The rest of the journey back home was uneventful. She kneeled beside the knight and tried to open their armor to assess the knight's injuries, but she couldn't for the life of her find a way to get the armor off. So it just didn't look different, it also worked differently from normal armor.

When the sight of a small wooden cottage came into view and smoke were coming out of the chimney, Fleur breathed out a sigh of relief. Her mother managed to light the fireplace by herself. Looking down at the knight again, she noticed that the knight's breathing had returned normal. She also noticed the lack of blood both at her wagon and where she found the knight. She could only concluded that the knight suffered blunt trauma, which was supported by the visible dents on his armor.

Jak, finally had his destination in view, fastened his pace for the last stretch of their journey. The barrier was starting to weaken anyway and could disappear at any moment.

To her surprise, not long after she passed by the wooden fences surrounding her house, her mother opened the front door with the usual red scarf wrapped neatly around her neck and a blanket covering her whole body.

"Fleur! Are you okay dear?" her mother shouted.

"I'm fine, mom! Just get the first aid kit ready at the garage! I got an unconscious knight with me!"

Her mother nodded and closed the door behind her. As soon as her wagon near the shed connected to the side of her home, her mother opened the doors. Jak pulled the wagon in, and the magic barrier shattered the moment the shed doors were closed. The pieces of the barrier dissipated to the air.

Fleur jumped out of the wagon and took the first aid kit put by her mother on a nearby table, while her mother disconnected Jak from the wagon and checked his condition. After she was finished, the horse took one last glance at the trio before laying down at a stack of hay, utterly exhausted.

With the kit firmly in hand, Fleur got back on the wagon and knelt beside the knight.

"Want me to help?" Fleur's mother asked as Fleur was struggling to pull off the knight's gauntlets. "I'm fine. You should just rest, mom."

"Nonsense. Are you sure you can take off all of his armor pieces? This one is quite different from the typical knights," her mother said with a hint of confidence.

Fleur couldn't argue with that. She knew nothing about armors compared her mother. "... Alright. But I'm doing all the treatment, you just sit and guide me." Her mother nodded in response and sat on the wagon.

"Press this spot here to disconnect the gauntlet, put some power in," her mother said while pointing at a small circle above the gauntlet. Fleur did as ordered and the gauntlet immediately came off. Fleur did the same thing on the knight's other gauntlet and set them aside for the time being. At the sight if the knight's skin, Fleur couldn't help but admire their skin. She ran her fingers gently on the knight's skin. From the hair on it to the bulky muscle and rough tanned skin texture, she could confidently say that the knight was a man. No need to take off his helmet or any other armor pieces. Though she did felt it to be more... harder than the rest. And she wasn't talking about bones. She straight up couldn't pinch the skin.

Despite that one oddity though, she fortunately only found bruises on his arms, so she just rubbed herbal lotion on them. It would speed up the recovery process drastically.

"Do you know which faction this knight belongs to, mom?"

"I do. Now press there to take off the helmet."

Weirdly enough, her mother pointed her finger at a similar circle at the neck, but she threw her gaze away as if embarrassed at what was hiding under the helmet.

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"Mom, are you okay?"

"Just tell me when you already press it, dear."

Fleur sighed as she didn't have the energy or time to argue. She pressed the spot on the neck and the helmet immediately split into two, spilling out some blood. Fleur hurriedly looked for the wound and found a small one at the side of his head, so she cleaned the wound, disinfect it, then wrapped a bandage around it. Just as she predicted, the knight was a man, one with gray hair and eyes despite looking young. Maybe only a couple years older than Fleur herself. She had to admit that he was pretty handsome. Although...

"He doesn't look like he's from around here," Fleur commented after she finished wrapping the bandage. Her mother turned her head back around but said nothing in response. As Fleur pulled off his helmet, her attention was drawn to the blade scar that stretched from the bottom of his right eye to the left. Other than the scar though, there was no sign of other injuries on the knight's face.

"After so long... I can't believe I get to see this armor again," her mother said, a hint of nostalgic feeling could be heard in her tone.

"Are you going to tell me who this knight work for now? Did you work for them in the past?"

Her mother didn't respond. Fleur turned to her mother to ask for direction on how to open the chest piece and instead found her mother stroking the helmet with a longing look. One that she usually directed at the necklace around her neck.

"Mom!"

Her mother snapped at her shout, "O-Oh, yes. Press these two spots to open the chest."

Fleur followed her instruction and finally opened the chest piece to be greeted by a black undershirt. She lifted the knight's surprisingly soft shirt to look for any other wound. She was relieved to find no other bleeding wound, but the man was really bruised at a lot of places. It's almost like a monster mauled him. Regular animals couldn't do that much damage and she had seen similar wounds before on one of her patients.

The rest of the armor went off easily now that she got the hang of things Every time she found a bruise, she would apply lotion on it then moved on to the next one. Meanwhile, her mother was so absorbed looking at the helmet that she didn't notice Fleur going inside and returning with some blankets. She laid those blankets on top of the knight before turning her focus to her mother.

"It's done. Let's go back inside." Her mother nodded.

As the two returned to the house, Fleur noticed her mother still carrying the helmet. She felt it was finally time for her to ask the big question. It had been nagging Fleur ever since she saw her mother caressing the helmet.

"Do you know who he is, mom?"

"... No," her mom answered without hesitation as she sat down on one of the two chairs in front of the fireplace. Fleur went and stood beside her chair.

"But this armor is the exact same one that your father was using the day he disappeared."

Fleur could feel her stomach fell to the floor. "You mean..."

"No, this is not the exact same as your father's armor. There's supposed to be a huge scratch right here, see?" her mother said rubbing the cheek of the helmet. "He got it while saving me from a beast."

Fleur breathed a sigh of relief, "Then perhaps... he knows.... where father is?" Fleur asked hesitantly. The topic of her father had always been avoided in the house. Fleur didn't want to reopen her mother's wound. But if there's a chance of meeting her father...

"Fleur..." her mother put down the helmet and went to hug Fleur. "As much as I wanted that to be the case... I had learned to not get my hopes too high. And I want you to do the same, my dear."

Fleur returned her mother's hug. Deep in her heart, she just wanted some closure about her father who disappeared not long after she was born. She didn't care if he was dead. She just wanted put her hope and imagination that her father would return one day to rest.

"... We will ask him tomorrow, alright? But only do so with me around. I... also want to know."

Ah. The same feeling that had been eating Fleur was also eating her mother from the inside. The unknown fate of Fleur's father.

"Of course, mom. I promise."