Another restless day left Lizen breathless as she strolled around the Capital. A yawning Amy joined her out a whim since there wasn’t much to do.

Their training with Kalis was over for today, and they had already finished a good handful of quests from the Guild board over the past month. Lizen took pride in how far they’ve already gotten.

In the first place, they weren’t anything special; apart from their renowned status as the ‘Heroes’. The thought gnawed at them for the longest time, but now it seemed to be clearing up as Lizen found herself satisfied with her current strength.

Brushing aside the golden strands from her face, she uncharacteristically smiled.

“We’ve got another request for tomorrow, right? The one with the man-eating plants near Farshard?”

“Ahh – don’t remind me. We just finished from being worked to the bone by Kalis again.” Amy winged and rubbed her aching shoulder. “Honestly, can’t you talk about something else in our free time?”

“Like what?” Lizen asked with a raised brow.

“Anything but the things you’re worried about, obviously. We can talk about that stuff tomorrow.”

The golden-haired girl sighed and couldn’t muster the energy to refute. Amy’s carefree nature caused her to wonder if all Otherworlders were like that.

As they passed through the lively roads, Lizen wondered what Haiyoto was up to. The last time she saw him was when they left the castle grounds. At the time, he was in the middle of a conversation with a girl she hadn’t seen before.

“That reminds me – who was talking with Haiyoto?”

“Dunno. Probably a fan of his or something. Why, you jealous that someone’s trying to take your man~?”

A steel gauntlet harshly met with Amy’s back. The stinging pain left her rubbing the site with a pained expression as she made all sorts of noises.

“Please don’t make me slap you.”

“Mngh! Shit – don’t say that after you do it!” Amy slapped Lizen’s armoured back with everything she had as an act of revenge.

Unfortunately for her however, she didn’t excel in physical strength. With the flat surface of her palm smacking the smooth surface – an excruciating sting left her squirming in place.

“Moron…” Lizen couldn’t speak anymore tiredly and left Amy there on her own.

“Haaa! Lizen, wh-what’s that armour made out of- !? H-hey wait up!”

It looked like the two were on bad terms, but they were surprisingly close. Amy quickly returned to Lizen’s side, grasping onto her throbbing hand as she casted a simple [Healing] spell.

Lizen sighed before revealing a soft smile.

The stone-bricked path led them into an intersecting path. Here, a number of people wandered with bags filled with supplies and groceries. It was the part of the Capital where fruit markets among other household supply stores gathered.

Not many adventurers wandered into these parts, and if they did, then it was only briefly. Lizen and Amy wondered how they ended up here. Before they could even consider returning down the way they came – a familiar black-haired boy entered their field of view.

“Wait – isn’t that Haiyoto!?” Amy blurted out, alerting the casually-dressed boy.

His head wandered in all directions confusedly before they finally landed on them with surprise.

“It is. But what’s he doing in this place?” Lizen was just as confused.

“Grocery shopping maybe?”

“Hey… did you forget that we live in the King’s castle?”

“Nope, I just wanted to add something.”

Lizen’s gloved hand suddenly became itchy. Luckily for Amy, she refrained from giving her another painful slap.

“Amy! Lizen! What brings you two here?” Haiyoto pleasantly greeted them with a smile as he steadily approached from the centre fountain.

“Right back at you! What are you doing out here?” Amy inquired.

“Shopping for groceries, what else?”

Lizen felt her soul shrivel up for a moment as Amy tilted her head in confusion.

“Huh? Are you cooking something tonight?”

“I wish I could cook.” Haiyoto lightly laughed as he stopped in front of them and gently shook the large basket he carried. “But no, these are for my little sister and mom at home. They still haven’t gotten used to living in this new world, so I’m supporting them with the money we get from clearing the quests at the Guild.”

His eyes seemed to soften.

Lizen stared at him with a warm smile and nodded, satisfied with his answer. Amy however, couldn’t believe what he just said. A look of perplexity riddled her face as she lightly scratched the back of her head.

“Hold on… you have a little sister and a mom?”

“Why do you sound so surprised that I have a mom?”

“No – I mean- t-they’re here!?”

“Yeah. I thought I told you girls already?”

“In this world!?”

“Yes.”

Amy was left with a gaped mouth as she tried to comprehend the fact. During her frozen pause that looked as if her mind was being restarted, Lizen found herself intrigued with Haiyoto’s words.

“You never told us anything. But it’s good to know that you have family here. There’s nothing better than having the people you cherish close to you in a faraway place.”

“Mhm. There really is nothing better than that.” Haiyoto pleasantly agreed before hovering his eyes onto Amy.

He wanted to ask her about her family, but before the words could leave his mouth –

A short girl came running at him with full speed.

“Haiyoto~!”

His reaction time was impeccable. As the girl leapt into him, he caught her and spun around to lessen the impact. If he remained there like a wall, she would’ve injured her face.

“Mina! What did I tell you about running into me like that?” He tried to scold her but ended up smiling as he held his little sister from beneath her arms.

“Don’t worry! You’re a hero so you’ll always catch me!”

“We’ll see about that next time.”

“You said that last time!”

Amy, recovering from her frozen trance, seemed to warm up as she softly grinned.

“Sounds like you’re enabling her, Haiyoto. What a doting big brother you are.”

He laughed and placed his sister down. The girl, who was about chest-height of him, held onto the hems of his shirt and stared at Amy and Lizen with sparkling eyes.

She was apparently a fan of them. With a light tug, Haiyoto knelt beside her as she whispered something into his ear.

“Say... Amy, Lizen – want to join us for dinner? We ended up buying a lot today, so it’ll be hard to finish it all.” He asked, standing upright.

“What a thing to ask a girl –! CUT IT OUT AIRU!”

A resounding slap echoed in the intersecting plaza. Amy arched herself backwards in agony as she clutched onto her back with tears swelling in her eyes.

“We’d love to. Mina, was it? I’m Lizen – a Hero like your brother. I hope we can get along.”

Her words were accepted almost immediately by the girl, who couldn’t be more happier.

“And that’s… yeah, that’s...”

“A-Amy. P-pleasure to meet you Haiyoto’s cute little sister. Co-count me in.” The red-haired girl fought through the pain and introduced herself with an agonising smile.

If she refused, or even tried to make a crude joke – then she would be smacked again.

Such was the life of a mischievous girl.

With a quiet sigh, she watched Haiyoto begin to lead them down the path they came through. Lizen, who noticed Amy’s slow pace, called out to her with a small wave.

“Geez… can’t you just smile and be honest with yourself, Lizen?” The lone Amy grinned as she spoke.

Without further delay, she caught up to them and walked side-by-side with Lizen.

* * *

While the Heroes embraced their well-deserved break, there were some who couldn’t catch one – or had too much spare time.

Anoma was the latter. Because of all the backlogged paperwork as well as delegating most of the tasks to the Guild Clerks, she found herself brooding in boredom.

The giant desk was devoid of any paperwork for the longest time, so half of her day was just sitting there with a fist against her cheek. Any requests she put out would be cleared in under a day without fail, and there weren’t any troublesome adventurers to humour her.

“What kind of a war is this?”

She asked no one in particular and sighed.

The adventurers took these matters seriously ever since the rumours of the war went spreading like a plague. The facilities of the Guild were constantly full, and the Guild board only had a select few quests still up or in the process of being completed.

She sighed again and shut her eyes for the thousandth time.

“I can’t believe I miss waking up so early for the sake of that fake Exrenity.”

There wasn’t much for her to look forward to, apart from the actual war itself. For now, she was awaiting King Ectarod to arrive and lay out the plan for the attack on Palvel.

As she delved into the thought, the doors suddenly clicked open and revealed a stunning red-haired maid. It was Li, and her gracious appearance was accompanied with the sweet fragrance of tea.

“Enjoying your afternoon, Guild master?”

Li settled a cup of tea in front of Anoma who grumbled:

“Does it look like I’m enjoying this?”

She took a quick sip from it before letting loose of a long sigh.

“I can’t even take a step outside without those worms flocking me. And accepting an A-ranked quest is impossible with the Heroes snatching it by the time it gets posted on the Guild board.”

The complaints naturally fled from her lips.

She flopped on the back of the chair with an annoyed groan and stared up at her maid with tired eyes.

“Anyway – you have any news for me, Li?”

“News? Let’s see.” The red-haired woman adjusted her glasses and placed a hand on her chin. “There’s more talk about the Undead found near the northern cities across the Great Plains.”

“That’s old news. And I don’t how much of that is to be believed given how rare mana overloads are. If someone wanted to die, then that’d be the last thing on their mind.”

Li sharply nodded.

“They described them as ‘fresh’ Undead as well, and never anything else. I don’t think they understand that even a farmer can handle a single fresh Undead. It would take a Flesh Knight to start the Undead incursion. But even that’s unlikely.”

A mused face roused from Anoma.

“Flesh Knight? Never heard of that before.”

“You’ve never been to the Boric region?”

“I’m Truebirth and Pathfist’s Guild master. Do you think I have the freedom to head out that far?”

“But you’ve been to Katho and Enthile before, haven’t you?”

“That was one time!”

Apparently, Anoma had a long history with Katho and Enthile; particularly with the Guild masters of those regions. Let’s just say that she didn’t get along with them.

Hatred sparked, blood was shed, and she ended up with a large bounty on her head. But things have changed, and she was no longer on the wanted list of both regions – because her head was replaced with a certain someone’s.

She didn’t know that of course. It’s had been a long time since she last treaded into Katho or the Enthoric region.

“Anyway – any other news? It can be anything, like what your mom’s up to with that inn at Sorshore.”

The woman lightly rocked on her chair and stretched. As the metal plates of her green armour groaned, a strange look came across Li’s face.

“… I heard that Cardinal’s working on a historical text.”

“… excuse me?” Anoma was just as confused as Li.

“It’s apparently endorsed by the King and the Priestesses, so we can’t really complain. Not a bad time though. We have the war, the Heroes and the return of our Gods’ Exrenity.”

It made perfect sense, although Anoma couldn’t help but to doubt that was the true motive behind the Old Man’s sudden urge to write. More than anything, it was likely because of what happened two days prior.

That text was probably a document regarding the Maiden of Time.

She didn’t know how to feel about that. With Exrite being the Maiden of Time, it was awkward to hear that a historic text was being written about her. But she couldn’t blame Cardinal.

That text would undoubtably be the first of its kind to record the use of [Time] magic.

On the fateful night, the Capital froze for a second as the warm stars descended upon the world.

She took another sip of the fragrant tea and hummed.

“That text’s far from done. He’ll need another life before he can even finish half of it.”

“Mhm. The Exrenity has so much to accomplish for our Gods, so that’s a given. With that said, I think I’ve stalled from my work for too long. Please excuse me, Anoma.”

“Hah. You and Kalis really are siblings. Anyway, thanks for the tea. It this from the new batch?”

Li stopped at the doorway with a pleased smile.

“You could tell?”

“Hard not to when I’m drinking your tea every afternoon. This is rather good.” She sipped from the cup and watched Li lightly bow her head before dismissing herself.

Wrapped in the silence once again, Anoma expected the boredom to hit her like a landslide.

However, only Exrite came to mind.

Honestly… if that guy comes back worse than before, then I’ll lose all hope in him and the Gods. So – prove me wrong, Exrite. You showed us the might of a Maiden, even if you weren’t really prepared for it.

But I want to see the might of the Exrenity. Show me why the Gods chose you, Exrite.

And as she drowned in thought – she sunk into the table and sighed.