Feeling numbness in my hand right hand, I look at it only to see it being full of cracks as fragments of my hand slowly fall off. Controlling some of my life force, I slowly let small amounts of it flow through as the cracks that appeared slowly mend themselves.

'I should clean off this blood once I get back.'

"… Sir, are you okay?"

Hearing a gruff voice behind me, I turn around to see Giron Franlo and the others looking at me with concern and fear in their eyes. I tighten my grip on the crystal as I move towards them.

"Who… who was that?"

"Just one of the mindless worms. Don't worry about it and take a proper rest while we wait."

"Wait? Wait for who?"

"Don't ask anymore. You'll see when they arrive."

Passing through them, I raise my right hand to see most of the cracks gone and only a few of them remain.

Exiting the ruins, I look at the surroundings to see the corpses of the worms as well as Aravan's corpse. Looking at Aravan's corpse, I noticed some roots already covering some parts of its body as if it were mourning the death of the forest's guardian. Seeing that made me feel relief as I saw the forest itself taking care of Aravan.

'I'm glad that you were not alone all these years, Aravan.'

Taking a seat on the fallen wall, I felt a sense of nostalgia as I looked around the upper part of the ruins. Just remembering the time when we were still building this place made me smile bitterly as the place became ruins as the passage of time went on without stopping.

A place that people helped me make to help me protect one of my treasures. The only place that they were able to make as ordinary people to put a mark of their existence in the vast universe before they disappeared.

Opening a small hole in front of me, I pull out a bottle of liquor.

'It's not much but please make do with this.'

Pouring the liquor on the ground as I watched every drop of it hit the ground made me sigh. After watching the last drop hit the ground, I felt a group of presence approaching from the sky.

Giron Franlo stood up as he felt the presence as well making him raise his guard along with the other people in his group.

"Stay down, everyone. They are the people that we're waiting for."

"… U-understood."

Acknowledging what I said, a bout of strong winds blows through us as a gigantic snake-like creature with wings passes us and it lands on a clearing near the ruins.

"Just stay there and rest. I'll talk to them first before I settle my business with you people."

"Business? What business?"

Ignoring Theia Aran's puzzled voice, I approach the gigantic creature. Looking at it from afar, A monster that has the head of a bird and a body like a snake that is covered in azure feathers as well as a strong and sharp talon on its body like the dragons from other planets.

"I, Hafran Auro, the third son of the Auro Empire's fourth Emperor, and the captain of the Azure Arfa Knights, greets the First Ancestor."

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

A man wearing white armor kneels in front of me as well as the other knights wearing azure armor.

"Just how many times do I have to tell you to just call me like how you used to before and to stop kneeling, Hafran?"

"It is to show our respects to you, the First Ance- GUFU!"

Grabbing his helmet and slamming it on the ground, I looked at the other knights just kneeling without paying attention to what I did to their captain made me sigh as I continued pressing Hafran's head in the ground.

Noticing that Hafran started struggling, I raised my hand and slapped his helmet pretty hard making his struggle suddenly stop along with his body.

"Stand up."

Hearing my command, the knights all stood as they stared at me with an expressionless face.

"Some of you pull this stubborn fool out. The others go clean up the corpse of the worms as well as help the people resting near the entrance up to the Arfa. And don't touch Aravan's body, just let It be in the forest."

I saw them salute and started moving as soon as I finished ordering them. I walk towards the side of the gigantic snake-like bird as I look at its beautiful azure feathers.

Climbing its body, I look at its wide saddled back as I take a comfortable seat near the front.

Not for long, two knights carrying an unconscious Hafran jump on the back. Bowing at me before they place down Hafran, I notice their aura being stronger than average between all of the knights.

"You two. What's your level of concept?"

Not expecting me to talk to them, they got startled as they looked around if I was really talking to them.

"You two are the only ones in here, except that stubborn fool of a great great grandson of mine."

"Uhh… we both are in level two of concept, First Ancestor."

"Level two, huh? Were you two able to read some notes of other knights before you reached that?"

"We were allowed to, but we refused it as we wanted to reach our highest without any external help."

Seeing that they were able to reach that level at a young age for this world, I felt relieved that there are still geniuses that are appearing in the knight order of the empire.

Opening a hole in space, I take out two Haranite tokens with a symbol of the empire engraved in them and throw them to the two young knights.

"I know that you two are prideful to not read the notes of those older knights and don't want any external influence on your concept. However, being stuck in that mindset won't help you. Read the notes but never base your understanding there, just use them to understand the essence of their existence instead of molding your existence to what they did."

Giving them a warning and advice, I lie down on the saddle. Seeing that both of them are contemplating what to do, I can't help but sigh as I take out a notebook.

"Take this as well, that's the notes of a friend of mine when I was still traveling around. And keep the tokens because some notes of other knights in there might be as useful as that note. Now go back to whatever you are doing."

Watching them jump down from the Arfa, the group of Theia Aran climbed up with the help of some knights. Seeing that they were looking much better compared to before, I was sure that the knights gave them medicine and potion to help them.

Seeing that they are safe now, Giron collapses as he passes out from exhaustion after trying to escape for several days. The archer and dragonian kid pass out as well beside him as exhaustion catches up with their body with only Theia Aran remaining awake.

"You… you're the messenger clerk from the Teleportation Building back at the Hub Town."

Hearing Theia Aran's voice made me turn to her as she looked at me with a surprised expression. Seeing that she's not having a hard time talking like earlier shows that she already recovered enough energy.

"Yes, yes. I'm that clerk there that you mistook for the registration clerk. And based on what you people said earlier, I'm also the one that you people were supposed to retrieve for Hastur."

"… What do you mean?"

Taken aback by what I said, she looks at me in shock as she can't understand the meaning of what I said.

"Are you still tired that your hearing is failing you as well?"

"No... I mean… what do you mean that you were the thing that we were supposed to take? Elder Hastur was saying that it was some relic of the past that we were supposed to retrieve, not some human that lives peacefully on the planet."

"Who said I was a human?"

Not expecting my answer, she looks at me as if I'm someone that lost their mind. Sitting up as she looks at me, I can't help but shift uncomfortably with the way that she's looking at me.

"I think you should stop looking at me like that or else I'll slap you strong enough that you join the rest of your group passed out."

"… My apologies…"

Avoiding my gaze as soon as I said it, I looked at her properly and noticed that her life force was strong even without getting enlightened to reach the first level of concept. Seeing that made me interested in her as she might be one of the rare beings in the universe.