About half a year later
From the top of a stone tower, Rargnes dangled his legs into the void through the railings. Above, the sun shone brightly, reflecting on his body as he lay there, head resting on his crossed arms. He smiled, almost looking happy, when he heard footsteps approaching.
The hatch to his right opened, and a young woman emerged.
"Yes?" Rargnes asked.
The young woman stood above his head, blocking the sun.
"Milton asked me to tell you that they have responded."
She knelt down and handed him a letter with a sealed envelope. Rargnes half-opened an eye, took it, and slipped the letter into a pocket of his vest before returning to his previous position.
"So? What does it say?"
"We didn't permit ourselves to read its contents."
"Come on!" Rargnes laughed. "You're not going to tell me that paranoid Milton didn't read the letter? That he didn't show it to Louis to read it a second time, or to some mages to see if some magic hid a message or something?"
The young woman leaned over the railings, overlooking the expanse of Moir, capital of Lord Louis's lands. "When he trusts, he trusts completely."
"Sure, when he trusts." Rargnes smiled. "A blade to open the seal?"
She handed him a blade, and he opened the letter.
"The noble, the aristocrats, the goblins, the inhabitants of this world, here is a mass of people I could never fully elucidate. I once feared them, hid from them, then rose against this world. These actions earned me a significant untaxed fortune. Never before have I tasted a fruit sweeter than that of freedom."
Half-awake, Rargnes read the first paragraph and understood.
"Oh no. Look! They sent my letter back. Did they even respond?"
He put down his letter and took out the second piece. Unlike his letter, printed on two sheets, this one was handwritten and much more concise.
"Rargnes, that day, it wasn't just your class you lost, but your balls. I don't know how you sent us this letter, but know that we have changed bases, and you won't be able to attack us. Shove your proposal up your ass; we will continue our war until the noble is killed. You still have a chance to turn back. Your country, Rargnes! Its people! That's what they killed, and that's why we will never submit to this noble!
P.S.: We treat our prisoners as we wish.
Signed: Jean."
With a slight disapproving grimace, Rargnes put the paper aside. "Do you see what they wrote to me?" He sighed.
"What did they write?"
"They refused my offer... I think they really want to keep being terrorists. Well, it's not that strange."
"Should I inform Milton?"
"Of course, if it makes you happy," said Rargnes amusedly, not believing for a second that Milton wasn't already aware of the letter.
"Call me if you need to come down."
"Oh, it's fine, there's a ladder, but thanks."
The hatch closed, followed by the sound of footsteps descending.
"Really," he murmured under a light breeze, "I wonder why they do all this. They can't win. It's true! Why do they want to bring apocalypse to this world so badly? We could all be the noble's loyal subjects, be happy. But they want to become kings."
'Well, if they wished it that would already be more acceptable.'
"I... ah!" he sighed. "There are things in this world that are easier, I suppose. But once on a path, we can't change course. They want to bring us an apocalypse like the world has seen so many times. Don't they understand the impossibility of the task? Don't they see that they're forging their own apocalypse just as I forged mine through my visions? The system must have dulled their minds."
'If the masked woman and Sengrar get involved, it could be a problem.'
"Well... those who want my death will die, it's as simple as that. And even if all the terrorists banded together against us, we would win. One mustn't be cowardly. The real fight, they're not even waging it. They've so forgotten their objectives that they must think only of fighting, always fighting. Thus, they don't see that time is finishing them in the real apocalypse that every life suffers and that no one has managed to defeat."
He stood up and lowered his head to look between the railings that kept his legs from falling. His gaze was empty of emotion. A city with many walls. A medieval stone city. A city of a time that shouldn't exist. A city where he was a stranger but which was now his.
"My ties are finally all severed," he murmured.
'It's a world to discover, to love.'
"Now it's between us two, Moir."
End of Volume 1.