A/N: New Chapter! I hope you enjoy this one. This is a preeeeetty long one lol. Try not to skim through this one, it's a very important chapter.
Panicked about Leif's wellbeing. Seliph ran toward Manster. He hoped he was alive and well. Then, upon arriving on the outskirts of Manster, Seliph was met with Finn, who was guarding the outside. "Sir Finn? What are you doing here? Where's Leif?"
"No need to worry," Finn ensured, "Lord Leif is simply finishing off Bishop Veld from the underground part of the castle. I'm simply here to prevent reinforcements."
"I see then, so I suppose his army doesn't need our help."
Just then, Leif appeared from inside of Manster. "Oh! Lord Seliph! Bishop Veld has been defeated, and north Thracia has been restored!"
"Good job, Prince Leif! It seems like we made it just in time too! Now you and your army can finally rest!"
"No, Lord Seliph. I offer you my help to end this war. Not all of us will stay, but the ones who decided to stay will do their best to aid you, I promise!"
"Well, regardless, I hope I can be a good leader to them as well!"
Then, one by one, different people from Leif's army went outside. One of them was a blonde swordmaster, a black-haired swordmaster and a hero accompanied her. Patty and Faval ran to her in excitement. "Mother!" Patty shouted and ran toward her, "Is that you!?"
"I'm sorry, but I think you are mistaking me for someone else. I am a simple swordmaster of Fiana. Eyvel is the name."
"Oh...I see. I'm sorry you just looked like our mother."
"Well, you are not the first ones to confuse me with someone else. Finn told me I looked a lot like a sniper named Brigid."
"You really do look like her!" Faval chimed in, "And just when we thought we would reunite with her…"
"I suppose so…"
"I know it is you, Brigid. Trust me; you will regain your memories someday, I'm certain." Finn interrupted.
Eyvel shook her head. "I simply don't think you're right Finn, the only daughter I have is Mareeta, as well as Nanna and Leif. Even if all of them are by adoption, I love them as my own."
"I don't know if this will help, but...this is the Legendary bow, Yewfelle. It was your weapon when you fought by Sir Sigurd's side 18 years ago...I remember you telling us that your sister, Edain, gave it to you, and you regained your memories...hope it does the same now...at least a bit." Faval said before handing the bow to Eyvel.
Eyvel took it and held it for a while; she stayed silent for a moment before saying, "I-I think I vaguely remember something...I remember being given this very same bow by my sister...I was a pirate back then, she then gave me this bow and everything came back to me...I also remember fighting alongside Lord Sigurd...Falling in love with a hero named Holyn...the last I remember is being surrounded by mages, meteors falling from the sky...Gods, it's horrible…" She then fell. Luckily, Faval reacted fast enough for her not to hit the ground.
"Mother! Mother! Are you feeling alright?"
"She seems to have fainted from the sudden impact of those memories…"
"We must take her back to Fiana, Mareeta! Osian! Aid her back home!" Finn shouted.
"Will do!" They both exclaimed as they carried Eyvel into the carriage that was leaving them.
"I'm sorry I have to leave on such short notice…" Mareeta admitted.
"Take care out there, Leif; the opponents will be tougher from now on," Osian said, patting Leif's shoulder.
"I will, Osian. I will miss you two on my side, but please take care of Eyvel and Fiana."
"Got it! See you, Leif!" They both waved at him and left for Fiana.
"I promise I'll visit Fiana when the war is over!" Leif shouted and waved back as he saw the carriage leave.
"Julius! Julius!" Nanna called, causing Julius to turn around enthusiastically.
"Nanna! Diarmuid! You're back! Did you make it alright?"
"Yes, we're alright! No need to worry about us!" Diarmuid said before turning to Nanna. "Nanna, you told me you wanted to tell me something once we liberated Manster. So, what is it?"
"Oh yeah! We need to tell Ares too! Where is he?"
"I think I last saw him in the city. He must be there with Lene."
"We should go find him then! Sorry to keep you waiting, Diarmuid!"
"I must admit that my curiosity is killing me, but it's okay. I can wait a bit more!"
"Then let's get going!"
They go into the decently sized city, and before long, they see Ares. He was alongside Lene, he seemed to be carrying a lot of bags; they looked to be heavy. Lene giggled upon seeing Ares's state, then proceeded to skip around to the next shop. As they were going to go in, Nanna shouted,
"Ares! Do you have a moment? I need to tell you something!" Nanna said as everyone ran toward him.
Ares put all the bags down on the ground and sighed, "Sure. What is it, Nanna?"
Nanna took a couple of deep breaths, preparing herself for what she was about to say. Clasping her hands together, she said, "Well... now that everyone is here, I wanted to tell you that...We are all family! Julius is our cousin!"
"Oh! Th-that's definitely a surprise! But no matter, I am glad to have you in our family Julius." Diarmuid replied, smiling.
"Hmm, okay," Ares simply said.
"Hey Ares, what is that reaction? You should be happy to find your family!" Lene exclaimed, gently hitting Ares's arm.
"I mean...I am but...I don't really see much difference." Ares shrugged.
"Well, I'll leave you in your little family reunion! I'll be shopping over there if you need me! Have fun, Ares, and don't be too gloomy!" Lene chirped before skipping away.
"Do not worry, Ares, you are fine. I'm glad to have everyone here as my family! I thought I lost everything, but knowing you are all here makes me happy!" Julius said.
"Alright, then. I think I'll go check up on Lene now," Ares said before turning around and walking away.
Nanna sighed and then said, "Well, that's Ares for ya. Anyways, do you want to do anything together? You know, to rest from all this fighting and everything."
"I'm up for it! If we have some time, that is!" Diarmuid replied.
"I think we have a few hours! So let us go through more of the city. I think I saw somewhere where we could dine for the afternoon." Julius beamed.
"Sounds good! Let's go then and have a nice time together!"
When the three stepped into the tavern, they could see that the city of Manster was quite...rich in their interior design. Much different compared to Alster or Leonster. Looking around, Julius found a seat where they could all sit. They then took their order and waited.
"Okay, everyone, I hope we're all doing great! I'd like to know you better. Since we've been separated for a very long time, I'd like to know how you've been doing!" Nanna said, turning to her brother.
"I suppose I'll be the first one to speak. Well, I don't remember much, but I somehow ended up in Tirnanog with Seliph and the others. We trained hard to take over the empire one day, and then while I was on a scouting mission with Lester and Oifey, Tirnanog was burned into nothing but ash. I wish I could've protected Seliph...he's been...quite vulnerable, let's say, ever since the village burned down."
"I see, it must've been hard to lose your home...I have lost mine too, I've had to move to many different places with Finn and Leif so the empire wouldn't find us. From Alster to Tahra, and then to the village of Fiana. They destroyed the places we called home. But we are safe now… anyways, Julius, mind telling us your story?"
Julius was taken a little off guard when Nanna asked that. "I uh, admittedly don't know much. However, when I was just a child...my mother died. I was taken to a place near - where was it? - Belhalla? Silesse? I don't recall. If it weren't for Lord Lewyn, I probably would've forgotten everything about what happened."
"You had it rough, Julius...we all have...I suppose it's why we're here to support each other." Nanna said.
"Yeah, and I'm happy to know you're here to support me, to support all of us. What would I do without you?" Diarmuid said.
"I promise you. I won't get myself killed. I'm going to stay by your side to support you all!" Nanna assured.
"I will live to protect you! If you are ever in danger, I'll be there to save you!" Diarmuid exclaimed.
"I want to live for Lord Leif! I want to make him happy!" Nanna exclaimed.
"You will make him happy, Nanna!" Julius said. "I'm sure of it!"
"Hey, Nanna. I've noticed you getting closer to Prince Leif; you look at him with this sense of happiness. I've never felt it myself, but the way you look at him gives me the feeling you like him." Diarmuid remarked, causing Nanna to look down at the table in embarrassment.
"I-I admit I do kind of admire him. I mean, I've been close with him ever since I was a child," Nanna stuttered, face a tinted red.
"Don't be shy, sister. I know you can win him over!" Diarmuid grabbed her and looked her in the eye. "I'm sure he loves you too!"
"I-I thank you, Brother! I will confess my feelings… soon."
"Hey, Nanna, I believe in you as well!" Julius smiled.
Soon enough, their food was ready, and after that, they ate their food and did some small talk. The three of them enjoyed every second of it; Julius felt closer to them now. He wished things could stay like this. Perhaps when the war concluded and Julia and the Loptyr Cult were defeated. They could come back to the same little place in Manster; he was sure they'd enjoy it.
Then once Diarmuid took a bag of gold he had and placed it on the table, he said, "We should head back to Lord Seliph. He might be wondering where we are right now."
"We should. He must be worried…" Julius said, and Nanna and Diarmuid agreed. So they went out of the tavern and made their way toward the castle.
"Hey! How about we do this again sometime?" Nanna requested.
Julius nodded enthusiastically. "I would love to! I haven't had this much fun for as long as I can remember!"
"Yes, sister! We should invite Ares along as well next time! If he's willing to, that is." Diarmuid chuckled.
"We'll take him by force if we have to!" Nanna giggled.
Then the three of them reached the castle, and then they went to prepare for the journey to Meath.
Seliph went inside toward the throne room and saw what looked to be the well known Ced. "Ced the Brave, I presume? I couldn't possibly thank you enough for all you've done for the people of Manster."
"Lord Seliph... I'm so glad you're here at last."
"Y-You were expecting me? Sure I've gone a long way until now, but I didn't think people would wait for me to save them...I'm not that special..."
"Sire, I implore you! Save this world! Too many of us have already given into despair... The Empire has robbed the city of Manster of countless young children. All were sent to shrines in Miletos... I... I couldn't save even a single child. Me, brave? Hah! I hardly deserve such a lofty label. I'm just another coward…"
"That isn't true, Ced! If anything, I'm the one who doesn't deserve a title! If I were to fight alone, I know that there'd be precious little that I could do. It was uniting the strength of my friends, a team effort, which brought us this far! And I believe that your strength could be a valuable part of our cause. Please, Ced the Brave. Grant us your power!"
"I...Thank you, sire... You'll have my loyalty, no matter what!"
"Ced...? Cedsy! It IS you!" Fee cheered from outside and then ran toward the throne room.
"Fee?! Is something the matter?" Ced gasped.
"Where's Karin? Is she okay?"
"Yes, she's alright. She's with Leif's army, safe and well. But what are you doing here?"
"I've been looking for you, of course! I mean, you've been gone from Silesse for so long, and we had no idea where you were!"
"I know, Fee, and I'm sorry... See, what happened was I was passing through Manster in my search for the Valkyrie Staff. I would've moved on, but the people's plight was nothing short of heartbreaking. I found some fighters, now known as the Magi, trying to save children. And I offered to help them. I couldn't just leave Manster to waste away..."
"I should've known. That is so like you, Cedsy! And here I was, almost starting to forget why you're so incredible."
"You're with the liberation army, then?"
"Yep! I just knew I had to help Lord Seliph!" She chirped.
"Is that so... You're even more like Mother than I thought! Not once in her life did she ever turn her back on someone in need."
"You're just like her, too, Cedsy... Poor Mom, though. Just thinking about how Dad died…she never stopped crying..."
" Mm...I wish he would've managed to survive the Belhalla Massacre..."
Just then, Arthur ran toward Fee and hunched down to catch his breath. "I'm back. What did I miss?"
"Arthur! You're back! By the way! Cedsy! This is Arthur! My good ol' fightin' partner!" Fee changed the topic, taking Arthur's arm and pulling him toward Ced. Arthur slightly waved at Ced, but Ced didn't return the gesture.
"It's you…" Ced said to Arthur. "You're him!"
"Oh, Wh-what do you mean?" Arthur asked nervously.
"You're the prince of Silesse, the true prince!"
"Oh! I...suppose I am…"
"Where were you all this time!?" Ced interrogated, tone starting to sound brusque.
"What do you mean? I was living on the streets out in Silesse! I had no knowledge that I was a prince until just recently!"
"Well, you should've known because I had to play the 'Prince of Silesse' for years because King Lewyn was gone, and my mother was the only one who could rule Silesse."
"What…? I-"
"It's your fault here, Prince! Why did you leave your country to rot?"
"What!? Did you not hear me when I said I was living alone?! Sure, my father was an ass, but that doesn't define who I am!"
"You should've shown yourself! You wield the tome of Forseti. It was obvious you are part of the royal family!"
"Cedsy! Calm down! Arthur means no harm! He's a sweet person when you get to know him, sure he has a very short temper, but he's been through a lot."
"I-I just wanted to find my sister...I was told she had gone through abuse from Hilda and Blume as well as my mother...I wanted to make sure to stop them from harming her...
"...Oh...I see...well, I'm still a little annoyed, but I apologize greatly for my harshness…" Ced replied.
"So...why did you leave Fee? She's been looking for you for some time now."
"Well...I had to search for my father's holy weapon, the holy staff of Valkyria, because my mother fell ill and only my father knew how to cure her. I ended up getting sidetracked by leading the Magi. And just my luck, my mother had departed this world…"
"Have you found the staff yet, Cedsy?" Fee suddenly asked.
Ced shook his head. "Sadly, no...I learned that it's under the guard of Hilda from House Friege, who is taking over Miletos..."
"Are you still going to try and find it? Despite knowing mother is gone?" Fee asked.
Ced nodded. "Yes...even if I may never put it to use. I will still have it with me, as proof that I am the Duke of Edda."
"Then we should head after it as soon as possible!" Fee exclaimed.
"We shall. I will follow Lord Seliph because maybe we'll end up in Miletos. I must find my father's staff."
Suddenly, Seliph got ambushed by a Dracoknight; he did not get any time to dodge, so while ignoring the pain in his arm, he used his sword to kill the dragon rider as quickly as possible. "We're under attack!" He shouted, causing the others to look up and ready themselves for the sudden onslaught of Dracoknights.
Getting back on her pegasus Mahnya, Fee grabbed her brave lance and commanded Mahnya to take to the skies. Before proceeding to take down a few of the Dracoknights with ease. Despite having a lot of staves, the main thing Ced had was a Light Tome, one of the rarest types of magic. Without any sort of struggle, Ced took the rest of the dragons down. Then hunched down to catch his breath afterward.
Finally, Arthur took down the commander with a simple Elwind tome and then sighed. "Well, that was awfully quick. Thought there'd be more, honestly."
"Something tells me there are going to be more of them," Seliph said. "They wouldn't just ambush us entirely without so many Wyverns at once."
"I suppose so," Ced said, closing his light tome and putting it back in his satchel. "South Thracia is known for its fierce Dracoknight force, we must be careful."
"Ced is right, we must be careful as we make our way to Meath, which is past the border between both North and South Thracia."
"We should most likely keep watch tonight." Leif suddenly interrupted. "They might continue to send out more Dracoknights while we're asleep."
"He is right...We should leave our more capable allies to guard duty."
"I will stay, I have some experience facing those types of enemies." Finn chimed in.
"We trust you, Finn. We will leave you to be in charge of guard duty when night falls. You'll also be in charge of who gets to guard after you."
"Interesting maneuver Lord Leif. I will do what I can!"
Later on in the evening, when he got everything prepared for the next day. Julius went inside the library.
"Hey, Julius! I see you remembered!"
"Yes! Now get ready, I will start teaching you the basics of light magic!"
"Sounds good!"
Once Julius managed to teach the basics to Salem, Salem then asked, "How did you learn to use light magic in the first place?"
"Ah, my mother was...quite potent at light magic because of her heritage. So I suppose I passed on that trait."
"I learned dark magic because...well...I used to work for the Loptyr Church."
"Oh! The...Loptyr Church...that's...interesting." Julius stuttered. His mind panicking, he tried his best to not hyperventilate. 'Ah shit, I'm talking to a former Loptyrian.'
"Well I don't really use it much, the tomes were too heavy. So I decided to use wind magic instead, a boy named Asvel who is in Leif's army gave me this tome!"
"Ohhhh, that's interesting. But hmmm, I've heard a lot about the Loptyr Church. I've also heard they're searching for Lord Seliph." Julius then casted a small ball of light from his tome and looked at it skulkingly.
"Lord Seliph, hm? Yeah, the Loptyr Church has been prioritizing looking for Seliph more than anything. When I refused to do so, they almost killed me, I'm lucky I made it out alive thanks to Perne."
"But...why are they searching for Lord Seliph?"
"He's been rumored to have-"
KABOOM
Julius jumped. 'What in the world was that?' he thought.
"W-What just happened?"
"I'll go check, hopefully, nothing bad!" Julius said. Heart beating at an incredibly fast pace, he felt himself almost run without even trying to. As he went outside of the Castle he saw Diarmuid, along with Fee and Patty on the ground laughing.
"D-Diarmuid! What's going on!?" Julius asked, utterly terrified.
"Oh! Julius! I was just...testing out this new sword I bought at the armory. It's a flame sword, but from what the shopkeeper told me, people with Fjalar blood tend to make the fire...more powerful basically."
"Oh come on! You scared me half to death!" Julius shouted.
"Diarmuiiiiid, give me the sword!" Patty demanded, still laughing.
"Now now, Patty, you could endanger yourself with it!"
"I'll be careful! Just give it to me already!"
Just then, the flame sword was swiped out of Diarmuid's hands, but not by Patty. "Wh- Oh! Hi Oifey!" Diarmuid said, he then looked around and saw Fee and Patty running away. "Hey, don't leave me alone in this!"
Oifey glared at him. "Nobody gets to have it until you learn to be responsible. These weapons are not things to play with, especially magic ones. You could've burned down someone's home for all I know!"
"I-I'm sorry. I-I'll be sure to be careful! The kids wanted me to try it out! I had no idea it would burn an entire hole in the ground."
People then started appearing from inside the castle, one of them was especially pissed off. "What the fuck was that!? I was trying to sleep!" Arthur shouted angrily.
"Arthur! Ahahaha, sorry…"
"Go back to sleep!" Arthur yelled.
"Why were you asleep anyway? We just finished our meals," Julius questioned.
"What are you talking about? It's past dusk! Where were you?"
Julius then looked up at the sky, it was almost black. He didn't even notice how long he was teaching Salem light magic.
"See my point? Now let me go back to sleep!" Arthur shouted, before heading back inside.
Just then, Leif ran out of the castle, Light Brand in hand and everything. "Did the Thracian Army send dracoknights!? We need to get ready to fight them!"
"Oh, gods! The last thing I need right now is an ambush! This day was going so well too!" Nanna panicked.
"There was a simple misunderstanding," Oifey said, eyeing Diarmuid. "Because someone decided to be up late shooting things with his new sword."
Nanna glared at her brother in the midst of the darkness. "Brother! What were you thinking?"
Diarmuid put his hands up. "Hey, hey don't blame me! Patty and Fee wanted me to do it!"
"Why did you let those children encourage you to use it knowing full well the power that withholds it!?" Oifey grumbled.
"I-I didn't think it'd go that way."
Oifey rubbed his forehead in anguish. "No matter, just when we head into battle tomorrow, please don't mess around. Someone could die because of it!"
"I will be careful, I promise!"
"Good. Now everyone, let's head back to bed." Oifey grunted before he looked over at Diarmuid. "Diarmuid, you get to guard the castle from Dracoknights."
"Oh come on!" Diarmuid complained.
A/N: A note, from here on out, things will start getting more intense. But for now, we have two chapters that are pretty chill. Kind of like interludes. Also, things are starting to deviate from canon more, so expect a TON of differences in the story.
Next chapter: Preparations for the winter festival. Julius and Tinni have time together.