Lᴏᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴ: 𝘈𝘳𝘬𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘴𝘵, 𝘊𝘢𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥
Tɪᴍᴇ: 12:00𝘱𝘮 (8 𝘋𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘈𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘭)
After being seized by atleast five knights in heavy armor, Clodwal was forced to come with them after being pulled so forcefully by the arm where two of the guards held his hand tightly and put orichalcum handcuffs on him.
Clodwal: (They're arresting me so easily for simply upholding my human rights... Though I can't be sure those exists here... I wonder how Orcan and the others will take care of Bahamut... For sure, Filana will take care of him or her or whatever it's gender is...)
While walking through the town, some people were looking in their direction due to the sight of five knights taking hold of a man resembling a noble.
Guard A: "Looks like we got ourselves another prisoner. The dungeons in the castle are full already."
Guard B: "Tell me about it, those goons really like acting all high and mighty to even arrest this poor guy. Oi you! Are you some kind of noble with that get up?"
They eyed Clodwal's shining adamantite armor and majestic blue cape in their armored eyes.
Clodwal: (I may have overdid my appearance...)
Clodwal: "Yeah, I suppose you could say that..."
Guard B: "You are, huh? What noble family are you from?"
Clodwal: "I'm Clodwal Okamura from the Okamura Household..."
Guard B: "Okamura Household? Never heard of them, must be of some low nobility or from another country. You're not here from Sarcia are you?"
Clodwal: "No, I'm from here..."
Guard A: "Should we let go of this guy? Those cultists gave him to us for a shitty reason again."
Guard B: "Won't we get in trouble if they ask? But nah, we should think about this guy too."
Clodwall: (It seems they might change their mind and let me go, that would not be beneficial for me so I need to think up a few words to convince them without sounding suspicious like I'm up to something troublesome...)
Clodwal: "If you're that troubled I don't need you people to help me... You can imprison me if you'd like, just in case. So thank you for your sincerity...."
They gave him a suspicious look which he was hoping wouldn't happen just earlier.
Guard B: "You're pretty gutsy, aren't you? You really don't mind if we imprison you? Won't those friends of yours be looking for you?"
Clodwal: "It's completely fine by me, it's not like I will be there forever, will I..?"
Guard B: "Ahahaha, I guess not. I'll try to contact your family for you when you get imprisoned and get you out as soon as possible. Young-uns like you ought to be outside."
Guard A: "We're almost there."
They walked across the town and later came in contact with a large crystallic bridge atleast six kilometers long and thirty-two meters wide, connected at it's opposite side was a majestic and gigantic pearly white castle surrounded by the same pearl-white tower walls and from it's very uppermost were none lesser than a hundred guards stationed above its surface.
Clodwal and his company crossed half of the bridge after what seemed like a whole hour of walking, some sweat were starting on his cheeks as fresh ocean winds blew on his greasy black hair. The water below them that surrounded and divided the royal domain and the districts were very clear that you would see beautiful stones in it's depths, the water below kept swaying smoothly like water from spilled glass, it seemed to be connected with 5 riverways.
Clodwal: "Why is there ocean wind in the capital..?"
Guard A: "So you've noticed. Never been in the royal domain, have you?"
Clodwal: "I've had no reason to go here, that's why..."
Guard A: "Well, the ocean is pretty close from here. The water town, Blesmund is just a few miles away from the capital and this river surrounding the Royal Domain is connected to that place too. It's so big it's almost as big as the capital and held in high regards, it's also in the bottom of the sea."
Clodwal: (I see, that sounds cool... I might want to go there along with Orcan and his party...)
Clodwal: "So where are the other four routes connected to?"
Clodwal jerked his head at the other riverways to show the direction to the armored knight.
Guard A: "Oh, The other four routes are connected to the other four countries; Yagnen, Molonia, Halheiven and Sarcia."
He gave an obviously annoyed tone at the last part.
Clodwal: "I heard you guys are in bad terms with the Sarcia Kingdom."
Guard B: "We don't particularly hate the country but we do hate it's ruler. Ever since their king, Gundo Sarcia reigned, it's become like that. Their resources dwindled and the population skyrocketed uncontrollably, and now his goal is to conquer our country to get ours like some kind of pirate instead of a king. And worst of all, they started killing our own kin in their country because they said us Arkheistians in Sarcia are just extra meat."
The other knights nodded in frustration while one of them clenched their fists.
Clodwal: "I see... Thank you for telling me about this..."
Guard B: "It's no big deal."
Clodwal: (And so, to end this war they have to fight to survive or be killed. But why are Sarcia's people not rebelling against their king by now...)
Clodwal: "Why don't you guys just kill them..?"
Guard B: "Pft! That's a pretty straightforward answer there, lad. Ofcourse we can do that and theres a fifty percent chance we either lose or win. But if we do that, more lives will be taken than now and if they win, they'll get our country, kill our people and even enslave some of us. So the best way right now is wait for their own destruction or form an alliance. They also have a Hero on their side, making them a pretty tough opponent and worst of all I heard that guy strengthened their nation's whole army by a hundredfold, I recall his name was..."
Clodwal: "Who?"
Guard A: "I think it was Adolf Hitler."
Clodwal: (Adolf Hitler? The one from my world or perhaps some alternate version in this world..? Well, the possibility exists that he's a roleplayer...)
As Clodwal talked to himself, he subconsciously gave a bemused expression that the others noticed.
Guard A: "What do you think?"
He asked Clodwal.
Clodwal: "It's nothing, he just feels somewhat familiar."
Guard A: "Really? Can you tell-"
Guard B: "We're here."
Without realizing it, Clodwal and the others had already reached the entrance of the castle gates which should have been there but instead were only but a wall. As they came closer, he noticed the walls were giving out a faint glow almost the same as the clear water now below them being hit by sunshine.
Suddenly, a square hole magically appeared from the place where the gate should be and steadily widened to give way. Stopping after it had reached the point that someone could force a whole truck inside it.
Guard B: "Let's go. Oh and Clodwal Okamura, is it?
Clodwal: "Yeah..."
Guard B: "Call me Alms, I'm a knight of the Royal Army's Guards. We're tasked to protect people in the capital, though it's like that, we're sorry we couldn't protect you because of those cultists, they have a higher social status than us, knights."
To Clodwal's suprise, all five of them gave him an apologetic bow which caused Clodwal to feel a slight bit embarrassed.
Clodwal: "It's okay... You don't need to lower your heads and apologize for something that isn't your fault... Plus, thank you for teaching me alot of stuff."
Clodwal: (So they're dealing with this piece of rubbish and apologize each time when it's not their fault...)
Guard A: "How selfless. You seem like a real noble among nobles, Mr. Okamura. It was nice meeting you. The least I can do is escort you to the dungeons and wait for someone to get you out."
Guard B: "I will come too. Will you guys be alright without us?"
Alms looked at the three other knights who were standing by the gate.
Guards: "Yes, sir!"
Alms took his gaze back to Clodwal and gave him a slight smile.
Clodwal: "I understand, then I shall take your offer..."
The two knights led Clodwal to the castle's entrance, entering through a large entrance consisting of two large doors. And afterwards two sets of stairs going up with red carpets in it's steps leading to only one door with golden decorations in it's middle shaped like two phoenixes facing each other. Clodwal couldn't help being curious, being captivated by a door's beauty.
Clodwal: "What's that..?"
Clodwal pointed at the door like an eager child except he wasn't eager and was only curious of what's within.
Guard A: "Oh that, that's where the king resides."
Clodwal: "Not in a throne..?"
Guard A: "Haha, yeah people usually think of that when a king is mentioned, right? Our king is a little strange you see. He doesn't like standing out and prefer being visited in his meetings."
Clodwal: (Some kind of shut-in, I see...)
Guard B: "We had to redesign the castle's interior because he was the first ever to have wanted a place like that to hold his appointments instead of a throne. Most people have wanted to sit on a throne, having all that supremacy in yourself feels great, doesn't it?"
Clodwal: "I can agree on that, no doubt..."
The three of them went through an old-looking spruce door that seemed as thought it would crack just from flicking it. It creaked as Alms pushed it open. They were now inside a dungeon after a short walk downward the stairs. Instead of having walls, every part of it were filled with cages and smelled strongly of rotten cabbage. Loud cries and cursing of people asking to get out echoed across the dungeons.
Clodwal: "You sure have alot of trouble in your hands..."
Guard A: "You don't need to remind us. I feel bad for some of these guys since most of them are innocent and got sent here for disrespecting nobility like yourself."
The armored knight kneeled beside one of the cages, this one was only big enough to fit a full-grown buffalo in it with difficulty. From inside it, was what looked like a pillow, but then it flinched when the knight kneeled and grasped one of the bars from it's cage.
Guard A: "This little one has been here for a year now. Noone has been looking for her so far, we don't even know if she has parents. I remember she was one of those people from the slums until she knocked into the first princess of Arkheist, her attendant ordered her to be seized and brought here after dirtying the princess' dress"
He reached out his band and gently caressed the child covered in blankets.
Clodwal: "Can I have a request..?"
Both Alms and the unnamed knight looked at Clodwal, with the latter not breaking his gaze from the cage.
Clodwal: "I would like to be put in the same cage as this girl..."
They both looked at him suspiciously and rather uncomfortingly.
Clodwal: "I'm not going to do anything weird to her, I assure you..."
Guard A: "A-Alright, we're going to be watching you here until you're to get out anyway. And surely you won't do something to a kid."
Guard B: "Y-Yeah, even if it's you Clodwal I'm going to send my fists at your face if you lay a hand on the girl."
They both smiled awkwardly while Alms scratched his head with his index finger.
After that short misunderstood interrogation, Clodwal went inside the cage where the child is isolated. He gave off a sincere gaze and sat down opposite her while Alms and his friend waited from outside the cage, with each one of them glancing at Clodwal from time to time to confirm he's not a pedophile.
Clodwal: "Greetings, my name is Clodwal Okamura... What might your name be..?"
He didn't receive an answer and instead heard a faint whisper that he didn't catch at all. He was questioning why she's all covered in blankets and started to cough so shrilly, but then he noticed something was wrong. There isn't a bump where her right leg is supposed to be and she was emitting a bad sort of smell.
Guard A: "H-Hey! Are you alright?!"
The knight who seemed to have heard the girls' painful coughs came and held on to one of the cage's steel bars.
Clodwal: "A missing leg... And this smell... How..."
Guard A: "Wh-What do you mean? A missing leg? How?"
Clodwal: "That's what I would like to know myself... in any case she will get an infection if we don't treat her in less than a day..."
Guard B: "C-Crap we need to get the medics right now."
Clodwal: "That won't help. It suddenly worsened, she's in intense pain right now and I can't feel even an ounce of life energy in her."
Clodwal: (You're in pain but, why am I not hearing your cries..? Quite tough of a child, you are...)
Clodwal at once decided to take off the black blanket without hesitation, he pulled the blanket off to her sides slowly. Slowly her body came to view, large bruises were all over her entire body, mostly small cuts but besides that, there was a slit in her mouth like it was cut open to widen her jaw and stop her from talking. And her leg, her leg was cut clean apart that even her bones were poking out. She was still losing small amounts of blood to make it alot worse.
Clodwal: "Depending on her injury's condition. I would say this was done 30 minutes ago... she's pretty tough to have survived this far..."
Guard A: "B-But who would do such a thing!?"
Clodwal: "I see no value in shouting specially in an enclosed room, it's annoyingly loud and would give her discomfort... Let me handle it..."
Guard B: "Are you a healer, Mr. Okamura?"
Clodwal: "A good enough one for this situation, you could say. But I suggest you two turn around and don't look.
Guard B: "Understood."
Guard A: "Th-Then... We will leave this to you, please heal her!"
Clodwal: "Without a doubt..."
He gave them a reassuring smile to dampen their anxiousness. Both resolved themselves and turned around, giving their trust to Clodwal.
Clodwal: (Now then... [𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯] might do the trick...)
Clodwal: ([𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯]..!)
Instead of the girl healing, Clodwal experienced a great deal of pain from his whole body as if his soul was punched in multiple directions causing him to fall facedown to the floor.
Clodwal: "Guh!"
Azathoth: "Sorry son, but I won't allow that."
Clodwal: "..."
It was Azathoth. Gritting his teeth, Clodwal supported himself up with his right hand clenched into a fist.
Azathoth: "I decided to limit your time manipulation to one hour in this world for now. That's right, one hour of time reversal from the current timeline as I felt that ability of yours was too powerful like what happened in the Jura Village. And that would fix too much problems making it boring. So that's why I'm going to be sealing your time reversal powers for now until the time comes. See ya."
Clodwal: "As expected of father... Sealing something that can't be sealed despite all my immunities..."
Guard B: "Are you done yet, Mr. Okamura?"
Clodwal: "I'm just about to start..."
Finding out that abusing his abilities would lead to nerfing, he thought of not using his time manipulation for this case as he might get weakened even further more than necessary.
Clodwal: (So my only option left is... Using [𝘝𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘭 𝘔𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘺] on her to merge. For her vessel to gain my stats and heal itself... A girl too... I've never merged with someone else besides Subaru Okamura... No time to indulge myself in unnecessary thoughts...)
Clodwal reached and held the girl's left hand with both his hands.
Clodwal: ([𝘝𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘭 𝘔𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘺]..!)
Slowly, his body started to distort in an ugly manner and started turning itself into an amber-colored slimy liquid. After fully transforming into a golden slime, the girl's skin started absorbing the slime's liquids until none was left. A second later after Clodwal entered her body, all her wounds gave a faint light and instantly regrew her missing right leg completely and made her bruises vanish without a trace and without even a slight clue they ever existed.
Clodwal after finishing his task slithered out of her clothes and his slimy self configured itself into a human and back into his normal self. Now that she's healed and he had a better look at her, she was only wearing rags and old damaged clothing which didn't match her outstanding beauty and long silvery hair that went down to her hips. Which seemed to have bothered Clodwal a little so he decided to fix it up himself.
Guard B: "Mr. Okamura, there was light coming from your direction. Are you done healing the girl?"
Clodwal: "Yeah. Operation complete. You two can look now."
The two armored silhouettes from outside the cage are still there looking the opposite way from them as they were told not to look. They turned as they were told that it was fine to now.
Guard A: "Y-You actually did it, Mr. Okamura, I didn't know we had such a fine healer in the kingdom."
Guard B: "To think we were ordered to catch a high-class healer who can even restore limbs and fully heal wounds... Those cultists are birdbrains."
Guard A: "You should rest, Mr. Okamura. No need to push yourself. I heard healing a limb fully costs a tremendous amount of mana."
Clodwal however didn't feel nor show a slight bit of exhaustion and thus decided to go further.
Clodwal: "We're still not done."
Guards: "What? Are there still hidden wounds?"
Clodwal: ([𝘌𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯]...)
A faint yellow light like a tiny pixie circled around the girl and landed on her clothing causing the rags turn to light and reform itself into something alot better. Now that her clothes were fixed by Clodwal, she now had a white dress with splendid golden linings and edges.
Guard A: "Creation Magic?! To think you could even do creation magic after healing a fatal wound... And these are some fine details, this is absurd..."
Guard B: "Mastered both the Healing and Creation Arts... A sage class maybe?"
Clodwal: (None of those...)
She started to move and slowly raised her head. Opening her eyes which was remarkably shiny green almost on par with the sparkliness of Clodwal's [𝘚𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘎𝘰𝘥'𝘴 𝘌𝘺𝘦𝘴]. He was attracted to this as his second most favorite color was green. And he had never seen anything as fine as this one's color.
Guard A: "She's waking up."
Clodwal: "Are you okay now?"
She didn't answer and only gazed at them. Instead of thanking after looking at her savior, she gave him a frightened look. Fear shot visibly in her eyes.
Clodwal: "You're fine now, I healed you..."
"Y-You healed me?"
Clodwal: "I did, so what's your name?"
"A-Are you one of them?"
Clodwal: "One of what..? And who did that to you..?"
"Those people who hurt me..."
Clodwal: "Surely and obviously not as I just came here less than 7 minutes ago..."
Guard B: "Who did this to you?"
"For some reason I can't remember who those people were... Everytime I try to remember, my mind starts to scramble and I instantly forget to think."
Clodwal: "I see..."
Guard A: "That's a bit suspicious, who would do such a thing to a prisoner."
Clodwal: "So..? Your name is..?"
She replied with a nod to his question and finally said her name after being unheard earlier.
"My name... It's Marya."
Clodwal: "I see, I only need your name for now..."
Marya: "You?"
Clodwal: "Clodwal Okamura from the Okamura Household."
Marya stared at him.
Clodwal: "I do seem like nobility but I'm not a bad one..."
Marya: "A-Alright, I trust you."
Clodwal: "Satisfactory enough for a reply, Marya..."
Marya: "And... Th-Thank you for healing me, Clodwal-sama."
Clodwal: "Don't sweat it..."
Guard A: "She's all good now ain't she?"
Clodwal: "Yeah..."
Guard A: "Thank goodness, I wouldn't be able to sleep at knight if I watched a kid die in front of me."
Guard B: "Hey Mr. Okamura, when will your family come and get you out-"
𝘽𝙊𝙊𝙈!
A large explosion from the surface occured that made the earth shake.
Guard B: "What was that!?"
Guard A: "An explosive in the castle?!"
A girl's voice suddenly appeared out of nowhere and spoke from within their minds like a loudspeaker.
"Requesting to all Royal Knights, please rendezvous outside and guard each of the royal family member's chambers. An attack has occured and the second princess along with several others are currently engaging combat with the intruders. They're currently in a pinch."
Guard B: "An attack in the castle?! They must be crazy to think they'll get out unscathed to come here!"
Guard A: "Why are they here!?"
Guard B: "I don't know but we have to follow orders. Mr. Okamura, stay here with the other prisoners. If something happens to us, protect them alright?
Clodwal: "I am able to fight quite finely if you allow me to do so..."
Guard A: "Mr. Okamura. We're knights."
Guard B: "It's our job to protect the citizens not make them fight for us."
Guard: "Let's go Alms!"
Guard: "Yosh!"
And they both hurried along the corridors to the stairs, leaving both Clodwal and Marya in the cage.
Clodwal: (An attack, huh... That means I can't get to see Atala if this continues...)
Marya: "Wh-What should we do?"
Clodwal: "Stay here, I'm going out to fight."
Marya: "But how? Alms-san locked the cage."
Clodwal: "That is but a trifle matter."
Marya: "Eh?-"
But before she could start, Clodwal had suddenly disappeared. Or to be more precise he turned himself into literal air in order to escape.