– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 216, Season of the Rising Moon, Day 90 –

“Well, this is awkward,” groaned a dwarven guard for Libra City. She grimaced and looked at Terry. “Technically, I am supposed to arrest you. Why are you approaching as if you’re taking a stroll?”

“I could walk into the sky and enter that way if it avoids trouble for you all,” said Terry with a wry smile. “Just thought I would say hi first. I have to talk to Dhruv, one way or the other. I don’t intend to stay long.”

“Just let them through,” said an older, elven guard. He looked at Terry with a serious expression. “If anyone wants to complain about it, I’ll take responsibility.” He lowered his gaze and lightly shook his head. “I owe the old lady that much and more.”

The dwarven woman nodded and gestured with her hand. “You heard the man, welcome to Libra City. Don’t let the pickpockets get you and try to stay out of trouble.”

Terry led the others into the city and towards the Guardian outpost. They were halfway on the gravel road, when a group of channelers arrived and blocked their path.

“See?! I told you, it’s the one from the bounty!” One of the channelers pointed. The people with him glared at Terry.

“How dare you come back here!” “Have you come to apologize and turn yourself in?” “Bastard even killed his own companion!” “You’ll pay for what you did to Harrison.” The group shot angry comments and questions at Terry.

“Let him talk,” said one of the group. She sneered at Terry. “What are you here for? Are you sorry for all the blood that you have spilled?”

The image of Sigille’s armored back appeared in Terry’s mind and he straightened himself. “No.”

“WHAT?!” The woman snapped.

“We all made our choices that day.” Terry spoke with a hardened expression. “Thinking about what happened makes me many things.” Terry took a deep breath “Sad, angry, disappointed, and, above all, frustrated. I regret that I was too weak to be in complete control of the situation.” Terry clenched his fists. “I’m saddened that Harrison is dead, but I’m not sorry that he died at my hands.” Terry spoke firmly: “Because I would do it again.”

“Bastard…” “What kind of monster are you?” “How dare you…” The group was not happy with Terry’s response and some of them drew their weapons.

“Step away from him!” A middle-aged man addressed Lori and the others. “This man is a criminal and we are going to apprehend him. Dead or alive.”

Lori stomped her foot and in a matter of seconds, a rock wall had formed in front of her and was propelled into the group of channelers. The channelers fell down and when they raised their heads again, they were confronted with everyone among Terry’s group having drawn their weapons and prepared their spells. The channelers gulped.

“Stop!” The voice of a man arrived.

Terry scowled at the familiar face. It was a man he had seen with Willow in the past, but the man looked as if he had aged a lot compared to what Terry remembered.

“Luminous Anem, that’s one of the people that killed Bright Willow!” yelled one of the channelers.

Anem looked at Terry with a complicated expression before turning to the channelers. “Leave them be.”

“WHAT?!”

“I said leave them be,” repeated Anem firmly. “They are moving to the outpost. Let Dhruv and Luminous Cadence handle this.”

‘Luminous’ Cadence? Terry raised an eyebrow.

“You can put away the weapons.” Anem spoke to Terry.

“You have to forgive me if I don’t put much trust in the words of the witch’s friends,” said Terry in a biting tone. This sparked another round of outrage among the channelers.

“Quiet!” Anem silenced the angry channelers. He turned to Terry and lowered his head slightly. “We will walk ahead. You can maintain your distance.”

Afterwards, Anem looked at Lori and the hole in the road. “Could I trouble you to fix that?”

“Hmph.” Lori narrowed her eyes without a proper response. Despite her defiant expression, she chose to fill the hole again. Once she was done, her gaze moved over the group in front of them and she grumbled: “I already can’t stand this place.”

Miguel looked at Lori and snickered.

***

“I said enough!” Cadence raised her voice. “I suspend all bounties related to Terry inside the Libra City jurisdiction. If you feel unreconciled, you can submit a formal complaint to Guardian management, but since that currently means me, you will only end up disappointed again.”

Terry moved his gaze from the disgruntled group of channelers to Cadence.

“Now leave and return to your assigned tasks,” ordered Cadence. “I want to talk to Terry’s group.” After the channelers left the vicinity, Cadence sighed wearily.

“How do you like being part of Guardian management?” asked Terry with a barely suppressed grin.

“Not. At. All.” Cadence groaned. She moved a hand to her forehead and sighed. “But it has its perks. At least, I have the authority to stop some situations from getting out of hand now, which reminds me…” Cadence looked at Terry with a trace of exasperation. “What were you thinking to waltz back in here without warning? Arcana has contested the bounty but it’s still active and as long as the imperial bounty is not revoked, this—”

“No choice.” Terry’s serious expression gave Cadence pause. Afterwards, Terry explained the situation with Isille.

Cadence lowered her head and sighed again. “I’m sorry this happened, Terry.”

“You had nothing to do with it,” said Terry. “I just need to talk to Dhruv.”

“Dhruv is here, but he’s currently going through some druid procedure to strengthen Emily’s tree seed,” said Cadence. “It should not take long.”

Cadence snapped her fingers and called two of her assistants over.

“You can hand a list of the required ingredients to them.” Cadence spoke to Terry and then turned to her assistants. “Check what we have in stock and compile all available information on those that are missing.”

Cadence turned towards Terry and the others. “You all must be tired.” She spoke with concern. “I’ll have rooms prepared for all of you.”

***

“...so it’s like soul spirits?” Siling tilted her head and looked at Cadence.

“...” Cadence’s face stiffened and her eyelid twitched.

Siling blinked innocently and waited for a response.

“No, the Bright Lady is not like a soul spirit.” Cadence’s tone shifted between grumpiness and amusement. Eventually, she chuckled and shook her head. “Is everyone in Arcana like that or just the people around Terry?”

“Hm?” Siling creased her brows. “Like what?”

“Oh, they must be done now,” exclaimed Cadence. She and Siling returned to the others.

A short while later, a blur of red hair whizzed into the group and hugged Terry.

“Terry!” Emily exclaimed happily. She loosened her hug and looked quizzically at Terry. “Is Big Brother back too?”

“Oh? Young elven women rushing into your embrace? Is that the kind of training you did here, Terry?” Siling spoke up in a teasing tone.

Terry chuckled drily and looked at Siling with a forced deadpan expression. “Are you implying that I beat you in the spars without having trained properly?”

Siling gasped with a scandalized expression and turned to Lori. “Terry is getting cheeky. When did that start?”

Lori snorted amusedly.

Emily giggled. “I can vouch for Terry having trained properly.”

“Yeah, I know,” said Siling and held out a hand. “You must be Emily. I’m—”

“Siling,” said Emily and shook Siling’s hand. “Terry has told me about the dungeon trip with the inscribed earth giant.” She moved her eyes over the rest of the group. “You must be Lori, Miguel…” She greeted and then paused before Calam.

Calam blushed profusely. “Uh…” He moved a hand to his nape. “I wasn’t in the dungeon, I’m—”

“Calam,” said Emily. “Terry told me about you too.”

Calam’s blush intensified until his face could rival a tomato.

Terry squinted at Emily. “Are you secretly trying to confirm your perception of their mana signatures?”

Emily grinned sheepishly. “Perhaps.”

“Gosh, Terry, you can’t just spill a woman’s secrets like that,” protested Siling.

“Pleased to meet all of you,” said Emily and made a short bow.

“Emily, I need your help,” said Terry in a serious tone that stood in stark contrast to the cheerful mood before. Terry explained the situation and about the required ingredients.

“O-of course,” muttered Emily. “Instructor Dhruv told me to keep the earth in which I have raised the seed because it has many uses. I have a lot more than what you require. I can get all of it right now.”

***

“Terry, what did I tell you about suicidal activities?” Wallace’s voice reached Terry, who had been chatting with Siling.

“Uh, not to engage in them?” Terry smiled wryly. “Greetings, Wallace.”

“Exactly! So why are you returning to this wasted city while there are several bounties on your head?” Wallace walked up to Terry. Wallace’s gaze caught the sight of his daughter with several other people whose mana signatures screamed Arcana. He narrowed his eyes. “And why are you bringing young, blushing, elven men with you?” He looked at Terry with exasperation. “What did I ever do to you?”

“Heh, are you sure that you only need to worry about the elven men?” Siling had a mischievous grin on her lips. “Your daughter is quite charming.”

Wallace blinked a few times while looking at Siling without any further reaction. Then, he looked up in thought. He raised a palm. “On the one hand, there is still the risk that my little angel will get her heart broken.” He raised his other palm. “On the other hand, there is no risk of you knocking my angel up and abandoning her afterwards. So…” Wallace lowered his hands and looked at Siling. “You have my blessings. I’m cheering for you. You should invite her to Arcana sometime. How about right now? Should I tell you her preference in pastries? How about I teach you her favorite dishes? I have time, we can start in a minute.”

“Uhh…” Siling’s mouth opened several times without her finding the words to respond. She turned to Terry with a befuddled and helpless expression. “That, uhh, was not the response I expected.”

“I’m sure your own father can sympathize,” said Wallace with a wry smile.

“I wouldn’t know.” Siling shrugged and turned to Wallace. “I don’t remember my dad, and my mom is quite tight-lipped on the topic. From what I could piece together, he turned crazy or something.”

“Oh good,” exclaimed Wallace with eyes wide open. “That means I’ve fulfilled today’s quota for putting my foot in my mouth.” His mouth contorted as if he had swallowed something disgusting. “Always good to get that out of the way early.”

Terry fidgeted with his hands. He had noticed in the past that Siling never spoke about her early childhood – different to Miguel and the others. Then again, Terry knew that he was not in a position to judge what is normal or not, especially when it came to early childhood experiences. Perhaps Miguel and Gellath were just chattier.

Siling merely shrugged with a light smile.

“Sorry about that,” said Wallace. Afterwards, he spoke in a more serious tone to Terry. “So? What brought you back to this dump? Emily has only sent me a message that you’re here, not why.”

Terry explained the situation.

“Well, crap…” Wallace grimaced and shook his head with a tired expression. “I can check with my contacts, too, but that tulip sounds troublesome.”

“We can only try,” said Terry. “In any case, we already received the leaves and the earth. Several portions even…”

Lori and Siling each carried a set of the ingredients they had acquired. Terry himself carried two more sets. One set was prepared in his normal dimensional storage and the other in the storage item that matched the dragonfly construct from Brynn.

A distant look entered Terry’s eyes. “Only without the tulip, it might be better to not send anything back...” Terry cleared his throat.

“Cadence is looking for the other ingredients as well, but…” Terry frowned slightly.

“Yeah, I would not get my hopes up on that point,” said Wallace testily. “Druid thingies aside, it would be a miracle to find something here that you cannot find in Arcana.”

“Shouldn’t there be a few ingredients in this place that can’t be gathered in Arcana?” asked Siling with a surprised tone.

“All items on the list are considered magic items,” explained Terry. “Even if one of them was gathered here, they have to register it with the administration that handles the distribution of magic items and since they’re all rare ingredients…”

“They’ll snatch it up with their grubby, little administrator fingers,” finished Wallace. He raised his hands in front of him in a horizontal position and wiggled his fingers creepily.

“Dhruv might have a lead on the four-leaved blood tulip,” said Terry with a frustrated expression. “But it’s a long shot.”

Siling sighed and moved her gaze over the area. “Huh.” She looked back at Terry. “Have you noticed how everyone is looking at you here?”

“Hm?” Terry raised an eyebrow. “What about it?”

“Leaving the cultists aside, there are so many that are avoiding your gaze – almost as if they’re afraid or something,” muttered Siling. “Intimidated. Definitely giving off submissive vibes…” Her brows furrowed. “What kind of reputation do you have in this place?”

“Hm…” Terry looked around. “I believe I may have faced some of them in combat practice.”

Siling snorted. “Did you offer them hugs as well?”

“Not exactly…” Terry made a wry expression.

***

Lori, Miguel, and Siling were waiting for Terry at the training grounds in the Libra Outpost.

“Oh look, the murderer’s friends are here.” A human man in silver robes spoke with disdain. Although he was not a channeler himself, he was accompanied by several of the channelers that had confronted Terry on the gravel road to the outpost.

“I heard that they’re even Guardians,” spat one of the channelers.

“Some Guardians they are,” added another. “Despicable.”

“Before you continue this conversation, you should understand that the next time I’ll have you eat a stone wall, I’ll make it spiky,” hissed Lori.

“Big words for such a small person,” growled the silver-robed man.

Miguel snorted. “Careful that you don’t bite off more than you can chew, big guy.”

“I won’t cower before a murderer and his lackeys.” The silver-robed man glared at them with disgust.

“Yeah, what kind of Guardians are you?” demanded one of the channelers. “Are all Arcanian Guardians as shameless as you?”

“Are you intentionally ignoring that this Willow woman colluded with a lunatic mass murderer?” retorted Miguel indignantly. “Who is the shameless one here? No Guardian should have ever tried to shield such scum. As I see it, you people are a joke.” Miguel involuntarily raised his voice while his anger overcame him. “These bastards even murdered the Divine Hammer and you still can’t see what’s going on. Are you really that dense or are you working hard to maintain that level of ignorance?” He spat: “People like you calling yourselves Guardians is a bloody disgrace.”

Lori blinked with mouth agape. She could not remember ever seeing such an outburst from Miguel. She jerkily shook her head and added: “The only murderer was the one Willow invited so that she and those with her could follow in his footsteps. Shameful.”

“How dare you!” shouted one of the channelers.

The silver-robed man placed a hand on his friend’s shoulders. He glared at Miguel and Lori. “You dare call us ignorant? In contrast to my friends, you weren’t even here when everything happened! Where do you find the gall to accuse them of ignorance?”

“I know my brother,” said Lori firmly. “And I’m damn sure I know him better than any of you knew that Willow.”

Miguel nodded.

“Exactly,” added Siling. “Anyone that has ever spent some time with Terry knows that he’s truly a sheep in sheep’s clothing.” She grinned when she could see her odd description shortly wash the anger from Lori’s face. “Only he’s the kind of sheep that can bite a wolf to death.”

Miguel exhaled a short snort.

“As if anyone would believe your words,” spat a channeler with a shaved head and iron scale armor. He glanced at Lori. “His sister and…” He looked at Siling with disgust. “A self-mutilated soul. I saw that soul creature of yours earlier. Such vile magic. No wonder you grouped up with a murderer. Abominable people get along it seems.”

“If you don’t like your teeth, I can help you lose a few,” growled Lori and stepped forward.

Siling looked warmly at Lori and then put a hand on Lori’s shoulder to calm her down. “Don’t mind it, Lori.” Siling smiled coldly at the channeler. “I’m actually flattered. I have indeed customized my soul to my tastes, thanks for noticing. I can do that because, after all, I still own my soul. Do you even remember what that feels like, cultist?”

Miguel pressed his lips together and raised his eyebrows. He was impressed with how much cold disdain Siling could put into a single word. Even the highest praise would sound like the most horrible insult when spoken in that tone.

Siling’s thin smile turned even thinner. “Excuse my bluntness, but being insulted on how I treat my soul by someone who has sold his own sounds like a compliment in my ears.”

“YOU!” The channeler’s face flushed from anger. “You—”

“If you don’t like this conversation, there is a very easy solution,” interrupted Siling while raising her hand. Her gaze was still ice-cold. “Go away. Leave us alone. Stop forcing your presence on us.”

The channeler clenched his fists with unconcealed anger. He felt the hand of the silver-robed man on his shoulder. His friend was looking at him. “Don’t. Let’s go. They’re not worth it.” The silver-robed man gave one more glance at Lori and the others. “Shameless.”

“Right back at you,” retorted Miguel with a sneer.

“Uhh…” Calam stepped into the round. He had jogged over as soon as he saw the confrontation between the two groups. “What did I miss?”

“A bunch of pest beetles shit-talking Terry,” grumbled Lori with a scowl.

“Really?” Calam puffed his cheeks. “Huh.” He shrugged. “I just talked to two people who had nothing but respect for Terry. Apparently, they were students of the Divine Hammer.” He looked around. “Where is Terry? I’m also supposed to greet him from an instructor called Rachel.”

“He heard that the local smith was packing up and leaving the city,” said Lori. “He wanted to give her some interesting materials as a farewell gift.”

***