At those words, Nico realized that the man knew him. However, just like with Frostine, he couldn't put a name or a memory to this man.
However, he could feel the powerful magic coming from this man. The man identified with the magi, but he had swords… so Nico had no idea what he was supposed to be. The 'classes' of this world didn't seem to be simple.
"I would take it as you having seen those white beams." The man didn't pull a smile or anything. "The castle had perfected their machine, but it's creating an imbalance of magic in the air. If they fire that thing a few more times, the mana of the kingdom will be sucked dry."
"Is that a dangerous thing?" Nico asked as they walked away, not bothering to say goodbye to the others. After all, they shouldn't stay in one place for too long.
"Obviously." The man frowned as he snapped. However, his eyes told Nico that he could see something was wrong with the picture. He then turned to the night maiden. "This Nico of House Finch knows respect. Are you sure he's the same person as before?"
At that, Nico somewhat froze. He shouldn't be discovered that early, right?
However, Frostine didn't even save him. She only hummed. "He jumped off from the ruins of the old kingdom walls and lost his memory. Right now, he's only trying to figure out what you are and what your name must be. He's probably waiting for me to say it."
"…you're heartless," Nico murmured.
"Nico lost his memories?" The man then turned to the defiled hero and snorted. "No wonder he's out here now. You should be more honest. You have created a lot of enemies ever since the Neo Nyx rose from beyond the skies. Their vile presence corroded the mana of the skies, turning it to pitch black even in the absence of the night."
Nico only nodded. This man seemed to be not as mean as he sounded. "Can you tell me your name now, or should I wait for Frostine to slide it somewhere in our conversation? I want to thank you, but I don't know your name."
The man only blinked before pausing in his tracks. When Nico and Frostine turned to face him, he placed a hand on his chest. "I am Edmund of House Pomeroy, Lord of Pear District. I traveled with you under the orders of the princess, but… my participation didn't seem to be enough."
"…was he there with me, Frostine?" Nico turned to whisper to the night maiden.
"As much as I know, yes. He should be." Frostine blinked once before frowning at the nobleman.
"What are you whispering for? It will make no sense discussing matters that you cannot remember." Edmund only huffed and continued walking, even going past them. "If you're interested in the machine, we shouldn't dilly-dally. There are also people waiting for us to aid them. Come along."
At those words, Frostine growled. However, Nico felt like something was off. It was as if the party was concealing what happened. Then again, it was just one person. He still needed to find the others; just nice, the princess was one of them.
He only urged Frostine to follow the man. They began to help people, but Edmund was only pointing at the people and trying to verbally guide them to the structures whose integrities were not compromised. It made it look like he was their boss.
For now, Nico didn't mind. He was going to help these people nonetheless. His brute strength was too much for a normal human to have. However, he still couldn't kill a red commander without tapping into the other skills of the hero's body.
"The castle is also in disarray. We might not be able to enter readily." Edmund spotted the destroyed gates and bridge to the castle. It was easy to cross using Frostine's ice, but if the castle was breached, Edmund could only figure that they wouldn't have the time to speak with him.
"It's fine. We'll just help them out."
Nico was about to advance as Frostine readied to build an ice bridge. However, Edmund only snorted. "I'd rather be out here helping civilians. The machine is important to discuss, but between the people and the knights, who are you willing to help more?"
At those words, a vein somewhat popped on Nico's face. "Your ass just wants people to order around. Fine, let's find ways to help the helpless first."
A slight smug smirk curled Edmund's lips. "I am the Lord of the district. You expect me to dig?
"Jokes aside, the Pear district took on the most hit this time." Edmund dismissed the smug look even before Nico could kill him in his mind. "Our soldiers responded to the call of the other districts first, but the spirit barrier protecting the district broke nonetheless. It was no question that a district with no shields is more attractive to the invaders than a district with magi soldiers."
"You were so confident in your shield that you sent your soldiers away?" Nico lifted his brows as they continued to walk around.
From time to time, they would stop and help the survivors in lifting debris or gathering things they needed. This Edmund guy could even pull out supplies from an enchanted bag.
However, he didn't answer Nico's last question. It was even more evident that the proud lord had made some small miscalculations that cost him his entire district. Even Nico didn't want to delude in the excuse that at least, the invaders converged here and didn't hit the others just as much.
After walking around, Nico saw the barrenness of the place. It didn't seem like all the damage he saw was from the destruction of today's invasion. He then came upon a huge tree, but it was already dried and dead. It stood tall in a blackened land that didn't seem to be wrecked by the invaders. Did that mean that this tree died way before?
"…the mana of the kingdom is being depleted by all the experiments they did while developing that machine." Edmund stood next to him as if he could still remember what that huge tree was supposed to be. "When I left my district in the protection of the spirit barrier, I didn't know that their machine would suck the mana powering my barrier.
"So yes… I was confident enough to let my soldiers leave." Edmund sighed. "Alas, there is no reason for the princess not to fire that machine… unless the land beneath her feet crumbles."