Eight hundred years...

Ryku briefed him on much, new countries, races, technologies, cultures, but there was only so much the man could share. He didn’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of the world. He was just well educated and somewhat connected.

The long story short, while this was certainly Frysta, it was not the one he knew. The angels everyone was talking about, for example, weren't the race he was thinking of. They were some sort of living, breeding automations that came to life during the Sky Break. Supposedly.

It was hard to say supposedly though as Dalric had seen at least three different races amongst the former slaves that he had never seen before. Two of which he would have assumed were beasts of some kind. They too came to be as a result of the Sky Break.

The global calamity of eight centuries ago.

Dalric was obviously still dead-not-dead at that point, which meant he was reborn maybe a millennium into the future. If he still had friends, still had something to return to… maybe the gap in time would have disturbed him more emotionally, but as it stood it just shocked him. He’d confirmed that while some soul weapons went through changes, none were destroyed. The only beings he could call companions still lived, somewhere.

…

Anyhow, with the full context now so much finally made sense. Civilizations had fallen, terrain had completely changed, spellcraft had to be relearned. In truth, to say he was still on Frysta was only partially correct. The entire planet had likely changed from the one he once walked.

Even the Gods losing their grip made sense. Or at least there was a plausible explanation now. The loss of all their scriptures aside, from what Ryku said Sky Break didn’t just create souls it modified them too. Living things already had souls, so for a species of bears to turn into the atka that would mean their souls were altered, uniformly as well. Dalric would typically say that’s impossible, but everything about the Sky Break sounded impossible. Thus, it was within reason that it did less traceable things like rid worshippers of the parasites attached to them.

The only slight confusion was the ahjer level. Ryku seemed to believe that it was like this even prior to the second sun’s arrival, but he also didn’t seem to have any concrete reason to believe that. Dalric was almost certain he was wrong, but he’d eventually find someone who had lived through it for confirmation. He also needed to know if the Dance occurred before then too.

He had the sick feeling in his stomach that he had some relation to that sun. What if the Sky Break was just the beginning? What if there was a second phase of it? The image of waking up in his second life to the opening salvo of the Dance was seared in his brain. He knew something devastating approached and he knew he was involved, he just didn’t know how or why yet.

It had only been a day, he had time. For the moment, he finally had some true orientation in this world he’d found himself in. Annoyingly, he’d have to thank Ryku for that. Even though he didn’t truly know what he’d given Dalric, he would certainly feel like he’d been of good service and that was completely justified. Dalric still wouldn’t take the man as a student, though.

While he’d been practically drilling information out him, everyone in the cells had woken up. They were still groggy, weak, and sore so he had the time to conclude his third interrogation while they recuperated. Some of the group started getting restless though. It was understandable. Freedom was close.

Dalric was still on guard for any potential surprises and the fact that in all that time no one even attempted to come down meant they were likely preparing up above. Neither he nor Ryku could guess what those preparations would look like so they wanted to wait for the opportunity to get everyone up to speed at once before pushing up together.

That wait also gave Dalric more time to build up his ahjer. It was still too slow to amass anything meaningful for combat, but he almost had enough to conjure very basic metal armor for everyone. Even if they were all capable fighters, their rags would get them killed in a heartbeat.

When they finished their talk, he was happily surprised by the last person to wake up.

“You’re alive. It seems the Elders were kind to you.”

The man tried to stand up, but he just fell on his side.

Dalric walked over to him, flanked by Ryku, “I wouldn’t advise trying to move too much, you suffered some serious head damage.”

“You… yur..yra. Dead.”

“I can vaguely make out those words. They’re not the things I would say while desperately clinging for life, but I’ve heard you’re a prideful one.”

“Ki—kl...kil me.”

“In time. First.” Dalric placed his hand on his mask and ripped it off, “You’ll tell—whoa.”

Ryku gasped, “You’re Sunset White?!”

A few others gasped as well.

Behind the mask, Dalric met a dark-skinned, wrinkled, and wizened old man. His skin was so thoroughly ravished by time he appeared more like a burnt carcass than a living person. The only give away that life still burned in the haggard husk of a human was the spark in his eyes. They were light brown, verging on orange, and they shone with the same vibrance you’d expect a child’s eyes to have.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Death’s door still loomed though. Very close by at that. Based on appearance, he had less than ten years to live. To a non-ahjersist, or even just an average one, a decade could be considered a very long time. To those that stepped further down its path, those that broke free of the natural lifespan they were given, a decade could feel like mere weeks. Especially when it came at the end of your life.

If you can move like this so close to death, I wonder what your prime looked like.

“You know who this old man is?”

“Man? She's a woman.” Ryku stared at her in shock, “Not just a woman, she’s a hero in Taiyo! She’s the very reason I became a Paragon.”

“Kii..il—”

Dalric flicked her forehead, “Shh. Go on.”

Ryku could only shake his head in pure disbelief, “She’s former General Sara Hangaku. Like I said earlier, before Taiyo was unified it was just a bunch of squabbling clan leaders who fought with each other at any given opportunity. Akira Taiyo was the one who unified them, but it was General Hangaku, her, that actually led the armies.”

Ugh.

“This ‘woman’.” He pointed at the now unconscious ‘Sara Hangaku’, “Looks like a corpse. How do you know it's the person you’re talking about?”

“It's impossible not to. Once the Dynasty was founded, she resigned and invested her time in education. Every kid that grows up in Taiyo sees her face plastered all over their school. They talked about her battles almost every month. I’d recognize her before I recognized my own sister.”

Well then.

Now, Dalric wished she’d just died quietly. Doing anything to her now, with that knowledge and in front of all the people staring at them may very well be seen as an offence against their entire nation. Even if no one here felt a way about the act, he knew it would not be kept secret.

Slavery was legal in Taiyo. No one there would even bat an eye at her actions, talkless of accept them as a good justification for killing her. Though Dalric had absolutely zero desire to head anywhere that so openly paraded slaves, he also had no need to make powerful enemies at the moment.

The rest of the camp would still die though. This was no man’s land, Dalric could conquer the whole place and claim it as his own and no one would be able to tell him anything. Doubly so for those in Taiyo as it was currently occupied by a nobleman from Whitesails.

He knelt down next to Sara and scanned her body. It was a bit troublesome having to fight through her ahjer, but she was too weak to slow him down for long.

Huh. I don’t have to attempt to heal her at least, the armor has a healing property itself.

“She has a mild concussion and a few muscle tears, but they’ll be gone within a few days. It seems she should have been dead a fair while ago, but the armor is keeping her going.”

She’s almost three hundred years old. She managed to break through the second bottleneck, but couldn’t progress any further. That must have been infuriating.

While Dalric internally remarked on her progress as an ahjerist, Ryku was still dealing with waves of shock, “She was presumed dead twenty years ago. We have a five-day national holiday in her honor.”

“I get it, I get it. She’s a hero."

"You clearly don’t get it.” He continued to shake his head in disbelief.

“I just learned what the Sky Break was. Trust me, I’ve experienced much greater shocks in the past day than this. Get yourself together. What’s important now is figuring out what the most apt thing to do with her is.”

Ryku refused to stop shaking his head, but Dalric’s words connected, “Well. ‘Sunset White’ is—wasn't just a mere guard. She practically ruled this entire region. But. If she’s working with Baron Mori, her actions are still highly illegal. They’d want her head in Whitesails. Though if she’s working with him, that means she’s working with the Taiyo government."

Dalric stood up, “Baron Mori?”

“The Baron that currently runs all of this. Didn’t I mention him earlier?”

“You might have. I was going through something of a moment at the time. I recall you mentioning the Baron was from Whitesails though, where is the Taiyo connection?”

“He’s the first and only Taiyo-born Surunese nobleman in Whitesails. He was originally a major businessman in Madakawa, the capital of Taiyo, but he defected when a Duke named Basilio Leos offered him a spot in the nobility. Basilio claimed the Baron saved his daughter’s life during a vacation and that’s what called him to grant the man nobility. No one believed that of course, but no one objected either. My whole mission here was determining if the terms of that offer included things like.” He gestured towards the cells, “This. And to report back with what I found. I poked around a bit too much and that’s how I ended up here.”

Dalric tapped his jaw, “Let me fully understand this. You’re saying Baron Mori, the first Taiyo-born Surunese noble in Whitesails, is the man who also happens to be secretly trafficking slaves for other Whitesails nobles while receiving backing from the Taiyo government and its former, supposedly dead, national hero? Did I get that?”

“That’s a… that’s a pretty good way to sum that up.”

So she wanted me to kill her here to avoid being interrogated in Whitesails and giving up sensitive information, but if I kill her I ruin my relations with Taiyo. If I don’t kill her and Whitesails get their hands on her, they get the info and a powerful tool against Taiyo. If they publicly shame or kill her, that’s war. Politics and diplomacy, oh how I have not missed you.

“Uh huh. More importantly though, you’re saying it's your job to report on all this?”

Ryku looked confused, “Yes…? Why is that more important?”

“It means.” Dalric began walking away, “She’s your responsibility. And all this.” He gestured to the entire hall of cells, “Is also your responsibility.”

“Whoa! Wait a—”

Dalric covered his mouth as he hurriedly caught up to him, “Shh. I’ll help you organize these people and free everyone here, but after that. I’ll go off to handle my situation and you’ll handle this… mess. It’s your job after all, I’m just a passerby.