I stand before a cliffside, a sword embedded into the ground, alone and with nobody to accompany it. I look around, looking, looking, looking for that man.
"Hey, are you done with this little detour? We have to get going soon." Stronl calls out.
"Yea, sorry about wasting time." I look away and head back.
The deserter I met before coming to the frontlines was gone, no body, no note, he was simply gone.
"... Hold on, let me do one more thing." I double back to the cliffside.
"Oh for gods... Alright, but we're going to move at fly feet after this." Stronl says.
I look around for a decent looking, big rock, then roll it over to the sword before setting it down on the earth. Using wind, I blow out a small hole to rest the rock in, then grab the sword out of the ground.
I crouch down then rest my hand on the rock, resting the sword tip right next to my hand, my wind Tetsu turning into fire. I then exhale deeply as the sword begins sinking into the bubbling hot rock, hot steam coming out of the cliffside from all the moisture in the soil and air drying up. The rock soon hardens back up due to all the water surrounding the area, encasing the sword in rock.
"Alright, let's go." I say as I memorialize the sword into the earth.
I won't forget you.
It was solely me and Stronl traveling through the wilderness. Stronl had told only her most trusted advisors that I was returning to the northern capital, while most of the army should be under the impression that I was returning to the frontlines as one of the silver armored knights, Fiao knows how to use fire anyways, so there shouldn't be any issue faking the enemy out either.
Aided by a strong wind current and Stronl running by the side, we were traveling back almost 7 times as fast as when I was traveling forwards, within two days we were already back at the capital.
"Here put this cloak on, we'll work on fixing your reputation up as soon as we can, but right now it's a very bad idea to show your face in public." Stronl says as we near the entrance gates.
"Thank you." I take the cloak and shadow my face as best as I can. I stare at the ground as we move through the gate, entering the main road of the 5th district, this part of town was quite tidy comparatively to the rest of the 5th district but I could still smell trash wafting through the air.
"Why is the city separated into these ringed districts?" I ask as we begin walking through the main street. "It seems so... discriminatory."
"I don't disagree. It's one of our many evils that you're just going to have to accept." Stronl nods her head. "It's part of an old class system that King Mallefard was trying his best to change. Things may get better once the war is over, but right now there's nothing we can do."
"Forgive me if I'm out of line, but... Why do you only draft from the 3rd district down?" I ask despite my hesitations.
"We've just started drafting the second district actually." Stronl says. "And, like I said, this district based system provides too many opportunities for discriminatory bills. If I could, I would draft this entire damn city, but all the higher ups want to appease the wealthy families that support them, whom all happen to be in the 1st district. There's yet to be a person who can take the spot Mallefard left behind so we just have to deal with this fractured leadership."
I nod and then keep quiet. If I were given the choice though... Would I support Yesenia or Stronl?
We soon reach the gate to the castle where Stronl and I pass by without much issue.
"Glad to see you safe back home commander." A soldier calls out. "Nothing particularly new has happened since you were gone, however there are rumors of a problematic figure..." The soldier hesitates as soon as he sees me cross the corner alongside Stronl.
"Please excuse me." Stronl says to me before walking to the side. The soldier quietly whispers the rest of the report out into Stronls ear before she returns by my side.
We continue quietly walking across the courtyard of the castle.
"Are you curious as to what he told me?" Stronl says out of the blue.
"I would be lying if I say I wasn't, but it's none of my business." I respond.
"Good, though there's a good chance if that rumor is true that it'll involve you so I'll tell you. There's currently an extremely strong woman that's wandering around our city right now, most likely the strongest Anku fighter in the world. She hasn't allied herself with either nation, and we have no idea what she's doing here right now, so be careful."
"I'll keep it in mind." I respond simply.
"Good, now..."
"Caaaaaaain!" Both Stronl and I cringe at sound of my name being shouted so carelessly, but we turn around to see Yesenia running through the courtyard. I fall down surprised as Yesenia basically tackles me to the ground.
"Man I was so happy when—" I immediately trap all the air around us to prevent sound from coming through. "—I got the message that Stronl decided to let you work with us."
"Oi, Yesenia, people aren't supposed to know that I'm here." I push her off and Stronl grabs her by the collar at the same time.
"Mmh, I know, that's why nobody is patrolling the area right now. I know how the guards are scheduled." Yesenia says without losing the smile on her face.
"What about that guard Stronl just talked to?" I ask.
"His shift just ended right after Stronl came back, unless someone was listening in deliberately nobody should be here right now. Though you're right, we need to get inside A - S - A - P."
"Yesenia..." Stronl starts but then facepalms and takes a deep sigh. "Alright, let's go."
The three of us walk into the castle, one of us giving off a much more bubbly vibe than the other two.
I look at Yesenia's head, her little jewel studded crown was back. Although it looked different than the one that she threw out the window back then.
"Ah, are you looking at this?" Yesenia tugs the crown off her head and shows it to me. "Living out alone was fun but I gotta keep up appearances I guess. These are fake gems though, I'm still prepared to keep my promise to you."
"No need, Yesenia. You can wear real gems if you'd like. That whole deal I made about hating royalty was incredibly stupid in hindsight." I say in response.
"..." Yesenia stays quiet in response, as if deep in thought.
"Is Stronl blackmailing you? Blink twice if she is." Yesenia says.
"Oi."
I couldn't help but crack a small smile at the interaction. "Yea, she told me that I would never see my sister again if I didn't comply." I say jokingly.
"No I didn't."
"Really?! That's terrible! I can't believe there's someone out there horrible enough to that!" Yesenia exclaims.
"You guys... We need to be serious right now." Stronl tries to keep a straight face, but I could see the smallest of grins forming on her lips.
"I'm always serious, you're just way too serious all the time." Yesenia says in response.
Stronl stays quiet. "Am I??? I can be lighthearted, I told three jokes in the past week." She says in a surprising turn of events.
"No lighthearted person counts the amount of jokes they tell in a week, what were those jokes anyways?" Yesenia says.
"I think it went like... What do you call a fly without wings?"
"Oh my goodness." Yesenia immediately sighs.
"A walk." Stronl says without any sort of effort in her delivery whatsoever.
"I wouldn't be surprised if you read that out of a book somewhere."
"Huh, how did you know?" Stronl says without any hint of self-awareness either
"Nevermind about that, did you get someone to laugh from it?" Suddenly, Yesenia seemed to be the one lecturing Stronl instead of the other way around.
"Yes, I did. Now what?"
"Stronl." I suddenly interject. "After being with you for a couple days, if someone laughed, they are most definitely laughing at how clueless you are and not at your jokes."
"He's right you know." Yesenia dogpiles on her with the first chance she gets.
"Okay so that's a bad joke, I'll write that down in my notes somewhere, I'll use a different one next time. " Stronl says.
She doesn't get it...
"Yea sure, that's the problem. Just choose a different joke out of that book next time." Yesenia forgoes all attempts at advice and instead settles for heavy sarcasm.
"Anyways, we've arrived. I've already sent a messenger telling all the leaders that you are no longer a threat. Although I doubt any of them have changed their minds about you, this is just for a meeting deciding and detailing all the specifics for your involvement, though I'm sure we're not going to make any significant consensus today." Stronl says.
"That's fine. There's no need for everybody to accept me."
"Alright, allow me then." Stronl opens the door for me to step through. I walk in first without hesitation to a giant room crowded with people.
Three long dark wood tables filled the room, and at least 40 people were in here at once, all their eyes on me. "Hello leaders of Lyster. My name is Cain, and I am a Tetsudo who is most proficient with the fire element." Stronl and Yesenia file in behind me and take their seat. I eye Crux, Hanafin, and Rainel all sitting at the tables. "You will have known me from my previous antics; I know too what I was like a couple weeks ago very well, and I assure you that I am no longer that person. Please allow me to help in any way I can." I hear a couple of snorts but ignore them and try to find a spot on the table. My years of political experience carrying me through the introduction.
"No, keep standing there, I don't want to be close to such a dangerous person." A man on the table glared at me. I recognized him from the night I came to this world. He was in the same room where I caused all my commotion.
I follow his orders quietly and go back to the spot I was standing in.
"You seem to have an opinion that you want to communicate Roxan." Stronl says passive aggressively.
"Yea I do, I think you, Yesenia, Crux, and anybody that supports this murderer joining our forces should be strung up and filled with arrows, in fact let's skip the discussion all together. Who here wants to see this kid dead by tomorrow?"
"Wait, wait, wait, I was in the same room that day, I understand how you feel, but Stronl has yet to be wrong with any of her judgements of character. She did figure out that you were the one wasting our budget to get a couple of drinks at night." Another person interjects.
"Why every time I try to make a point someone brings that up? I've already apologized, move on."
"Probably because those are what we call 'the consequences of your actions.'"
The room begins to rapidly devolving into bickering. Most of it mundane and pointless arguments.
"Hey Cain." Yesenia directly addresses me.
"Yea?"
"Can you make a really loud noise with your wind? I know Fiao has some abilities with sound."
"Thank you." I raise my arm to the air and open my palm. "I've been itching to do that." I clench my fist and a massive pop emanates through the room. Instantly shutting everybody up.
"Roxan." Yesenia quietly says.
"I argue that you have a conflict of interest and are making your decisions off emotions, everybody knows that my faction has control of the Tetsudo right now. Are you afraid of that sudden power difference, or do you genuinely believe that Cain will murder us all? Also Cain, don't listen to him, please sit down." I find a seat right next to Crux.
"I'm not saying he'll murder us all, I know you like to twist words like that. I'm saying that he's a murderer, and he can't be forgiven for what he has done for killing Aftman."
"Umm... If I may." Crux raises his hand. "I would like for everyone in the room to give their opinion one by one like we usually do instead of immediately skipping to the step where we endlessly bicker and get nothing done."
Man… Keeping my mouth shut is harder than I expected… I try my best to keep an expressionless face as I'm thrown with insults, mischaracterizations, and outright lies.
However, as the final person says his piece, the room was left with a 18-20 ratio of supporters to deniers with 4 indecisive, Rainel being one of the indecisive.
"Great, now lets cast a vote to see if anyone's opinions have changed." Crux says.
One by one, each member of the room raises their hand, an open palm meaning that they support me, a closed fist meaning that they don't, leaving us with the number of… twenty to twenty. Rainel of all people being the last person to cast a vote.
"Cain, I want to let you know that I went out to drink with Aftman a couple of times." Rainel says. "Outside of his duty he was a pretty fun guy to be around."
He slowly raises his hand. "So I don't think I'll ever like you."
And opens his palm, signifying his support for my participation. "However, I'm going to go with my instincts."
Rainel stares at me dead in the eye as the entire room groans from both relief and anger all at once. "But, don't get comfortable, if you make a single mistake I will withdraw my support immediately."
I stare at him back. "Don't worry, if I make a mistake I'll target Roxan first." I say jokingly.
"I wouldn't really consider that a mistake." Rainel smiles back as Roxan stares at both of us incredulously.
Meanwhile
"Alright, get out of the carriage. You know the drill." A soldier lazily says.
"Do your worst." The merchant says as he steps out the cart.
The interaction was happening near the entrance way to the northern capital of Lyster, it was just like any routine cargo check to make sure no illegal items or people were being smuggled out of the city.
"Some booze… fabrics… looks good" The soldier suddenly stumbles over a loose board near the bottom of the cart as he was walking out.
"Ow, ow, ow, what the hell was that?" The soldier looks closely into the little hole he found, placing his hand in the hole and feeling around the floorboards. Until he brushes against a stack of papers. He takes the stack of papers out of the floor and inspects them closely before drawing his sword.
"GET DOWN ON THE GROUND, YOU ARE BEING DETAINED!" The soldier screams at the merchant.
Indeed, the stack of papers the soldier just found contained an unfathomable amount of secrets, about city layout, army composition, state of economy. Secrets that only the highest of higher ups would know.