his head and flash his big eyes at his mother.

This causes her to forget any thought of discipline against the child.

“That is so unfair young man, you know that’s my weakness, she says as she hugs him tightly.”

Solace giggles.

They walk slowly through the forest, stopping each time Solace finds something interesting or see some sort of animal.

Once they reach some sort of village gate with two guards who look at the pair with disdain, before opening the gate quickly.

Walking through the small town, many of the village people sport similar signs of disgust or disdain towards the pair. All of them similar to Solace, though without his characteristic golden skin.

They utter curses beneath their breath and some even voice their disdain loudly, for all to hear.

“Don’t mind them sweetie, just keep your head down and keep walking.”

Solace nods at this.

Finally, they reach a small house on the edge of the village. They walk inside to reveal a humble, but homey house.

As soon as they enter, they are assaulted with the clamoring of a small girl. The girl seems to be around Solace’s age, if a little bigger. She gushes to the two all about her day, and how she found new flowers growing around the house.

A stern looking man comes from inside a room and greets the woman with a peck on the cheek and Solace with a ruffle of his golden hair.

A warm atmosphere pervades the small house, ass they all group together and eat dinner together.

The next day Solace sneaks out of the house once again after his father leaves for work and his sister leaves to go play.

On his way to the walls, he spots three older four-armed kids, beating up a little girl in an alleyway.

As I approach them I hear them shout,

“That’s what you get for being a part of that cursed family you little wench!”

Solace stops and says to himself quietly,

“No, no it can’t be.”

He quickly rushes at the three children. Unsurprisingly, as the three kids are much older and bigger than Solace he’s unable to do any damage to the boys.

“Oh shit! He touched me! Am I cursed now!? Am I going to die!?” The kid shouts panickily.

They all run off in a hurry, with scared look on their faces.

Solace look down at the figure on the ground. Just as thought, the child is his sister, bleeding and unconscious.

Solace quickly struggles to pick her up, but somehow wills her into his arms. He runs off back to his house.

He bangs on the door and cries out,

“MOM, MOM QUICKLY! SIS NEEDS HELP!”

Their mother panics as she take in her unconscious sister. She quickly rushes to the nearest doctor with Solace’s sister in her arms.

Unfortunately, every doctor in the village says the same thing when we arrive.

“Get out, I don’t want you’re cursed family around my house any longer!” They shout before quickly slamming the door.

Unable to get the child medical attention, there’s nothing they can do except bring her back home and attempt to treat her themselves.

After a few hours, she stops breathing, and Solace’s cloudy, tear-filled eyes watch as his mother weeps and mourns. She screams every curse imaginable, before becoming hollow after a certain point. Solace’s father watches on stoically, clenching his fist in subdued rage.

Solace asks his dad while tears run down his face, “Dad, I want revenge on those kids that did this, I want them to hurt too!”

He looks at Solace sadly, “No son, that will only make things worse.”

“But how could they do this! They can’t get away with this! They just ca-“

“Enough!” He shouts out, with a tear falling down his face, “If we do anything, it’ll only make it worse son, I already lost one member of my family today, please, just please don’t make it worse.”

Solace bits his lip hard enough to make it bleed.

‘If you won’t do anything, I will. One day.’