Lyla went to see Zich the very next day after he arrived back at the estate. He was glad to see her, especially since he was wandering around looking to kill time while waiting for Glen to take the next course of action.
“It’s been a while. Have you been doing well?” Zich asked.
“Yes.” Lyla’s expression seemed off somehow as she answered.
“Did you make any progress?”
“Um, you could call it progress…” Lyla’s voice trailed off; it was unlike her to be so hesitant. Her expression showed that she seemed to be wondering if she could say the progress she made was good or not.
‘Something must have happened.’ Zich thought that rather than nothing happening, even a bad event was better. Thus, he dug a bit deeper.
“What happened?” he asked.
“It’d be better for you to see it in person rather than me explaining it.” Lyla pushed Windur toward Zich, and he gripped Windur’s handle. The sensation he felt from his treasured sword after a while felt good. Although he firmly told Lyla that he never became dependent on his weapons, he did feel a sense of emptiness while using another sword. Zich immediately dropped the sword hanging on his waist and placed it in the magic box. Then he swung Windur behind him and he felt a familiar sense of the weight on his back.
“Let’s go.” Lyla left Zich’s room first, and Zich followed her. Their destination was obviously Clowon’s ruin, and Zich skillfully stuck Windur in front of the ruin’s entrance and opened the door. A familiar tunnel greeted them, and Zich stepped inside.
“Did something happen? The atmosphere at the Steelwall Estate was tense,” Lyla asked, recalling the faces of some of the servants she had passed, and the gloomy atmosphere pressing down heavily on the estate. Since Lyla had been inside the Clowon’s ruin the entire time, she didn’t know what happened outside.
“Something did happen—a pretty huge thing,” Zich explained to Lyla everything that had happened. As Lyla heard more and more of the story, her expression hardened.
“Isn’t that a huge deal?”
“It is. All the low regions around the stream are going to be submerged now.”
“So that’s why the atmosphere was like that.” Lyla now understood why the Steelwall Estate had the same dreary atmosphere as a graveyard thickly covered by fog at sunset.
“What are you going to do now?”
“What can I do? The people at Steelwall have to deal with the gorge. They plan to remove the boulders blocking the gorge with manpower, but considering the size of the event, they wouldn’t be able to block the immediate damage caused by the flood. They would only be able to officially act once the rain stops.”
“You aren’t going to help?”
“Well, since I am going to be a… hero, I plan to help with the recovery later on, but not now.” Zich still stuttered when saying the word hero.
“Is it because of Glen Zenard?”
“Yeah, that guy is clearly scheming something with this incident. I have to crush that first.”
“Can you guess what he is scheming?”
“I have a guess, but since I’m not sure of it, I will tell you later.”
Lyla nodded. As they conversed, they arrived at their destination before they realized it. The large crystal that overwhelmed everything in its surroundings with its size greeted them like before. Lyla stretched out her hand toward Zich and said, “Lend me Windur for a bit.”
“Here.” Zich gave Windur to her without hesitation.
Lyla clutched Windur tightly and moved to the protruding edge of the ring outside the crystal, which they thought was the ruin’s restriction device. Zich watched this scene from a distance.
“We’re here,” Lyla said.
Baaaam! With a loud bang, the ring vibrated. It all felt familiar to him, and Zich moved to the farthest edge of the ring and looked below.
Booooom! All sorts of mana flowed across the floor of the ruin.
‘It’s the mana that belongs to the copies of the World Tree.’ No matter how many times he saw it, the phenomenon amazed him. Like before, the mana with their individual colors circled around the pillars supporting the crystal and began to slowly ascend. Then, the crystal sucked them inside, causing the mana to lose its individual colors, and it began to emit white light. Although it was Zich’s second time seeing this sight, it impressed him again; perhaps even more so now that he had the ease to slowly appreciate its beauty after witnessing it once. Like before, Zich thought the pure white light would now escape out of the crystal and climb up another pillar connected to the ceiling and disappear into the walls. Yet, the mana followed a trajectory contrary to Zich’s predictions and moved differently from before.
Wiing! The crystal vibrated and made a sound. Parts of the light that had tried to climb up the pillar began to circle inside the crystal.
Wiiiing! Simultaneously, another vibration rang across the area—it was coming from Windur which Lyla held.
‘As I thought, this guy is doing something again.’ How many secrets did this weapon keep from its master? Zich was sure that even if he had a secretive and picky lover, Windur would still be harder to handle. Then, white mana seeped out of the crystal, and just like before, it climbed the pillar connected to the ceiling and disappeared into a wall. However, a large part of the white mana also remained inside the crystal.
Sliish! Then, the remaining white mana transformed into a circular shape, left the crystal, and slowly approached Lyla. Windur was still vibrating.
Lyla walked backward and moved next to Zich. “It’s over there.”
Zich scanned Lyla’s expression. She had that same strange expression when he first asked her if she made any progress. However, her expression was easier to read than before. The fundamental emotion she showed was disgust, but there was another, more complicated emotion hidden behind it. Despite her disgust, she thought what she discovered might be helpful to them.
‘There was a time when I felt the same emotion.’ Zich thought that there were probably times when he felt the same way. ‘For me, it felt as if something was pressing down firmly on my heart.’ That emotion was definitely disgust.
Zich scanned Lyla’s expression again. ‘If there is a lot more disgust in her emotion, then…’ In that instant, Zich recalled a time when he felt a similar emotion—it was when he saw the Tree of Wind, one of the World Tree’s clones, tied up in chains and floating in the sky. Or to be more specific, when he saw Zich Brave’s physical manifestation.
‘Perhaps!’ Zich stared at the white mana with surprise. Before they knew it, the white mana had reached the suppressor device’s location. When the light reached the ring’s surface around the level of a person’s waist, its shape began to change. The top and bottom areas where the arms and legs usually were began to elongate, and a part of the top became longer and formed something that looked like a neck and separated the face and body areas. The ends of the arms and legs separated and formed fingers and toes, and something that looked like white threads grew on top of the head and formed into a hair shape. The white light changed into a human shape in a matter of seconds.
However, the transformation wasn’t over. Texture appeared on the mana’s surface, and different colors began to appear. Then, the transformation was complete. There was not even a trace of white mana left. The only thing left was a being that looked like a human in every way.
“So that’s what happened.” Zich laughed in surprise. The mana that changed into a human looked extremely familiar, and an otherworldly face shone below her long-silver hair. Her white, almost transparent eyelids slowly opened and revealed red eyes that dazzled like jewels. Zich looked to his side. His comrade, with the same type of expression, glared at the woman in front of him.
‘It’s probably the same phenomenon as me.’ Fortunately, since Zich had also gone through the same experience before, he wasn’t too surprised.
‘No, it wasn’t fortunate.’ Zich stopped his eyes from narrowing as he recalled Zich Brave’s appearance.
“Yeah.” Zich said, “I can roughly guess what happened.”
The woman’s red pupils moved towards Zich. Even though she had the same face as Lyla, her gaze was completely different. Lyla always looked at Zich full of love. There were times when there was also playfulness in her gaze, or anxiety, or concern. However, Lyla had always looked at him with fierce emotions.
However, the woman’s eyes when she looked at Zich were different—her eyes were icy. Zich thought that there was no better word than this to describe her eyes. It felt as if two solid bloody circles had been frozen into two pupils. The woman said, “…Zich Brave.”
Her voice was terrifyingly cold like her gaze. It felt as if she could freeze everything her voice reached. However, Zich could also read a small sense of hatred and anger in her words as well. It was clear that she hated Zich Brave, and naturally, Zich’s impression of her increased favorably.
“I understand why called me that name, but I’m different from him. I also detest him with all my heart, so just call me Zich.”
She looked at him quietly and blinked. Was she reacting positively to him? Or just ignoring him? It didn’t matter either way to Zich.
“Well, let’s first introduce ourselves. I’m Zich. I’m the same as that bastard you know, but also different from him. I also want to continue to be different from him.” Zich revealed his hatred towards Zich Brave in his short introduction and asked, “Okay, it’s your turn now. What’s your name, Princess?”
“…” She slowly scanned him as if she was trying to reach the deepest corner of his mind and finally answered, “Serpina Arnoux Boyne Slesvita Wipsin Clowon.”
“Hmm, there’s no way I’m calling you that.” Zich had no intention of calling her by her full name. Zich couldn’t understand the mindsets of people who had such long names to show their noble or royal lineage.
‘I’ll just call her Princess.’ It wasn’t technically wrong either, but Serpina seemed to have a different thought. She opened her mouth, and the icy voice came out again. “You’re extremely rude. I guess you’re the same as Zich Brave in the end.”
“My impression of you has plummeted by your words just now.” Zich felt annoyed and continued, “I’m telling you this one more time, but I’m not that bastard—just like how my team member here is not you.” Zich held Lyla’s shoulder. Lyla also raised her hand and put her hand on top of Zich’s.
“Yeah, she’s not me. How can someone who lost their Clowon pride be me?”
“I don’t know what’s so important about having Clowon pride, but it’s fine if you understand now. So don’t treat me the same way as Zich Brave.”
Zich and Serpina’s gazes sharply collided against each other.