[06.30.AC0119]

[The Moon]

"Have you given it some thought," The Sword told him as they found themselves on the moon once more watching the world from afar. Like before he had assumed a physical form of a young man.

"If you lend me your power, would you let me become strong, strong enough to protect those that mean so much to me?" Gilbert asked, while his Master-Servant relationship with Bael was indefinite he intended to convince her to let him visit the Wyrmwood Settlement every once in a while to help them as he is a key figure in it's foundation.

"I saw your memories," The Sword said as he looked down with a hint of shame inside him. "I understand why you are so desperate to protect them considering they are the only ones you have left."

Gilbert chuckled, he knew what he was referring to.

Two years into the war, he and his circle of childhood friends were conscripted by the Earthland Army. They were honestly excited as this meant that they can serve their country as at the time they were filled with a sense of patriotism and hope to serve their homeland and in their naivety they believed that they are doing a just cause.

But they were wrong.

There was nothing glorious and noble about war, it was nothing but death and violence and slowly one by one this friends died. And the deaths were far from noble and by the time he had turned 17, he was the last one alive in their group. Until he met a group of soldiers who planned on deserting and the rest was history.

"Then you must understand how that settlement means to me right? How I have to do whatever it takes to protect this." Gilbert said to him.

"Then in order to do such a thing, I ask you of you." The Sword stood up and looked at Gilbert and offered his hand to Gilbert. "Will you accept my power?"

Gilbert thought about it for a moment, his brush with death made him realize how powerless he is. How no matter how hard he tried a stronger force would try and stomp him to the ground. He would need to be stronger to protect those that mattered to him.

"I accept," Gilbert stood up, almost the same height as the Sword and the two shook hands wrist to wrist. "Orthoros."

Upon the invocation of his name, his True name, and let go of his hand. Orthoros faded into a cloud of golden dust and transformed into the sword itself. This time it was very much alike the form where he had first acquired it, a silver blade, golden crossguard and a blue pommel.

"Now," Sunrise said to him. "Pull me from the ground and claim your destiny."

Gilbert smiled as he gripped the handle, his hand ignited with a golden flame and yet he felt no pain as he pulled the sword away from the ground. The moon was enveloped by a golden light as the sun shone upon the surface of the moon bathing the land with golden light.

“So what’s our first move?” Gilbert looked at his reflection onto the sword but instead of his reflection he saw Orthoros looking back at him.

“First we become stronger, it is the first step into ending the war.”

“Ah so that’s the endgame,” Gilbert said sarcastically, but then the smile on his face disappeared and was replaced with confusion. “Wait how are we–”

[Ashford Homestead]

Gilbert had gained a new hobby, which was trying to study the sword that he had gained. While he hasn’t invoked the name of the sword, the Stormtrooper offered to lend him his power but only a fraction of what he is capable of.

By morning, he would try to clean the sword by removing the rust and dirt on the blade and everything. By noon, he would practice how to swing the sword causing some clumsy movements and while he was no master swordsman he was slowly making progress. By night, he and the sword would try to discuss things everything about the sword could teach

But even after everything, Gilbert kept it a secret as he knew that Orthoros’ request was too outlandish to be taken seriously as it would take multiple lifetimes for him to end a war that had been going on for ten years now.

Gilbert let out a sigh as he sat by the terrace within the Homestead as he thought all of this.

“Quite the sigh you got there,” He looked up to find Bael walking towards him with an amused look on her face as Gilbert stood up and looked at Bael with a confused look as normally at this time of day she and Aerial would be prepping for their entrance exams for the Mage Licensure Exams which they need to become full fledged mages as the incident at Dawngard made forced them to take the exam or else they’ll be arrested for Apostacy.

“Just overthinking that’s all,” Gilbert said as he leaned against the railing and Bael did the same thing. “How’s the preparation going for the Licensure Exams?” He asked changing the topic.

“Boring, we have to like study certain topics involving Magic law and we have to memorize all of it in order to become a full fledged mage.” Bael answered with a sigh no different from what Gilbert was doing, eventually the two of them spotted a messenger bird flying towards them. It wasn’t a Earthlandian Breed indicating that it was an Urdheimrian Breed, meaning that it was for Bael.

The Bird landed on Bael’s shoulder who had a conflicted look on her face as she grabbed the letter that the Bird was carrying as well. ‘Must be pretty urgent,’ Gilbert thought to himself as he watched her read the letter as her brows begin to furrow as though the letter was a serious matter. “What’s the matter.”

“My Fiance is coming.”

“...You have a fiance?”

[Vestige:Sunrise]

Gilbert and Aerial spent the entire afternoon preparing for the arrival of this mysterious Fiance that Bael apparently has alongside the other familiars that Bael had summoned to protect the Homestead. But in retrospect, it made perfect sense. Bael is a young noblewoman with an upper class education, also there’s the fact that she’s conducting research. A Trait that most Mages wtih an upper class understanding have.

“So who’s this Fiance of hers?” Gilbert said as he was moving the Sofa all the while Aerial was using Magic to move other furniture and trash. One problem that Bael had is that she is mostly hopeless with house chores considering she relies on Homunculi to work on the cleaning. And since Gilbert and Aerial moved in due to circumstances, the homunculi are behind the cleaning as many were no doubt dead.

“Danini is a Knight,” She said as she put down her wand and looked at Gilbert. “He’s been protecting our families for many years.”

“So he’s like Older or something?” Gilbert asked questioning the choice of nickname she gave him, he had so many questions. What are Knights in Urdheimr like and are they supposed to be like high ranking nobles? What kind of person is he? And Why did he choose Bael, the last one was a growing curiosity.

“Yeah he’s like our older brother or something but after a while it was arranged that he were to marry Bae-Bae.”

Gilbert was about to ask about it but then they were taken by surprise by the sound of a Wyvern, a two legged dragon, flew overhead and upon instinct Gilbert pulled out Orthoros and prepared to fight a potential Dragon attack but Aerial placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“Relax Gilly, that’s Daniel Utherson the Fiance. He’s a Dragoon.” Gilbert’s eyes widened as he realized that this meant.

Dragoons are fierce and agile Warriors that have been a nightmare to deal with in combat. They are known fro their Dragons whose scales are impervius to standard bullets, they would normally use 25mm Rounds to damage Wyverns. Gilbert himself managed to use one in the past and they nearly broke his arm.

Gilbert swallowed hard as the Wyvern flew by once more and a man twenties jumped off the Wyvern and looked at Aerial who was visibly impressed at his landing all the while a Dark purple Wyvern landed within the open field for them to rest in.

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“Danini!” Aerial said waving at Daniel who was waving at the two and started walking towards them all the while carrying a red spear. He was a tall figure wearing dark purple armor that resembled that of a dragon, he took off his helmet to reveal a man in his late twenties with auburn hair and green eyes.

Gilbert felt his heart quicken as fear began to take over as he gripped Orthoros hard enough that his knuckle began to turn white as he approached them, it was so bad that his instincts were practically screaming at him to attack at the first move. But he felt Aerial’s hand on his shoulder get tighter as if to get his attention, he turned to find Aerial looking at him worriedly and is shaking her head as if to say ‘Stand Down’ he took a deep breath and turned to Daniel who was waving at them.

“Hey Aeri, how’s things going?” Daniel said walking towards him all the while glancing at Gilbert who kept a stoic look on his face trying his best to not show any emotion towards him.

“Nice to meet you, name’s Daniel.” He said offering his hand.

“Gilbert.” Gilbert responded shaking his hand.

“You don’t seem familiar, are you new around these parts?” Daniel said leaning on his spear all the while Aerial looked at them worriedly.

‘Calm down, He’s not gonna attack so I should be fine so long as I don’t reveal to him that I’m from Earthland.’ Gilbert thought to himself as Aerial tried to distract Daniel by asking him all sorts of things so long as it’s not involved with the War between Earthland and Urdheimr. ‘I’ll be fine.’

“Daniel!”

The three of them turned around to find Bael standing by the front porch, and she looked absolutely stunning.

She wore a white turtleneck sweater that emphasized her large chest, a tan skirt that combined with her Turtleneck Sweater gave off a simplistic yet beautiful effect on her all the while wore a pair of black pantyhose that was paired with brown boots. The sight of her caused an effect on Gilbert’s chest making him hard to breathe causing him to place a hand on his chest as he took a deep breath.

He wanted to speak but he found himself unable to speak as he simply stared at Bael who walked past him and approached Daniel who took her hand and gave it a kiss. Then he felt Aerial’s hand turn from a grip and into a pat causing him to turn at her who gave her a cheeky smile and whispered.

“She’s pretty isn’t she?”

“Shut it, Wilhelm.”

The Lunch tasted horrible for Gilbert, which was strange considering that the food that Bael makes was surprisingly good and yet for some reason he was unable to taste the food that she cooked. He watched from his corner on the table as Bael and Daniel continue to discuss on all sorts of things, to distract himself he tried to ask about Daniel from Aerial and he was able to learn many things.

First, he came from a family of Nobles and were notably wealthy, it was him who funded Bael’s research allowing her to live on her own. Second, Daniel has always been their childhood friend. He acted as their older brother and took care of Bael during their younger years. Third, eventually Daniel joined the Army and rose to the ranks to become strong enough to become a Wyvern Rider to not only serve Urdheimr but to also protect her and Bael.

“So are you a servant?” Daniel asked Gilbert as they were eating lunch.

“Yeah but My collar broke but on paper I’m her servant.” Gilbert spoke as he was waiting for him to respond.

“Interesting, why’d you suddenly take a Servant?” Daniel said looking at Bael who had a conflicted look on her face.

“Happenstance, I needed help for something at the time and had no other choice.” She answered looking at Gilbert expectantly as if asking him to go with her. “Oh by the way, Aerial and I will be taking the Mage Licensure Exam soon.”

“That’s great, you two finally found the time to make work on that.” Daniel said with a wide smile causing Bael to become flustered from his remarks.

‘There it is again,’ Gilbert thought as he felt that painful sensation at the bottom of his stomach seeing them smile at one another. ‘I don’t like this feeling.’

[Vestige:Sunrise]

Since he was trying his best to hide Orthoros from Daniel finding out, he decided to spend the entire afternoon swinging a makeshift wooden sword that he uses for training. He purposely made a wooden sword that was heavier than Orthoros so that his movements are a lot more faster than it should be.

Gilbert decided to train to vent his frustration that seemed to have flourished after meeting Daniel, he feels inadequate and at the same time angry seeing him spending time with Bael and how happy she felt seeing them like that and it isn’t helping that he is staying for a month, he let out another sigh as he placed a hand on his heart which was beating erratically from today’s events as he started to quicken his breathing.

“You’re good with a sword,” He turned to find Daniel walking towards him with a smile, he pulled out his spear and aimed at him. “Show me what you got.”

“Sorry but I’ll have to turn down your offer, I just started practicing and I am nowhere near the level of a skilled Dragoon.”

“But you got the basics narrowed down; your stance is good and both hands on the sword.” He said pointing at his legs and hands which was still in a basic combat stance. He instinctively went back not a basic standing pose, he doesn’t remember learning the basics so it was possible that Orthoros imprinted the basic combat stances on his mind, the same way he learned Orthoros’ history and creation.

“Just cause I know the basics doesn’t mean I can stand a chance against a skilled Dragoon,” Gilbert said looking down as he placed the training sword on the side all the while looking at his Wyvern which according to Bael, was named Kain. “Where did you and your partner fight?”

“Kain and I fought in Krieg,” Daniel said causing Gilbert to tense up.

‘Come to think of it, that Wyvern is surprisingly familiar.’ Gilbert thought to himself the memories of the Siege of Krieg entered his mind. Of how a Purple Wyvern burned an entire trench of his fellow Stormtroopers with only a handful of them surviving, only to be slaughtered or enslaved by a handful of Mages who cornered them.

“Wanna hear a cool story?” Daniel said not nothing how his face went pale when he said that. He took his tunic off to reveal a large wound on his stomach, it appeared to be a gunshot wound using what he assumes was that of a 25mm Round, a standard ammunition type to take out Riders. “I got shot by those Earthlandians and their so called Rifles.”

“Must have been painful,” Gilbert said in a low voice, causing Daniel to chuckle.

“Agonizing to be honest,” Daniel laughed as he put his tunic back on. “I’m glad that my Prana Field and Armor took most of the impact.”

‘No kidding, it would be a miracle for someone to take a direct a hit from a 25mm Round.’ Gilbert observed as he realized that they have certain barriers for combat, last he checked they were still figuring out how to pierce those as it usually takes half a magazine of 7.62mm to penetrate said ‘Prana Field’ to directly wound them.

And then came the Armor itself, it was mostly easy to deal with using Armor Piercing Rounds to penetrate it. The problem is the distribution of said ammunition. most of the time there was hardly enough Armor Piercing Rounds to go around due to the fact that the distributors hand more to their close friends rather than distribute them equally.

‘Come to think of it, how come we’re able to last ten years when our supplies are distributed unequally?’ Gilbert thought as Daniel continued to tell him stories of his time in Kreig.

“Alright it’s official,” Daniel said, placing a hand on his shoulder, he wanted to remove the hand off his shoulder on impulse considering he made him sick.

“We’re gonna check something out.”

“Which is?”

“Wyrmwood, I hear some informal settlers have set up shop on that place and I’m here to get rid of them.” Daniel said as Gilbert felt uneasy realizing what is about to happen.