This was too early. Far too early. Scarlett never imagined Fynn would awaken this soon.

This scene was similar to the game, but seeing it like this gave a whole new weightiness to the situation. The powerful winds stemming from Fynn were almost enough to force her off her feet, tearing at her hair and clothes. She’d activated [Lifeblood’s Eternal Circuit], but it didn’t help much against the wind itself. Only the small pieces of wood and scrap flying their way.

“What is he doing?!“ Allyssa cried out beside Scarlett, barely audible over the turmoil.

“I don’t think he’s conscious!” Shin shouted, pushing ahead through the storm. He threw his shield up just in time to defend against the lower half of a training dummy that came soaring at him, almost losing his footing as the doll bumped off. Allyssa tried running up to support him but had even more trouble moving forward than him.

Scarlett focused on the crouching figure of Fynn that sat at the center of all this chaos. If this continued, there was no telling how much destruction would be done to the estate. In the game this had occurred in a field, so she didn’t know how powerful it was.

Maybe if Kat was here the woman would’ve been able to fashion some kind of temporary stone shelter around Fynn, but that wasn’t an option now. And Scarlett didn’t know any sure-fire way to interrupt what was happening. In the game you just waited it out.

Was that an option?

He was a good distance away from the mansion, so the building itself might be fine.

Shin pressed forward, signaling for Allyssa to back away. The air shifted as the winds surrounding Fynn suddenly grew stronger. Even Shin seemed to struggle now, hiding behind his shield as he approached the center step by step, dodging and trying to defend against the flying debris simultaneously.

Could they knock Fynn out with an Aqua Mine or two? Or would that even work on him?

Scarlett blinked as she heard a distinct tune carry across the wind, a flow of energy and calmness rising from inside. Turning around, she saw Rosa come running, klert in hand, and with her curled brown hair mangled in all directions from the wind. “A bit early for a party, isn’t it?!” the bard yelled as she stopped before them. “What’s got sourpuss over there all worked up?”

Scarlett narrowed her eyes at the woman. “Rosa. Are you able to calm him down?”

“Depends. Pretty-boy might want to get away first, at the very least.”

Scarlett spun to look at Shin, who was too far away for their voices to reach him now.

“…He will be fine,” she said after a moment.

If Rosa was going to use what she thought she was, then it wouldn’t have any lasting effect on Shin, as long as he kept being pummeled by the winds around Fynn. If not, she was willing to pay for any damages.

Rosa glanced at her, but soon looked forward with a focused expression. “Well, all right. Let’s hope little wolf-boy likes lullabies.”

She cranked her instrument as several more notes rang out. They had a peaceful, mellow feel to them which belied their current situation.

To Scarlett, it looked like the air in front of them shimmered as a faint white light moved through it like a wave. When it reached Shin, he tottered and fell down on one knee, but seemed to regain his wits just enough not to get pulled away by the gale bearing down upon him.

The rippling advanced through the air, reaching Fynn. The young man barely showed any reaction, already hunched over on the ground. But the air around him—and the glow surrounding him—immediately grew calmer and less distinct. The same went for the powerful gusts raging about, which flurried around as if having lost their direction, soon petering out into a still nothingness.

“Shin!” Allyssa ran up to her friend, leaning down to check that he was okay. It took him a moment to get back to his feet, but he didn’t look any worse for wear.

Scarlett scanned across the surrounding area. It was covered in small debris, dirt, and the broken branches and leaves from the trees outside the stone walls. It’d take ages to clean all of this up.

She began walking towards Fynn.

“What was that?” Allyssa walked up beside Scarlett as she stopped before Fynn. “All of that was Fynn, right?”

Scarlett bent down next to the young man, reaching out with her hand to push away some of the white locks that covered his face. His eyes were still closed.

“It was,” she answered. “However, he was not in control.”

“You could say that again,” Rosa said. The bard seemed busy trying to untangle her hair.

“But at least we stopped whatever it was, right?” Allyssa looked at the mess surrounding them. “That’s good.”

Scarlett shook her head. “No. There is nothing good about the current situation.”

Scarlett locked herself inside her office soon after the incident. It almost definitely left everybody else thoroughly confused over what had happened, but she had bigger fish to fry right now.

Fynn appeared to be out for the count for now, not waking up whatever they did. Shin had carried him inside, and Scarlett had set Garside to organizing the staff to clean up the mess that was the training grounds and its surroundings. Now she had to figure out what to do next.

Not only had Fynn completely lost control, but now they were on a countdown. This was where, in the game, you only had a certain amount of time to continue Fynn’s questline or risk losing him as a companion.

Scarlett flipped through her notes. They covered much of her game knowledge, along with the plans she’d written down now on how to deal with this premature future.

She pressed her lips together, the reality of the current situation looming over her.

Fynn growing stronger had always been a double-edged sword. On one end, it was incredibly advantageous to her, considering how capable he was. On the other, because of his lineage, the stronger and more connected to his powers he grew, the more he would lose control of them if they weren’t handled correctly.

The real problem here was that Fynn’s first awakening wasn’t supposed to happen until he reached level 50. While Scarlett might have picked him up earlier here than in the game, he definitely shouldn’t have grown to that level already.

At least, she didn’t think so. It was hard to tell when things like strength and HP weren’t clearly quantifiable.

Nevertheless, Scarlett never expected him to awaken this early. She’d been racking her brains over what she could have done differently that led to this, but she couldn’t figure it out. To her, it just seemed like everything she’d done up till now with regard to him aligned pretty close to how you did it in the game.

Give him the [Mark of the Gale]. Go raid dungeons with him. Give him some money now and then. What more was there to it?

At the earliest, she’d been expecting Fynn to awaken a couple of months from now. It happening this early was probably the largest disparity between this world and the game that she’d encountered yet. Right now, she couldn’t even afford to care too much about why it happened. She had to figure out how to deal with it.

She crossed her hands, looking down at the open page of her notebook. She’d already crosschecked things with her game-related knowledge. There was only one way she knew of to resolve things after Fynn awakened.

She opened up one of the desk drawers and picked up the gold bell that lay inside it. It wasn’t used that often nowadays. After ringing it, a knock soon came from the door.

“Enter.”

Molly—the black-haired servant that had been the first person Scarlett met in this world—opened the door and stepped inside. The woman curtsied. “My Lady called.”

“Inform Garside to clear my schedule for the coming week. In addition, I will be requiring passage through the Kilnstones as soon as possible. Cost is not an issue, providing it is settled with urgency.”

“I will have Madame Marlon look into it immediately. Where to, my Lady? ”

“Angersong Post.”

“Angersong?” Molly grew a confused expression.

“Yes.” Scarlett nodded. “It is a small outpost on the west bank of the Three Streams, south of Dimfrost.”

Molly lowered her head. “As you wish. I’ll inform Master Garside and Madame Marlon.” The servant gave another short curtsy before leaving the room.

Scarlett leaned forward over her desk, staring into the air in front of her.

Hopefully, booking a trip through the Kilnstones wouldn’t prove to be an issue. Kat had once said you needed to book months in advance, but as a noble, Scarlett had certain privileges. She just didn’t know how far those reached. For the trip to Elystead, they’d booked two weeks in advance, and the same went for the passage to Bridgespell that she had arranged for Gaven. Maybe any sooner than that was impossible.

If she was lucky, it varied depending on where you were going. Angersong Post wasn’t even a town. It was just a small trading station situated on a thin strip of land between the Whitdown Mountains and the Three Streams river. She imagined it might be used to restock some ships that passed by and things like that, but there shouldn’t be too much traffic to the place. It was only there to begin with because of the Kilnstone.

Unfortunately, that was also the only Kilnstone close to the Whitdown Mountains. Or at least the only one in the empire’s Kilnstone network, from what she’d seen. Kilsfell was also an alternative, but that place was much more heavily trafficked. Still, they would have to take a boat up the river no matter what happened.

The question was what to do when they reached their final destination. Even if they got there before any further issues arose with Fynn, this was all too soon. Her current party was too weak. Even supposing that Fynn was somehow roughly equivalent to a level 50 in the game—which Scarlett doubted—the remaining members of her party weren’t.

Kat had left Freybrook already, so hiring her for this wasn’t an option. And there currently weren’t any other Shielders above rank C at the Freybrook branch.

Maybe she could hire a bunch of C-rankers to help instead? They’d still be too weak, but enough numbers could make up for that.

…But the Shields Guild might not even accept her hiring people for a job like that. Not unless she lied about how dangerous it was.

She frowned.

There was also the matter of secrecy. There was no clause in the Shielder’s contracts that said they had to keep what they saw during their assignments secret. They weren’t mercenaries. Kat had seemed relatively lax about it, but Scarlett doubted that was the rule among Shielders. Hiring them for this was bound to reveal things about this place that she didn’t want to reveal. Frankly, it was doubtful whether she should even bring Shin and Allyssa.

Letting out a deep sigh, she tapped her finger against the wood under her.

There wasn’t any organization she wanted to find out about this place. So there was basically nobody she could get help from. But without more help, it was very uncertain whether she could clear this place.

Should she just…not do it?

It could quite literally cost her life trying to clear it. Not bothering would save her a lot of hassle.

But that would essentially mean abandoning Fynn. Now that he’d had his first awakening, he would leave for the Whitdown Mountains no matter what she did. And he would probably never return. Unless he got help.

She could just…let him go. It wasn’t as if he was a necessity for her to keep on living in this world.

She looked up towards the dark oak ceiling, slowly leaning back in her chair.

Could she do that?

She closed her eyes.

No. She probably couldn’t.

Not only would it mean sacrificing many of her future plans, it also meant giving up several important items she needed. It also didn’t sit well with her to abandon Fynn like that. While she wouldn’t say that what she felt for the young man was quite at the level of fondness—at least in the sense of how she knew him as a real person—he wasn’t a stranger to her, either.

No, she would help him deal with his awakening. That much was certain.

The only question was how.

How would they clear the first section of the Howling Gale’s Haunt?