A/N: I don't know how this idea crawled into my head, but it happened while listening to Jubyphonic's cover of Death Should Not Have Taken Thee! Hence the title and the art style on the cover I drew.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoy it!

Spoiler warning, as this story takes place during and then after the third story arc.


After Frey meets an unfortunate end in Rune Prana, the gods, impressed with Frey's valiance, decide to give her a spirit a second go at life. Of course, reincarnation is hardly simple thing…


Death Should Not Have Taken Thee!


"Alas, valiant heroine, Death should not have taken thee! Your heart is strong and noble, and you let it bleed you dry for love."

"Ah, but life is not something we simply can just give you back. Such is not the way of the world. The Native Dragon was a rare exception."

"But imagine the mortal world without hearts like hers! They are a gift few and far between. Give it back to her."

"But her body was destroyed…"

"Then make a new one!"
"It's not that simple."

"Then give her heart to someone else!"

"Hush, hush! We'll work out something in due time..."


Despite being of noble birth, Arthur had never known much about swordplay—or the men and women behind the blades. He had dedicated his time to his work, and what little he did know about combat involved the magical arts. He had never known swordplay could be so interesting—or how fascinating the people behind them could be.

He sat on the counter of the small shop connecting to his home. In the square before him, Forte and Luna were busy with their training sessions everyone had become so accustomed to.

It was an incredible sight. Despite both wielding swords, albeit of drastically different shapes and sizes, the women's fighting styles were not at all identical. The knight strong and methodical, delivering harsh blows with such force that the prince was amazed, albeit unendingly thankful, that his daughter was able to parry them. Luna, on the other hand, focused on speed rather than strength. Her blade's contact with Forte's was almost constant, but the damage it dealt was hardly devastating.

Since her mother had begun her quest to bring back Ventuswill from Rune Prana seven years ago, Luna had deiced to take up swordplay in hopes of one day assisting Frey in her quest. Of course, being only seven years ago seven years ago, Arthur had completely forbid Luna from going anywhere near Leon Karnak, much less Rune Prana. Frey had been equally as reluctant to let her daughter accompany her.

Arthur shifted uncomfortably as he thought of his wife. Every time she returned home from her journey, sometimes weeks after leaving, she was always so haggard. I know I'm getting close, she'd say. Ventuswill will be home with us soon, she'd declare.

But seven years later, Arthur was becoming more than doubtful. When his wife came home too exhausted and beat up to even meet his eyes, it made Arthur wish that she'd focus on living instead of on the dead. He felt guilty for feeling that way, but he felt it all the same.

The two fighters suddenly ceased, and Arthur, tucking his book underneath his arm, began to clap for them. The women, almost unaware of his presence after battling with such focus, acknowledged him—Forte with a polite nod as she sheathed her sword and Luna with an excited jump and smile.

"Did you see, dad? I won today!"

Returning the smile, Arthur ceased clapping as Luna moved closer. "I did. I'm very proud of you, Luna."

"A true knight in the making." Forte commented, prompting a light-hearted laugh from Luna.

"I'm not that good."

Forte cocked an eyebrow and laughed. "Well, you beat me! So you must be."

Luna looked down at her feet, a huge smile still plastered to her face. "Thank you for teaching me, Forte."

"Are you two finished for the morning?"Arthur asked.

They both nodded.

"Oh, good! Would you like to join me somewhere cooler for a little bit? You work so hard."

Luna turned to Forte, who shook her head, "I apologize, but I have plans for the rest of the day."

"Oh, dear. Well, have a nice day!"

With a final nod, Forte made her way to the stairs and was gone, leaving the prince and his daughter standing alone in the square.

Arthur was determined to convince Luna to accompany him, even if she declined his invitation. If he had to be by himself any longer, he felt he might drop dead from the impact of overwhelming loneliness. Frey was gone so often, Arthur was always busy with work, and Luna was a teenager with lessons to learn and mission to accomplish. Arthur almost couldn't remember the last time the three of them had spent time together as a family.

Luna didn't need any convincing, "Sure, I'd love to, Dad."

Luna's eyes lit up like stars as she hopped into place next to Arthur. He laughed, and the two of them followed the same path as Forte until they came to the lake. Still heavily impressed with what he had seen on the battlefield, Arthur began to ask questions about the art of swordplay. Luna answered all of them happily and in great detail, occasionally falling into unrelated stories. Arthur listened carefully, absorbing each and every word like a sponge. It only made him miss Frey more.

When their conversation was interrupted by Luna's growling stomach, Arthur and Luna walked until they came to Porcoline's restaurant. Luna joked casually about how Arthur's work must have been calling to him as the two sat down at the table nearest to the door near Arthur's office. Unsurprisingly, the usually occupied restaurant was full of townspeople and travelers. With a smile, Margaret jumped towards their table and took their order—happy to see Arthur and Luna at the same time—and rushed it to Dylas and Porcoline before quickly returning to the table to chat.

"Hey, guys!" she beamed. "Having a nice day?"

"So far," Arthur smiled, "and you?"

"Busy as usual, but it's nothing the three of us can't handle!" Margaret replied, gesturing towards her coworkers with her arm.

Another customer walked in, and Margaret rushed to serve them. Luna and Arthur two sat in silence for awhile—Luna starring with wide eyes at Dylas as he expertly snatched dishes away from Porcoline and passed them to Margaret. After what seemed, to her, like an eternity, Luna snapped back to attention. She opened her mouth to speak but quickly shut it when she saw that her father had fallen asleep. She giggled and then sat quietly. To see Arthur sleeping was a rare occurrence.

Only moments passed before he was jolted awake as the door slammed open. He attempted to act as if he'd never shut his eyes.

"I don't believe this!" boomed Doug as he stepped into the room with Kiel and a wooly following behind. "How could I lose to… that!"

The wooly hurried onward as if the dwarf wasn't pointing at him. Ignoring his shouting, the wooly curled up happily underneath the piano.

Keil also walked past Doug, casually waving a hand as he passed by and made his way to an open table. "Technically, you lost to me too. Fluffy is my monster, after all."

"Shut up!" Doug huffed. "At least that makes sense. You know magic!"

"Weaponry doesn't make the fighter, Doug." Keil laughed. "The fighter makes the weaponry."

"That still doesn't make sense!"

Luna couldn't help herself from intervening. "Oh, Dad and I were having a chat just like that earlier!"

Kiel turned to face Luna. "Really?"

"Oh, yes." Arthur replied, still trying to recover from sleep and doing his best not to focus on how adorable Fluffy looked. He continued with a light laugh. "Luna was telling me about her training sessions with Forte."

The sound of his sister's name lit up Kiel's face. The earlier conversation between father and daughter was revived and the room was soon swarmed towards their table. Each person had something interesting to offer, and the conversation seemed to go on for hours. The sun painted the sky from blue to pink to orange outside, and the moon splattered it black and white. People came and went, and in the end only residents of the town remained.

"I guess a 'little bit' turned into 'all day,' didn't it, Dad?" Luna said.

"I suppose it did." Arthur smiled. "I enjoyed today very much."

"Me too!"

"I second that!" Kiel said, throwing his hand up into the air unnecessarily out of excitement. "But, um, I should probably get home now. Forte should be there any minute now. Her patrol ends around this time."

Doug shook his head and pointed out the window. "I don't think you have to worry about that, man. She's coming this way, and fast."

"What? That's weird." Kiel said as he stood from his chair and leaned over the table to get a better look. "What's she running for?"

Luna narrowed her eyes and snapped up from her seat. "She must have found something wrong during her patrol."

Just as panic began to form in the room, Forte burst through the door.


Wandering aimlessly didn't seem like such a waste of time when your head was entirely empty. Alone and completely unsure of his whereabouts, a young man walked without direction for what felt like hours. The experience felt surreal—as if he hadn't ever existed until that specific point in time. He saw trees, and he knew that they were trees, but he couldn't help be filled with awe. Of course he'd seen trees before. He must have seen them but by god these trees. Somehow they still felt new to him.

He was pretty sure it was weird that he was more impressed by the trees than the giant tower he'd woken up by. He had absolutely no idea why he'd fallen asleep there, but he definitely didn't want to stay after he quickly caught the attention of nearby monsters. Why in the world had he chosen to fall asleep in a place swarming with monsters?

He touched the hilt of his sword in his scabbard, neither of which he remembered the origins of, and assumed he must have been pretty damn awesome when he saw the blade. Of course he wouldn't be afraid of sleeping near monsters with a weapon like this.

Of course, at present, he had no idea how to use it. At least he thought he had no idea how to use it. That was kind of weird too…

He wrinkled his nose and pulled the blade from the scabbard—or at least halfway. Narrowing his eyes, he snorted with a mix of frustration and amusement as he fumbled with the sword, doing his best to free it from his belt.

He hardly expected that all the noise he was making would alert a nearby knight doing her routine patrol. Without so much as a whisper, she emerged from the darkness and expertly unsheathed her blade. The man dropped his efforts in shock and threw his hands up to the stars.

"Halt!" the woman cried, holding her sword only inches away from the man's face. "Who are you, and why are you sneaking around so late?"

Why had he been doing that? And… Oh god, what was his name? What kind of weirdo didn't know his own name?

"Lest!" that was it. That was totally it. His name was Lest…he thought, at least.

The knight narrowed her eyes. "Alright, and what are you doing?"

Lest looked up into the sky, and, after thinking as hard as he could, he answered honestly. "I…can't remember."

Her sword inched closer, and Lest jumped back. "Really?"

"Yes, yes, I swear!"

She eyed him warily for a few more moments before finally sheathing her sword. "Well, alright… Please excuse me, but it is my priority to protect this town."

With a relieved sigh, Lest lowered his arms. "I understand. I guess I did look pretty weird creeping around out here in the dark."

"I'm Forte." the knight said. "Let me take you into town. There's an inn you can stay at."

Lest shook his head. "Oh, thanks! But I don't think I have any money..."

Forte cocked an eyebrow, and Lest quickly peeked into his pockets and the bag on his belt. "Nope. No money."

Forte smiled. "Don't worry. I'm sure they'll be more than willing to help you once I explain your situation."
"Well, if you're sure..."

"I am."

Without any further objections, Lest followed Forte into town, stealing only one final glance back at the scenery behind him.


Before taking him to the inn like she had originally planned, Forte dropped Lest off at the clinic for a medical exam. Relieved that Lest appeared to be completely incompetent with a sword, and thus less intimidating, Forte was still apprehensive about his sudden appearance in Selphia. When she had asked him if he could at least remember where he had come from, he had shrugged and pointed to the dark silhouette of Leon Karnak towering in the distance. The response made Forte stiffen. It was hardly any reason to classify the newcomer as dangerous, but it certainly was an interesting bit of information. Lest claimed he couldn't remember anything before waking up there.

She had been intrigued enough when Frey had come to town with amnesia. Forte had never imagined meeting anyone else with the condition.

The knight's suspicious train of thought crashed when she noticed yet another very non-routine element of her routine patrol. Most people would hardly consider feathers non-routine, but something about the one Forte saw lying in the street struck cord in her heart.

"Is that…?" Sure enough, Forte's suspicions were confirmed when she approached the object. She could recognize it anywhere. There was no mistaking a feather that came from the Native Dragon.

Her eyes widened as she examined the object in her hands—not quite believing what she was seeing. Without thinking about it, she bolted in the direction of the castle. Her mind raced with millions of thoughts at once, but every last one of them crashed and shattered as she saw exactly what she had been hoping too when she reached her destination.

Forte bolted towards Porcoline's restaurant, where she assumed most of the town would beat this hour, and nearly fell flat on the floor when she stormed in. She shouted her message loud enough for people down the street to hear her.

"Ventuswill is back!"