Shortly after the two o'clock bells, Ronie, Tiese, and the two dragons come up to the stone-grey structure that is the mansion of the northern emperors. The mansion sits in the middle of a hundred mel opening in the woods, stands three stories tall, and since it has been in a state of disuse since the end of the rebellion, the flora that normally would be taken care off makes its grave in the flower beds.

Ronie couldn't warm the chilly feeling in her spine "Is this really...the emperor's villa...?"

"Well...I'll admit, the mansions on the nobles' private estates seem bigger than this. Medina's new place is definitely larger...Oh, but look." Tiese points to the large doors on the front side of the building. "It's got the crest of a lily and a hawk. Only the imperial family can use that symbol."

"True." The gate they passed earlier to enter the surrounding woods had the same symbol, the crest of Norlangarth.

"...Let's go," Tiese murmurs and leads, her juvenile dragon Shimosaki following allow with a low-hanging head. Ronie looks back to Tsukigake, checks on her, and they follow the redhead to the front doors. Once Tiese reaches the doors, she attempts to push them open using the metal handles, with no results. "They won't go?"

"No. I think they're locked."

"Well, that makes sense. So...I suppose that means there's no one inside, right?" Ronie asked that question with the assumption Tiese would agree, let go of the handles, and most likely they'll depart the creepy place.

Tiese pulls that assumption from under Ronie like a rug. "Still, a ghost doesn't get stopped by a locked door, does it?"

"What? But that doesn't mean we can do it... Wh-what are you doing?" Tiese had started groaning as she holds on to the handles. Ronie calls her name again and grabs Tiese's arm before realizing the girl was mimicking Kirito's Incarnate Lock-Picking he demonstrated the other day at the inn. "Come on...We can't even use Incarnate Arms yet; there's no way we can use it to pick a lock!" Tiese didn't look phased by Ronie's declaration, not one bit. If anything, she looks desperate to prove ghosts are real. In a time where their biggest concern is adults from the first age of the world popping up unannounced... "Tiese...why are you doing this? Is investigating some ghosts that important to you?"

Tiese exhales and lets go of the bars, keeping her face down. "Ronie...do you think ghosts are real?"

"Huh?"

If Ronie was asked that question two years ago today, shortly before she'd become Kirito's page, she absolutely says no. If she was asked after the Clamp Crisis, when sibling giants, a queen of Norlangarth's past, the guardian dragon of the west, an entire army of dark knights, and the Pontifex herself all rose from the dead due to the presence of Clamps, she'd say the possibility of ghosts is pretty high. But she's never seen a ghost, not the kind defined as a soul left wandering the earth, unable to pass to the afterlife due to great sadness or hatred. Well, Ilia told them the Reaper of the Woods had a similar description, but it was a monster, not a human soul. Administrator, Queen Kayode, and Dark Knight Commander Hektor Ul Gunther were humans, and the giants were demi-humans and had strong, lingering regrets, but they weren't ghosts but revived beings.

So, in truth, she doesn't believe in the classical definition of a ghost, not the one Tiese is looking for.

But she has seen something that could be considered ghost-like during the Otherworlder War.

When Kirito dueled the man in the black cloak that he, Jaymes, and Asuna call PoH, she saw someone stand with Kirito who she knew to be dead-Eugeo, Tiese's former mentor. And given what happened earlier this month in the western empire, it doesn't take much to deduce why they're here. "Tiese...are you...?"

Just as Ronie reaches for her friend, noise from within the mansion makes both girls face the doors. It can't be called a sound of nature, but it was something. Ronie raises her finger to her lips and presses her ear to the door. Not another sound is heard, but the earlier sound was no play of the imagination.

"We have to get in there..."

Ronie turns to her pale-faced friend, not sure if she agrees. For one, there's no chance-okay, Ronie will play along-the reasonable chance Eugeo is within the mansion of all places he could possibly haunt. If someone is inside, human and a fleshy one at that, they're here against the orders of the council and the church. Orders that are in contradiction with the Taboo Index. Orders that no normal human could-no.

Only four groups of people resist the Taboo Index-three being the Integrity Knights, the otherworlders, and the few people Ronie can name on one hand who broke the Seal of the Right Eye, like Medina and Eydis, which gives them mental freedom like the otherworlders. The fourth group is those who never adhered to the Index in the first place. She met Hersyrian back during the Clamp Crisis, and, of course, the originator of the Index herself, Administrator. It is unlikely the three other groups are involved, which leaves the last...and Ronie knows four suspected people now categorized in that placement.

An unsettling feeling swells in Ronie's chest and she's about to suggest they retreat immediately to the cathedral when Tiese and Shimosaki dart for the southern side of the mansion to head to the back. Ronie follows, wanting to stop Tiese in case the worst possible outcome is not that they came here for nothing.

Tiese keeps her lead all the way to the backyard's door, which lies on the northern side of the building and grabs the rusted knob. As Ronie betted, the door is locked, and before Tiese breaks the door down, Ronie reaches her and grabs her hand. "Don't do this, Tiese. You're going to break the door."

"But...the sound inside..."

"I heard the sound, too. It wasn't a trick of the ears. But that's why we have to think straight." Ronie waits until Tiese's grip on the doorknob ceases, and leads her to the dark, messy backyard. Moss and vines claimed their stake on the abandoned land. "...It might be a ghost inside the building, but it could very well be something else. If there's a living person going in and out of the mansion, they'll have left trace evidence of their inhabitance somewhere."

Tiese blinks and calms down, her expression regaining some life. "Yes...you're right. Let's look around the area."

Ronie nods and faces the garden. It's too big of a mess, in general, too big to randomly search around. She didn't know what to look for in the one hundred mels across, thirty mels deep yard. She had to think about what others would do. "If anyone is coming through the back door..." If she was Kirito...no, this might not be the best time to think what he'd do. Jaymes' list of options comes second, yet she draws a blank, as well with Asuna. When she thinks of the knights, the first one in her head is Eydis, and that gives her an idea.

Of course, she deduced to look for footprints, but the moss-covered ground might hide them. But moss, like any other form of like, thrived on resources. Eydis taught them a trick once before during their ACTF days when they were hunting a monster away from where intel located it. "Tiese, can you watch the dragons for a moment?"

"Um...okay,"

Once the dragons and Tiese are adequately distanced, Ronie holds out her right hand. "System Call, Generate Umbra Element. Form Element, Mist Shape." A purple light appears in front of her palm, first into a dark ball then into the cloudy form she commanded. Using both hands to widen the shape, she discharges the fog towards the ground in front of Ronie. She watches as the mist creeps along the ground towards the mossy ground. At some points, the mist would react with the ground and take another shape, that of a footprint that stepped on moss. The moss would release trace amounts of sacred power, which the mist would react with and glow.

Those prints lead from the back door to the woods at the yard's rear. "That way, Tiese!" Following the trail of highlighted prints, the girls turn left at the northern border of the yard and enter the woods. They continued on, their dragons trotting along. As they raced through the woods, Ronie feels an oppressive sensation in the air. She felt it several times against Hersyrian and Administrator, she felt it in Otherworlder War with PoH, she felt it in the throne room of the Norlangarthian castle with the emperor, and she felt it days ago when she and the knights rescued Medina, Ilia, and Jaymes from Eydis and the First Children. Her earlier hypothesis creeps back into her head, that the two of them had unintentionally walked into the presence of the enemy, but part of her head tells her that she's being paranoid.

There's no way the First Children would set up base on the outskirts of Centoria. Right?

"Oh! Ronie, look!" Ronie looks through the darkness of the woods at metal rods arranged in a latticed pattern. Behind it, where the path ends, is a small building with a similar-patterned door. They carefully approach the building, cautious of any onlookers. "This building...It's really old..." Ronie says nothing but silently agrees as they approach the gate, locked with a padlock. Despite the wear and tear of the building behind it, the lock is tight and secure.

"This one's locked, too."

"And I'm sure there's something past here," Tiese groans in frustration. Ronie is happy Tiese is back to her senses, for now, whoever is trespassing on the land is certain to be human. As apprentice knights, they have a right to expose them (though, in Ronie's mind, the trespassers might do worse). If Ilia was here with them, the most sensible girl Ronie knows would demand a retreat to the cathedral and file a report.

If only Ronie knew how sensible Ilia was being now.

"Oh! There!" Tiese points through the lattice gate at the right wall of the staircase that descends beyond the gate. Ronie looks through, seeing a dull key hanging by the door. It's out of arms reach for both girls, even if they fully stuck their arms through the gate.

"If...If only we could use Incarnate Arms..." Ronie agrees with Tiese in this case. They could learn the lockpick Incarnation from Kirito, or Jaymes' ability to move objects through the air. They saw him use this ability when he and General Serlut fought Bercouli and Eydis at the Eastern Gate, and Jaymes threw his sword at Eydis' to protect Sortliena and it came back perfectly to him.

She hears a dragon growl at her feet. Shimosaki tries wriggling his pale-blue body through the gate, and though Tiese tries to stop her dragon, Tsukigake gives her companion the push he needs to get through the gate. The dragon flops to the top of the stairs and proudly squeals in his victory.

"Now who said you could do that?" Tiese scolds, though her smile betrays her. She points to the key. "Can you grab that for us?" Shimosaki chirps and wobbles down the stairs until he's beneath the key. He takes three jumps before successfully grabbing the key and returning it to his master. TIese takes the key and hands it to Ronie, who unlocks the padlock with some resistance and swings the gate open.

Ronie's bad feeling continues to wade in her head as she stares at the darkness heading down the stairs. Picking up Tsukigake, who picked up on her master's anxiety, Ronie faces her friend. "Tiese, I'll go and see what's down there. You stay here, and-"

"Absolutely not. I'm going down, too, of course."

If only Ilia was here to talk sense into either of them. Heck, she would stay behind with the dragons...probably "...Fine. Just remember to be very careful."

"Same to you."

As they entered into a subterranean corridor, three floors deep in Ronie's estimates, she figured out that the corridor had backtracked them to the mansion. Neither girl could deduce why an entrance to the mansion would be so far from the house, and the feeling the key at the gate was some sort of trap returned. Ronie swallowed those feelings, along with the wish Ilia was here to drag them back to the cathedral.

The group of four follow the underground passage until they come to a distant light. Letting the light guide them, Ronie can smell hints of burning oil and a second unidentifiable smell, Tsukigake could detect the smells too, but no hint given to its origins.

The origin of the light is a pair of oil lanterns on the wall to the right. The passage ends just a few steps away, but to the left is not a wall, but a metal barrier, with bars running from ceiling to floor. "A...a cell...?"

Two of them, in fact. They creep along the left wall, and the smell Ronie couldn't identify suddenly has its origin somewhat deduced. She figures it comes from the Dark Territory, and it smells like sun-dried straw or used leather armor. She extends her man-made torch, a light element attacked to a branch and looks within the closest cell. Three figures are spotted inside, dressed in crude clothing, each no more than a mel and a half tall. They aren't children, and certainly not human.

Ronie steps back in shock, causing Tiese some alarm. "What is it...? Is someone in there?"

That smell she couldn't identify was the body odor of the tribe of goblins she visited with Kirito some time ago. And here, where she least expected them... "Yes...three mountain goblins. I think they're the tourists who were taken out of the South Centoria inn."

"What?" Tiese takes a look, leaning around Ronie, and pulls back. "You're right...But why...? Why would the goblins taken from South Centoria be here, in the emperor's private holdings in Norlangarth?"

Ronie has no answer for that. Moving between the Everlasting Walls is a hassle, as passes are needed to do so. The goblins were in the south, so to move to the north requires visiting two checkpoints whether they went east or west. The four kingdoms have equal land, and in Ronie's opinion, the dense forest south of the capital is much easier to hide the goblins than in the northern plains. And to hide them in the shadow of the capital...

"...We can think about this later. We have to break them out and take them to the cathedral."

"Yes...but the cell's going to be locked, of course."

Yes, Tiese is right, but the situation is different than the other three times they were barred by locked objects. The kidnapped tourists are right here in front of them, and there's no way the most conservative members of the orders can say they did anything wrong. Knights or not, they had to save the goblins. Ronie reaches behind her for the Moonbeam Sword. "I'm going to break the bars,"

"All right. Go ahead, Ronie. But we should wake up the goblins before you do it. They're going to be terrified if you just start smashing through the bars with a combat technique."

"Good point." Ronie sets down Tsukigake and crouches to wake the goblins gently, but before that happens, a great noise fills the dungeon, startling not only the girls but awakening the sleeping goblins. They take notice of the girls and cling to one another in fear.

"Giiie!"

"Please stop! Don't hurt us anymore!"

Ronie wishes to reassure them, but that's the last thing on her mind as she catches the wall at the passage's end rising off the floor. The source of the sound is that hidden entrance, similar to the sound they heard outside the front door. Ronie, Tiese, and the dragons had nowhere to hide, and running was not even an option now. They only have two options, and surrendering was not happening.

"We'll have to fight." Ronie agrees with Tiese as she draws the Moonbeam Sword and takes a combative stance, Tiese doing the same. The dragons spread their wings and stand in front of their masters.

"Tsukigake, Shimosaki, get into the cell and be quiet!" The dragons express their displeasure but follow orders. Tsukigake heads for the cell occupied by the goblins, squeezing through the iron bars, beating her legs until she rolls inside. Shimosaki tries himself but is unable to squeeze through as easily as Tsukigake.

"Hurry, Shimosaki!" The door is wide enough that a bone-chilling mist creeps through. Despite being half-raised, neither girl can see who's on the other side due to the thick darkness. Seeing her dragon is not going to get through without force, and not want to hurt the growing dragon, Tiese shouts a new command. "Forget it, Shimosaki! Get behind us!"

When the door reaches the ceiling, heavy footsteps bump against the floor. It takes all of Ronie's control to not attack before she can see her enemy-that's a coward's move-yet it takes that same self-control to not make her run despite the immense pressure coming from the mysterious being.

And that's when the overwhelming presence before her takes form in the weak light. It is hidden under a pitch-black robe, and for a moment, it only clicks that she's faced with someone human.

A second later, she realizes she's faced with the human-or the being between a man and beast-she literally disarmed in the throne room of Obsidia Palace. But there's no way he lived...no, forget that, how is he here? By foot, it takes half a year to travel between Obsidia and Centoria, two weeks by foot, days by a dragon, a few hours via dragoncraft, and seconds by fast travel. And just to narrow down the possible options, only Jaymes has the fast-travel Incarnation, there's only one dragoncraft in the world and Kirito is the only pilot, and in the time between today and her departure from Obsidia, only Mia has made the trip from one capital to another on a dragon.

Furthermore, both upper limbs were severed. Sure, a powerful sacred arts user could regenerate the lost limbs in seconds, but not in a week's time would be they moving without some awkwardness.

They can figure all that out later. The man stops in front of them, seemingly waiting on them to move. If he won't make the first move, she will. Knowing the man from Obsidia used poison, it's better they attack first anyway. Seeking to just injure their opponent, she decides on the Aincrad-Style technique Slant to cut the man's right leg. Ronie slowly adjusts her sword, pointing the tip to the left. Tiese reads her partner's movements and makes a similar yet opposing move, her sword angled right to execute the same move and cut the left leg.

But just when her body starts to move to attack, the man chuckles. "Can't say I expected anyone to come here...but then again, it may be the very guidance of my father." Ronie's taken aback by the voice, which sounds like the voice she heard in Obsidia but without the inhuman elements to it. Furthermore, the very mention of "father' sends a chill down her spine. The hood falls, revealing a tanned man with brownish hair and dark eyes like well-tilled earth.

Ronie had seen three of them earlier this week, and this one was different from the others, but she held no doubt in her heart the man standing before her is a First Child.

And he's not alone. She senses footsteps behind them and, her sword still pointed at the first man, turns to the presence of a second man. But this one she and Tiese had seen before, yet before anyone could react, the man in golden armor moves back unnaturally. In his left hand is pale-blue Shimosake, held by the neck. "Shimosaki!" Tiese springs to action to save her irreplaceable partner of eight months, but freezes just a step away as the blond man in golden armor produce a golden sword at the base of Shimosaki's neck.

Not just any golden sword, but Falchion, Jaymes' blade.

"You knights put too much value on these beasts. I don't understand it, but I guess it is a similar bond I have to this world."

"Primus... Let him go. If you harm a single plume on that dragon's body, neither of you will leave this place alive."

Primus chuckles some more. "You hear that? The apprentice wishes to kill us. Tell us, your strongest man in the realm couldn't defeat a knight-how will a mongrel like you leave a scratch on my armor? Here's an alternative: Drop your weapons to him, or with the emperor's blade I'll slice this beast's head off cleanly." Ronie curses their weakness, and with a nod to Tiese, drops her sword. She kicks it to the brown-haired man who in turn sweeps both swoops to the other side of the door he entered. "Very good. Now, for your next orders..."

The brown-haired man produces a key and tosses it to Ronie. Primus taps the empty cell with Falchion and she understands what he wants them to do. Both men are keeping their respective distance, whether wary of a counterattack from the girls (if they can even initiate one in the first place) or calm enough that the girls will follow orders. If they were confident in the latter, Ronie commends them for it as she locked herself and Tiese inside the second cell.

If only she could fake it, but the click of the lock in the 'locked' positions seals their fate. She tosses the key back at Primus, who catches it with a smile. "Good. I'd hate to ruin this magnificent sword with the blood of a dragon. It's suited for killing false gods. Then again, this estate has a rich history with blood."

Ronie placates a fuming Tiese with a hand on the shoulder of the redhead and questions the golden First Child. "What do you mean? It just looks like an underground prison to me."

Primus nods and stands back from the cell, speaking in a tone that, if it wasn't for the situation they find themselves in, Ronie would believe he's nicer than he has presented himself. "You're right, this is an underground prison for House Norlangarth. But do you wonder why, in six generations of emperors, is there a dungeon underneath a supposed retreat from the castle? No? You two should know better than most, given the 'punishment' you two once experienced."

She won't question how he knows, she just answers him. "...Judicial authority."

Primus nods. "So many serfs suffered at the hands of such authority. Three hundred years of blood is where you stand now." Judicial authority is a privilege given to imperials and high nobles and allows them to punish anyone below them for any reason they seem fit within the confines of the higher law of the Axiom Church. Even with that, judicial authority is not limited to lower nobles and civilians on a high noble's land; Ronie's father, a sixth-rank noble, has suffered humiliation from high nobles many times, and despite being a second-rank noble herself, Medina's family suffered humiliation due to being seen as 'defective'. The reasons don't have to be reasonable.

Judicial authority doesn't give one the right to kill unless it falls in line with the Taboo Index. Most punishments, such as private ones, did not count as a "proper" punishment. Integrity Knights themselves are not allowed to execute a person without proper reason, as the limited amount of life they're allowed to take is seventy percent without prior consent by Administrator (and now the Unification Council).

"Any punishment that sheds enough blood to stain the floor would violate the Taboo Index."

"The Taboo Index, right. Administrator did craft an excellent system of rules across the land, but they're so limiting on right and wrong, even on itself. The first verse dictates adherence to the Axiom Church, right? But during the Clamp Crisis, were not there two Axiom Churches at one point? And the history of the imperial families and the high nobility is the loopholes in the Index. Murder, slavery...rape, are all forbidden by the Index. All utilized right under Administrator's ever-watching eyes, the senate. Isn't that right?" He looks to the other man, signaling him to depart. "Even this very mansion, seated not too far from a beautiful lake, is tainted with a nasty history. Wonder why the entrance you two took is there?"

The girls don't answer, whether they have one they don't want to admit or don't have one at all. Primus answers all the same. "That's where the bodies of the serfs were taken out." Ronie feels her blood burn with fury towards the emperors.

Jaymes and Medina lead the storming of Norlangarth Castle. Ronie and Tiese confronted the last emperor of Norlangarth, Cruiga Norlangarth, and slew him with Deusolbert's help. Back then, she might have felt a little sorry he had to die as he did, believing in the realm he grew up in was the correct one, but any sympathy she could've expressed evaporated.

But something was strange about Primus' behavior now. Yes, he forced them into the cells and threatened Shimosaki, and strangely has the goblin tourists in his possession, but he's telling them the crimes of the royal family like they're investigating the Norlangarths together. "Why... Why are you telling us this?"

"Because I want you two to understand why I and the others are doing what we're doing. The Taboo Index, the Law of Power, judicial authority, the Axiom Church...all have allowed incredible evil into this beautiful world. I promised my mother I'd watch over this world, let it take its own course without interference unless necessary, but then Adminstrator happened with assistance from the outside world. Code 871, also known as the Seal of the Right Eye, correct?"

Tiese's jaw drops. "You know about that?"

"Of course. How I know, you ask? Well... Thanks to Noxium, the man you saw earlier, we learned a lot of things when he looked through Jaymes' memories. That's his Incarnation, the ability to see the memories of anyone and thing."

"Impossible," Ronie spits out unintentionally. "Lady Asuna could barely view the past herself!"

"But the Senate could do it, no? That's how I know what the emperors' did with this place. What did the serfs do that's so damning the emperors killed them? I'll tell you. Norkia Lake has five kinds of fish, and one of them is a prized golden trout. Serfs were allowed to fish all except that one, and those who did were thrown in these cells. 'But how would they know which fish they caught?' 'They didn't catch them on purpose!' You're right, and I agree. It's shameful, unfair...but for hundreds of years, it worked. But back on that other topic, I'm sure you're wondering what is happening to the otherworld emperor?"

Ronie can't say she isn't curious.

"It's...an extension of Noxium's ability. When he was a child, the youngest of eight kids taken care of by Solus and Vecta, the youngest of the sixteen of us, he suffered from recurring nightmares that, one night, he claimed to have willed his nightmares into dreams. Then another day, claimed to have changed one of his sisters' nightmares into a dream too. Ridiculous, I thought, but then he asked me to climb up a tree. He knew I was scared of heights after an incident when I was younger, but as the eldest of all us kids, I had to prove myself, and his eldest sister Eva was watching. I made it up the tree and froze when I had to come down. Next thing I know, Noxium is behind me, placing his hand on my back...and my fear is gone. The memory of the incident which sparked the fear, whatever it was, vanished."

Finally Primus' demeanor changes, the pressure she felt earlier slightly returning as he smirks with confidence. "Now I have no clue what he's doing to Jaymes, but I've learned a lot of things about this world and his world. I know what he fears and loves, and it falls all into my grand plan to reset this world. Oh, and just because you didn't ask, the same happened to dear Eydis too. Her sadness over Alice's disappearance was given direction towards the world she loves and her best friends, and you've seen the result. Medina and her apprentices will find out very soon."

Ronie's eyes widen at the mention of Eydis. "You plan...to make Eydis kill Medina, Ilia, and Mia while making Jaymes betray the empire and the dark realm?"

"Ooooh. So close. Yes, Eydis will kill them, but for Jaymes. I've got something better in mind." Primus' grin widens as he looks at Shimosaki. The smile drops and his blue eyes cut towards the girls and the goblins in the adjacent cage. He looks between the two for a quiet moment, making Ronie's blood chill. She figures he's looking for a second dragon, but makes no movement or questions the presence of just one. Instead, he shrugs his shoulders and steps towards the door. "Your dragon will be well-cared for, I swear on my life. But make any attempt to escape, and I'll feed the goblins."

"But what about Jaymes?"

"...No spoilers. But the showcase of the gods is set to begin very soon..."