As Leo made a move to grab his mace, Shizu tossed Amelia's unconscious body aside into the forest floor and ran for Leo at an incredible speed.

I quickly casted a physical shield over Leo, but watched in horror as Shizu shattered the shield on collision with her body. I couldn't channel enough mana into the shield's creation because of how fast Shizu had moved. Dammit!

"Leo, watch out!" I screamed.

Shizu stabbed her knife straight for Leo's heart. At the last second, he moved his left hand in front of the knife, sacrificing it as the blade pierced all the way through his palm.

"You goddam psychopath—!" Leo gritted his teeth, and swung his mace forward with his other hand, aiming to crush Shizu's skull with one fell strike.

Leo's tactic was a clever one. He had planned for Shizu's attack and had intended to trap her within his range by sacrificing his left hand, using his larger size to outpower her. Now, if Shizu tried to move back to evade Leo's mace, she would have to give up her knife, leaving her at a significant disadvantage in the fight.

For a second, I was impressed. Until Shizu used the knife as an anchor to swing her body sideways, evading Leo's mace as it smashed into the ground and shattered the earth.

With the motion of her body, Shizu twisted the blade that was still stuck inside Leo's palm, contorting his entire arm and forcing the rest of his body to follow to the whims of her movements.

"What?!—" Leo gasped, his realization dawning on him that he was now completely at Shizu's mercy.

Just as Shizu was about to exert her leverage to break Leo's arm, I quickly channelled a gale of wind that sliced through the air towards her.

"Ryuji...!" Shizu glanced up with a look of surprise. She ripped her knife out of Leo's palm and leaped backward to evade the gale, which cut through the trees behind her with ease.

"Stop it, Shizu!" I yelled at her. "Are you seriously trying to fight the both of us?!"

"I-I'm not trying to fight you...!" Shizu said.

"Then stop!" I said. A ball of flame channelled in front of my hand that was aimed towards her. "Otherwise I'll really fight you for real."

To be honest, after that brief skirmish, it was clear that Shizu was more than capable of taking on both Leo and me simultaneously without breaking a sweat. I'm pretty sure Leo was made well aware of that fact as well.

It wasn't like we were weak either. It was just... Shizu was way faster than us. Her agile and precise movements made it almost impossible for either of us to hit her, even if we had the power to inflict damage.

"I... I..." Shizu glanced at me with a panicked look as I expected. "I-I don't want to fight you, Ryuji...!"

I stopped channelling the fireball in front of my hand, and the fireball hissed out of existence into the cold night air. "Come here, Shizu," I called to her softly.

Hesitantly, Shizu obeyed and jogged over to me.

When she got close enough, I snatched the bloodied knife out of her hand. "I'm taking this," I said hastily. "For your own good."

"Okay..." Shizu said quietly.

Leo walked over to us, tearing strips of cloth from his cloak to wrap around his injured hand. Despite his wounds, he remained composed, keeping a watchful eye on Shizu. His high pain tolerance was impressive, to say the least.

"Leo..." I said, grimacing as I looked at his injured hand. "I'm so sorry."

"It's fine," he replied stoically, before turning his attention to where Amelia lay unconscious on the forest floor. "Now that the chaos has settled, let's just refocus on our mission. Everything else can come later. We need to bring the Imperial Mage back to Lunaris alive and quick."

I nodded in agreement, and we set off to bring Amelia to Lunaris, with Shizu reluctantly following behind us.

~x~

As we approached the gates of Lunaris, my heart began to race as I noticed the increased presence of knights stationed outside the city walls. They were fully armored and looked ready for battle, their weapons at the ready and their expressions grim.

There were more knights there than I had ever seen before, and their mere presence made me feel uneasy. I couldn't help but wonder if they were waiting for us, and if they would arrest and execute us on the spot for what we had done to their Imperial Mage.

As we walked passed them, I was surprised to see that practically none of them paid us any attention. Instead, I could hear the murmur of their conversations. They spoke in hushed tones, but I caught snippets of words like "war" and "enemy forces."

"Ryuji..." Leo murmured to me tensely.

"Yeah, I know..." I replied, keeping my head down to avoid attention.

I moved over to Shizu, whispering to her, "Remember, don't say a word while we're at Lunaris. Just let me do the talking."

Shizu nodded quietly to my instructions.

I had Amelia's unconscious body slung over my back, and I made sure to keep her hood up to conceal her face. Though it seemed none of the knights even recognised her.

It was what I had expected since I recalled that most people in the Empire had never even seen an Imperial Mage with their own eyes. The only way the Imperial Mages seemed to be recognised was through their royal clothing underneath their cloak and the King's crest that they carried.

As we continued on our way, I couldn't help but feel a sense of relief that we hadn't been caught. But at the same time, the tension in the air was palpable. Something was brewing in the city, and I couldn't shake the feeling that it might be worse than our current predicament.

Heading to the doctor's shop, even the streets appeared tenser and quieter than usual. We entered into the doctor's shop, saw no one inside, and I called out for the doctor.

"Hello, is the doctor here?" I said. "We have an emergency!"

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No response.

"What a great time for the doctor to be on his lunch break," Leo muttered to himself.

Shizu stayed silent as per my instructions, her eyes fixed on Amelia who I was carrying on my back with an envious look.

"Dammit, I don't have time for this!" I strolled over to the door leading into the doctor's room, tried to open it, but it opened by itself instead.

Standing at the door was a short blue-haired girl with sparkling azure eyes reminiscent of ocean waves, wearing a dark navy cloak that spiralled around her like blooming flower petals.

That child-like stature and face was unmistakable.

It was Innis.

I froze.

"Is that the doctor?" Leo asked from behind me, giving Innis a glance over. "No, a child...?"

A look of recognition fell over Innis' face, and she smiled gently up at me, "What a pleasant coincidence, Ryuji," then she glanced over at Shizu, "Shizu. I'm glad to see that you are both well!"

Shizu returned Innis' greeting with a begrudging glare.

"I-Innis..." I coughed, quickly recomposing myself. "How great to see you too...!"

This was the worst case scenario I could ever imagine. On my back, I was carrying the half-dead, half-comatose body of Amelia, an Imperial Mage, just like Innis. To make matters worse, Leo was completely unaware that we were in the presence of a second Imperial Mage. Although Leo had a good head on him, there was still a very possible risk of him saying something amiss.

"So what are you doing here?" I asked Innis, trying to distract her from wandering around with her gaze.

"Well, this is the doctor that I recommended to you myself," Innis replied. "It is the same doctor that I seek advice from in relation to any medical and herbal knowledge that I require. Unfortunately and as I mentioned before, my level of expertise around those areas are quite lacking so I frequent here often for consults."

"Ahaha, I remember...! Those are areas that I need to work on myself too."

"Were there any complications that arose from the last time you visited the doctor?"

"No, the doctor said Shizu and I were in perfectly healthy shape. Thank you so much again for your help last time, Innis."

"That is good to know," Innis smiled warmly, then her gaze flickered on me for a second. "It seems you've also gotten stronger since we last met a few weeks ago, Ryuji. Well done."

"Thanks," I said, feeling a bit awkward to be praised by someone with the appearance of a little girl. But coming from Innis as an Imperial Mage, that praise meant a lot. Now wasn't the time for this though! I tried to exit the conversation, "Anyways, it has been good chatting to you, Innis, but we..."

"And who is your new companion?" Innis asked politely, looking at Leo.

"Leo," Leo grunted as he tried to peer past Innis into the doctor's room. Clearly he thought of Innis as nothing more than a lost child.

"Please excuse my manners," Innis said, doing a small curtsy at Leo. "My name is Innis. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Leo ignored Innis, and mumbled to me impatiently, "Ryuji, it doesn't seem like the doctor's here."

"It would seem so indeed," I replied with a nod. "Let's come back another time when the doctor's back."

"Huh? What do you mean come back another time?" Leo asked, his tone rising in frustration. "We don't have time for that, Ryuji! We need to find a doctor now!"

Clearly, Leo didn't catch on to the signal I was trying to give him that we needed to get the hell out of here.

"Well, there's really nothing we can do if the doctor's not here," I said, gesticulating with my eyeballs to Leo at the door. "Come on, Leo. Let's go."

Innis' gaze shifted from me to the unconscious form of Amelia on my back, her azure eyes unreadable. I tried to shift Amelia's head on my shoulder, keeping her face hidden from Innis' view.

"I see... it seems like there's been some trouble," Innis spoke quietly. "That is why you came to see the doctor, right?"

"I-it's nothing serious really," I told Innis. "We will just come back when the doctor returns from his lunch break or whatever. No biggie."

"Ryuji, what are you—" Leo started to say.

"—Just listen to me," I spoke over him sternly. "We need to leave. Now."

"That person on your back..." Innis said. "They're very hurt, aren't they...?"

"No, they are fine," I turned back to Innis with a smile. "It's just a bad case of food poisoning. Ah, I told them not to eat that weird purple mushroom in the forest but they wouldn't listen. It's a long story, I really don't want to bore you with the details. Right, Leo?"

Finally Leo started to catch on that there was something wrong about my strange behaviour.

"Yeah..." Leo nodded slowly, vouching for my story. "That's correct..."

I motioned for Leo and Shizu to follow me towards the door, hoping to end the conversation and leave before any more questions could be asked.

"Ryuji..." Innis said.

"Anyway, I think we will just go home, cook them some porridge and they will be able to sleep it off," I said hastily, leading them to the door out of the doctor's shop. "It was great seeing you again, Inni—"

Just as I reached out for the door handle, the entire door suddenly froze over and turned into a solid block of ice, causing me to jerk my hand back in horror.

Slowly I turned around from the door.

And I was met with the sight of Innis' eyes transfixed by an otherworldly glow, accentuating their deep blue azure hue. Her hair and cloak billowed around her, defying the very laws of gravity and revealing glimpses of her royal attire underneath — a regal skirt made of shimmering blue fabric and the King's crest embroidered near the shoulder. It was only then that I became aware of the frigid chill that had taken hold of the room, our breaths visible in the air like white mist.

~x~

"Ryuji, my knife!" Shizu shouted at me, finally breaking her silence.

I pulled Shizu's knife out of my pocket and watched it shatter into a million pieces, falling down to the floor like snowflakes.

We stared down wordlessly at the tiny pieces of ice that used to be Shizu's knife, before Leo turned to me, his teeth chattering and his face pale as a ghost. It was clear that he had already given up on fighting Innis and was looking to assign blame.

"F-fuck!" Leo cursed, seizing my collar. "Why the hell didn't you tell me the little girl was an Imperial Mage, Ryuji?! And 'food poisoning'?! Are you kidding me?! Couldn't you come up with anything more believable?!"

"That's what I was trying to tell you the entire time!" I retorted, shoving him backwards. "Why the hell do you think I was trying to get us to leave?! The only reason I came up with that dumbass story about food poisoning was because you were missing all my hints! I figured something as dumb as that ought to get through to your head that we were in deep shit!"

"I..." Leo stared at me, exasperated, then took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Ryuji. I... lost my temper. I know it's not your fault."

"It's okay," I exhaled.

"That person on your back, Ryuji," Innis spoke in a voice completely different to before. Haunting, ethereal-like, it sounded as though her voice was reverberating inside my brain, bending my will to her command with each word. "Bring her to me."

As a mage myself, I was acutely aware of the raw power of the mana overflowing from within Innis. The intense flow of mana seemed to engulf me, making me feel as if I was caught in the midst of a raging storm out in the vast expanse of the ocean, helplessly tossed and drowned by the tumultuous waves.

Leo clenched his teeth from the pressure and whispered to me, "What's the plan, Ryuji? Can you talk to her?"

I tried to remain calm. "Don't worry. Let me talk to Innis. I'm sure I can make her understan—Shizu—!!"

I yelled out Shizu's name, and in a split-second decision, managed to seize her arm before she could race past me and jump at Innis with her bare hands.

However, in the chaos of the moment, Amelia slipped off my back and fell to the floor of the shop, her cloak unfurling as she landed with a crash.

Everyone in the room stopped to stare down at Amelia's body, which was punctured with dozens of stab wounds, many of them concentrated at her torso.

The sight was gruesome, made even more so by the bright lighting of the room compared to the darkness of the forest. Amelia's clothes and skin were smeared in a mixture of wet and dried blood, making it difficult to decipher where any of the gashes started or ended.

Leo and I had attempted to wrap makeshift bandages around Amelia's wounds to the best of our abilities, but they were poorly done and did little to stem the excessive bleeding. Her breathing was shallow, and her skin was ashen and lifeless, a sign that her condition had rapidly deteriorated.

A deafening silence followed, with no one in the room having any words to say.

Feeling the weight of the silence, I gathered my courage and spoke up. "Listen, Innis. I can explain—"

But before I could finish, a hoarse whisper interrupted me.

"B... b-big..... s-sis...ter....."

The words came from Amelia sprawled down on the floor, her voice barely audible through cracked lips.

All eyes turned to her, and I could see the bleakness in Amelia's dull scarlet eyes as she stared in Innis's direction, her hand trembling and weak as she reached out desperately for Innis' feet.

"...a...venge.....me..."

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AI generated art : Innis

[https://i.imgur.com/rqGxXcp.png]