The moment I saw Mathias placing the last onion, it was automatic. As if the very air around us changed of density, I was forced to gasp, my skin feeling as if it was being prickled all over. Noah grunted and Domenic closed his eyes. The only one who remained impassive was Isabella. Being completely insensitive to the fluctuation of magic can be as much a blessing as a curse.

Mathias stood up, dusting his hands as he sighed. “Now, it’s finally done.”

“Do you think Adela will be able to defeat your father, even without him having access to the mana in the castle?” I asked, worried. I mean, I didn’t doubt the method since I’ve seen it working before, but I also didn’t know much about the viscount’s capabilities in combat even without magic, so…

“If she doesn’t, then August and Gale and Felix and Oscar definitely will! How difficult can it be taking down a single guy like-?”

“Stop right there! Don’t jinx it by saying things like that without thinking!” I scolded Noah just as he was jumping excitedly, diminishing the menace of a viscount without mana access. He snorted, smiling tauntingly at me.

“Whaaaaaat, you really believe in those things? Aren’t you a little too old? Ummmmmmm?”

“Isa! He’s making fun of me!” I turned to the only person who could put a stop to this idiot. Noah gasped.

“Hey! You can’t go telling on others like that!”

“What telling on others?! She’s right here, hearing everything you say!”

“…I’m going to the main courtyard alone…”

Mathias said that as he shook his head at us, walking away without looking back. I felt my eyebrows twitching. Whatever he was acting all mature for? When he was nothing more than a spoiled brat.

Isabella sighed, hitting Noah on the head once before going after Mathias. Noah sputtered, offended, though he soon forgot about it and huffed, puffing out his chest and following them. I was left behind, biting my lips in anger while Domenic watched me worriedly.

“It’s better if we go as well. Do you feel good enough to continue?”

I blinked, my anger forgotten momentarily. “Yes, of course. Why do you ask?” Then my brows furrowed in worry. “You don’t think I should stay behind, do you? I mean, I know I can’t fight myself, but Noah will tell you how much I helped back then on the dining room against Sebastian. I can be of help.”

“That’s not what I meant” he shook his head before pointing with his chin at the retreating trio. We followed them as he continued talking. “You don’t look very… comfortable around us. It was apparent before but since meeting with that young man there, you seem more on edge. That can be dangerous. Personal feelings are inevitable, but if we don’t control them, especially in a situation like this, it can only lead to our destruction.”

“…” I glanced down, for some reason feeling guilty. I couldn’t exactly control what I felt towards Mathias, but the fact Domenic noted how I wasn’t really at ease even before the boy entered the scene, made me feel ashamed. It wasn’t their fault. It wasn’t Domenic’s fault. “I’m sorry. With Mathias, I… have a bit of a history, that’s all. And to be honest, Noah and Isabella’s hyper makes me a bit…”

Domenic snorted, a smile appearing on his face. “Ah, yes, the two of them sure are full of energy, no?” he sighed. “They’re not bad kids though. Once you get used to their antics, it’s actually very enjoyable being with them. And they’re serious when it counts. Never saw them taking a job lightly.”

“Yes, I can imagine” I confirmed, nodding. I didn’t need the memories from the manga, I already saw their seriousness back then in the dining room. “I’m not worried about them screwing up or something… they’re the experts here, not me. It’s just that…”

It’s just that they were the heroes. The main characters. Noah, Isabella, Mathias, Lucas and Adela. Their presence made me uncomfortable for a number of reasons, first of all being that their existence was the driving force behind the plot. Being with them was equivalent to meddling with the story. And I was afraid. Afraid of what my intervention could cause in the overarching storyline of the manga. Things were alright for now, the plot was continuing in the way it had to, despite Adela appearing way before she had to, but what about later? What if something I did changed things irremediably? I wasn’t so narcissistic to think the mere fact I was reincarnated was enough to include me between their lines. Too many web novels where mobs became important characters all of a sudden. But then, there was also this feeling of longing. Of wanting to fit.

Why else would I have been reincarnated if my only fate was going back to my family after all of this was done? To be once again a mere farmer’s daughter, with knowledge I could never use?

And that was another reason being with the heroes made me so uncomfortable. I shouldn’t want to stay with them afterwards. I could barely stand some of the members of the group at all right now. So why? Why was I so selfish, craving something more when knowing my presence could be detrimental to them? Knowing that would mean abandoning my family once again so I could go roaming the world with them?

And then I just couldn’t help but laugh at myself. As if my presence would change anything. As if I was needed in their quest to save the world. I shouldn’t think so highly of myself.

I shouldn’t care about any of this in the first place. Just going back home. Home with my family.

Domenic shrugged, completely unaware of my internal dilemma. “I don’t know what happened between you and that noble boy there, but at least I think I can tell you this regarding Noah and Isabella. They’re children. Noah is twelve and Isabella fourteen. In society they might be considered old enough to make their own decisions and go about life by themselves, but truth is, they never really got a chance to be children in the first place.”

I bit my lips, glancing to the side. Was this going to be a lesson on their pasts? Their personalities and motives? I knew all that I needed to know about them already. Though, thinking about Lucas and Mathias and everything I didn’t know about them despite reading the manga, I wasn’t sure anymore if I could truly count myself completely knowledgeable about everything in this world. Domenic continued.

“We found Noah when he was around six. He was all alone in a forest in the south. Living with the wolves, literally. Isabella was the one who found him. He doesn’t talk about how he got there, but he remembers enough. He knows his own birthday and name, and his birthplace. Kreuztal was a merchant city in the confluence between the Rou and Clegin rivers, in the Kingdom of Cordelia. I don’t know if you’re aware of what happened eight years ago around there…”

“…” I did. Of course I did. “The Siege of Kreuztal. The entire city was burned to the ground, along with all the people inside. They closed the gates and no one could leave… Noah survived that?”

A useless question, of course he did. I knew it all too well. Domenic nodded.

“But like I said, he doesn’t talk about it, and no one asks. No way to know how he survived or who were his parents or anything like that… he was actually very taciturn and hostile in the beginning. It was Isabella who managed to open him up to the rest. He’s completely loyal to her.

Though…” he snorted, shaking his head. “You can’t really say the life of a mercenary it’s a good life for a kid at all. No time to play, or take it easy. Especially if you’re a woman. You know who are the only women who tag along a mercenary band? Prostitutes, that’s who. Isabella’s mother was one. Died of pox, nasty thing. Gale loves his daughter to death, sure, but that’s all the more reason he pushed her beyond what could be called acceptable in her training. She participated in her first siege at five. Had to deal with and kill entitled assholes that wanted to take advantage of her before she even reached ten. It’s too dangerous for a woman, more so such a beautiful woman like her, to be in a mercenary band. But she has nowhere else to go, and Gale refuses to part with her. So there’s that.”

He sighed, shaking his head. “It might not be my place telling you all this, but I’m doing so because I want you to understand something. If you want to train with me, if you want to join us afterwards, you have to be aware of what you’re getting into. And you have to understand your comrades as well. No need to feel weird out because of some hyper or whatever. With some of the members we have, and their pasts, it’s either that or depression. And depression takes you nowhere, so…”

“I get it, I get it!” I closed my eyes for a moment before looking up at Domenic. I felt my jaw tightening despite my attempts to relax. “I won’t say anything about Noah and Isabella anymore. I won’t let my preconceptions mess up with my judgment. I wasn’t my intention to belittle them or anything, ok?”

“I wasn’t suggesting you…”

“You didn’t need to” I sighed, looking up front and seeing the other three walking ahead. Noah was sticking to Isabella, happily talking her ears off while the girl tried striking up conversation with Mathias, who answered half-heartedly, obviously more preoccupied with his brother and getting to the main courtyard than getting to know his impromptu companions. I looked at Domenic again. “In any case, even if you want me to understand them, why are you telling me all of this? Isn’t it rude if you tell me those two's pasts without their permission?”

“Those things are common knowledge among us. It’s not like I told you the more gruesome details, so I doubt they would care if you knew. Besides” he halted, making me do the same, and stared directly at me, eyes with a glint that was different from before, though I couldn’t pinpoint how. I only knew I felt exposed when he looked at me like that. “Call it a hunch, but I can’t help but feel the three of you… four” he added, his eyes momentarily stopping on Mathias; “will be soon connected in ways that even the rest of us aren’t. Despite the years we’ve known each other and the blood Isabella shares with Gale” he smiled, resuming his pace; “and I’m usually right when it comes to these hunches. Call it a gift” he winked at me, this time definitely ending the conversation by walking away.

I couldn’t help but blink, before shaking my head. I followed them once again, wondering about Domenic’s words and everything he told me. Connected? The four of us? If Lucas and Adela were here, would he have included them? What did that mean? What did I want it to mean?

Why was my heart beating so fast?

Just as I was catching up with the rest of the group, a loud and penetrating sound was heard, shaking the structure of the castle and rumbling all the way inside my head. I covered my ears and winced, but I could still feel the vibrations reverberating all throughout my body. It was more than a simple sound, it was a sensation, and a very unwelcome one. Once it was over, I blinked, looking at the others to see what reaction they got.

Mathias was pale. He cursed and started running. The other three were still astounded, so when the bad sensation vanished, I was the first one to run after him.

When I was close enough to Mathias, I shouted. “What’s going on? Is it your father?”

“I don’t know! I’ve never-! I don’t-!” he shook his head, his eyes taking on a determined, if a bit violent, shade. “I don’t know if it’s him, but who else could it be? Only that monster would be able to release such a malevolent aura!”

That monster, in other words, his father. I gulped, my heart again beating fast and hard against my ribcage, but this time, for a completely different reason than before.