After Meng expels all attackers from the forest, he goes to the guild to find out exactly what happened. He heard that Amon would be arriving soon, and so he waited for his return. One and a half hours later, the whole guild heard how the main gate of the castle was opened with great force. The noise of a person walking to the castle's hall and hallrooms The person slammed open every single door that came their way with such force that they nearly yanked them off their hinges.
But nobody reacted to it, not the guild members, the maid squad, or Victor, who still guarded the main gate like a dragon in his cave. Because each and every person knew who this individual was. It was their guild master, Amon Halon.
Not a single person questioned his action; they knew why he reacted like this. Amon walked further into the castle, saying not a single word. He searched the entire castle for his friends and his wife. Until he saw a small shiluette—the shiluette of a little girl—standing in front of a door. The girl was Personia, who already awaited him.
"Amon, please stop ripping the castle apart; I will lead you to them. They are all in separate rooms. Follow me."
Amon said nothing after seeing her stoic expression and followed her quiet. They walked through a few halls in silence, saying nothing. Unless Personia opened her mouth and talked to him, "Amon, this is not how I know you. You are not the Amon I once knew; the Amon I once knew was a strong man who never backed down and always regained his posture no matter if he got hunted, scared, or clueless."
Amon acted as if Personia had never even talked. He sealed his emotions long ago, but he still felt everything. He could only remain silent.
"Stop." Personia held her hand before a hand and stood in front of the door and blocked the way.
"Only the twelve coats of arms, the head maid Aiko, a few selected guild members, and of course the guild master himself." Personia blocked the way of the stranger in front of her.
"So tell me, where is the guild master? Where is the man who fought pirates on a sinking ship until the end? Where is the man who took his wife out of prison? Where is the man who single-handedly killed 1,000 A-rank monsters? And where is the man who, in just four years, has reached a level of strength that many cannot even imagine what it looks like? Tell me. Where is Amon Halon, the master of this guild?" Personia opened her hands and blocked the way. Her voice was stronger than Amon could have ever had.
His facial expression distorted and looked as if he was about to burst out in tears, but in the moment when the tears were about to flow out of his eyes, Amon slapped himself in the face.
smack, smack, smack
He slapped himself three times, regained his posture, and looked down at Personia, who still blocked the door with an unembellished expression.
"Amon Halon, the guild master of Spellbander, stands right here."
Personia showed a warming smile and opened the door. "Welcome back, Amon; you took quite a while."
Personia's warm and innocent smile remembered him, who he was, and what he stood for. He was Amon Halon, a leader who never backed down and protected the smiles of the people he saw as his friends, or, better said, his family.
"Yeah, you are right. Was someone here before me?" Amon asked with a loving voice, the voice Personia loved to hear the most, the voice of the person who was the most precious to her.
'I am sorry, mom, but dad is still my favorite.'
"Yes, there was a strange guy who behaved as if he were you. But I was brave enough to stop him from doing something stupid." Amon patted Personia's hair and added, "You are a good girl, if that man ever comes again. Would you stop him then too?"
Amon knew that he could try to convince himself however he wanted. He was still a normal mortal being who would lose control over himself when he didn't know how to continue.
"Of course. I will always do it."
Personia smiled again and then walked with Amon towards the first door. In front of the door, he took a deep breath and then walked inside. In the small chamber, Niles He was lying unconscious on a bed. He had deep cuts on his legs and a huge open wound that looked as if a beast had ripped him open. Amon walked towards the bed and placed his hand in an unscathed place on Niles shoulder. He looked at him until he saw a piece of dry meat hanging out of his pocket.
'Hah, even in this situation, you still have a piece of those with you. You never changed even in the slightest.'
Amon turned his head and looked at Personia; they said nothing. Amon just nodded and then walked out with her.
Personia saw Amon walking next to her. It was clear that this man was her dad, whom she loved so much. He controlled his emotions, and she was well aware of the fact that Amon was screaming inside him. But he didn't scream out loud; he screamed in his own way, and the people around him always noticed this scream and listened to it.
They walked further; Personia still led the way, and Amon followed her. They stopped at another room and walked inside. This time, it was Dorothea who lay in a small chamber on a bed. The bed was clearly not intended for this room in the first place. The bed was too big for the room; they had to bring it here to lay Dorothea's strong and mighty body on a bed that was big enough for her. Amon walked toward her side and looked at her body as if he were sizing her up.
'The first time we met, you said that you hated your body, and now this body has saved you. Fate truly is a bitch.'
Amon looked at her arm and saw a wound. The cut was deep; a few millimeters more would have been enough, and her aorta would have been cut open. The body she once hated so much was truly her only savior in this situation.
Amon looked at a maid that was in the corner of the room, washing some blood-stained clothes. In the moment, he remembered that he was looking at a woman who only wore underwear while she was sleeping. 'I can't betray my wife.'
"Hey, let the doctor take good care of her. She is a lady and would hate it if she got big scars on her body." The maid looked at him and bowed down with a smile, saying, "Of course, young master."
Amon walked out with Personia and headed with her to the last room, and this was the room he was most afraid of seeing. They walked to the end of the hallway, where one last door was located, and that was right in front of him.
He took two deep breaths, focused, and placed his hand on the door handle. "Stay outside; this is something between husband and wife."
Personia looked into Amon's yellow eyes and nodded.
Amon saw a chamber as small as the other once, with enough room for a bed and doctors that could treat the wounded. He walked towards the side of his wife and looked at her dainty body.
When he entered this room, he thought that he would cry or burst out in anger the moment he saw his dear honey lying on the bed, covered in wounds. But he smiled the moment he saw her face; he had no idea why. But he smiled the way his dear wife smiles every day when both of them wake up in the morning.
Amon placed his hand on his wife's cheek and spoke with a smile.
"Most people think that you are just a woman who is obsessed with her husband. But they don't see your true sides—sides only I get to see—and these sides are just the ones of a kind and loving woman who suffered for too long."
Amon looked at the earring that was still in her earlobe and removed it. He just couldn't imagine how a human could find those ears ugly or otherwise repulsive. He wanted to see his wife in her true beauty, and this beauty had elf ears. He hears all the things people say when he walks with his wife in the open on the streets; he hears all the whispers when people think he isn't there. But in the moment when she would remove these earrings, they would call her ugly and hunt her to death. Before he met her, he always thought that he was the person who suffered the most in this world. But after some time, he met people with stories that were far more compelling than his could ever have been.
"One, two, three, four, five." When he looked at his wife's ears, he saw a bruise in her face and started counting every single bruise, scratch, cut, wound, and whatever wasn't there before. He counted until 41, looked at his hands, and said, "41 is all right; with the other two, this makes 83 heads."
This was the number of heads he was sure to cut off, at least. He kissed Roxanne softly on the lips and walked away toward the door. He pushed down the door handle, walked out, and looked back one last time, saying, "Take your time, honey, and recover well. I will wait for you at our place."
When he was done, he closed the door and focused all of his attention on Personia. Who waited patiently, sitting on the cold floor of the hallroom.
"Let's get to work, Personia; we have a war to win and a friend to rescue." Amon was determined to win this war as revenge for the people who got hurt in it.
"Good, then come with me. Arthure, Vlad, Meng, and Cedric are waiting in the hall of crests for us. Jeanne also arrived five minutes before you and is probably waiting right now too."
"Jeane isn't the most patient one. We should go before she gets angry." Amon said and walked in high speed with Personia to the hall of crests.