The next day began poorly for the two lovers. Or more specifically, it began quite poorly for Fie as the girl was overcome by a particularly nasty bout of morning sickness.

With her hovering over the room's toilet waiting to see if her last meal was going to stay down or not he was stuck in the awkward position of having to stand there without a real purpose, rubbing her back in a vain attempt at comforting her. The hotel didn't have any kind of room service so he would have to go find her something to drink at some point, but for now he was content watching over her in her moment of vulnerability.

"...Stupid baby. Stupid Rean. Stupid Sara." He did his best to ignore her muttered complaints as she clearly was not having a good time of it. "I hate this so much!"

"Um... Hang in there?"

His attempt at encouragement didn't seem to work very well as she attempted to level a glare in his direction, but seemed to realize it was a bad idea at the last second. "This is so unfair!" She complained after a few seconds where he really thought she would vomit. "How come I have to deal with all this crap while you get to stand there spouting stupid comments like that!?"

"That was uncalled for..." He muttered miserably to himself. "Maybe we should be careful to avoid more... late nights in the future?"

This time there was nothing stopping her from trying to murder him with her eyes after his thinly veiled accusation. "You didn't seem to mind the idea much last night."

"Ahaha..." As much as he hated to admit it, she was right. Responsibility always seemed to be the first thing to leave his mind whenever she gave him that look.

After a few more minutes of pure misery Fie's body seemed to calm down enough for him to feel comfortable leaving her alone long enough to find something for them to eat in their room. Luckily Sara was still in her own room so he was able to avoid any awkward explanations during his trip. It was a simple mission and soon he was back there, tray of food in hand.

If nothing else at least the frequent bouts of nausea seemed to pass fairly quickly, as she was already looking a lot better by the time he returned. At least she did physically. The unhappy frown on her face made her displeasure about the whole situation painfully obvious.

"This sucks so much." She muttered bitterly as she tore into the meal he got for them. "How long am I gonna be stuck dealing with this?"

Given how seriously she had been reading the medical books he was pretty sure she knew the answer just as well as he did, but probably was asking just for the sake of reassurance. "It should pass around when the first trimester ends. So in a couple weeks, if we're lucky?"

That answer only caused her to groan in dismay. "Right now it feels like I won't be able to last a couple days, let alone weeks. At least it's quick enough that I can hide it from Sara and everyone else." She perked up a bit at that last comment.

He rolled his eyes at that statement. Leave it to the mischievous girl to want to keep the secret going despite everything. Personally, while he found it entertaining and didn't mind playing along for now, if he ever had to choose between keeping the charade going or Fie's health the answer was obvious and he wouldn't hesitate at all, even if she got angry at him for it.

True to form, by the time they left their room a few minutes later so she could bang on Sara's door she looked just as healthy as ever. Still, he knew her well enough to know that she wasn't quite fully recovered, but masked it well enough and he was sure the lingering vestiges of nausea would pass soon enough. Hearing the muffled miserable groans of their mentor as Fie's attempts to wake her bore fruit was enough to cheer the girl up and together the duo made their way to the lobby to wait.

Something which didn't take that long, but was just enough for Fie to start looking impatient by the time she finally arrived. Sara was looking especially haggard that morning, which made sense since she had celebrated their little vacation with a bit much to drink.

"Mornin', Sara." Fie greeted with a cheeky grin. "You look like crap. Maybe you should go to bed earlier next time."

The tired looking woman wasn't so out of it that she couldn't try to murder the silver-haired girl with her eyes. "Against the wall? Seriously?"

He at least had the good graces to laugh awkwardly and look away to hide the guilty expression. Fie of course was completely unbothered and allowed her grin to widen further. He should feel bad for their instructor, but if her suffering was enough to fix Fie's mood... Some sacrifice was acceptable, he supposed.

Like Fie before her, once Sara got a little food in her belly she began to perk up a bit, although that didn't stop her from sending ugly glares in their direction on multiple occasions. "I made some calls last night to let the people at the army base know we were visiting today, but please don't try and cause an incident while we're there."

"Rude." He knew he was sounding like Fie, but how come Sara was looking at him? "We all know it's just Fie you need to worry about." He probably deserved her stomping on his foot, but the truth was undeniable. At least half of all the trouble they got into ever since he became a bracer was because of her. At least it beat the incidents that occurred because some Ouroboros Enforcer had nothing better to do.

"Uh-uh." She sounded with a shake of her head. "You might act all nice and innocent, but everyone knows that you're her biggest enabler. If she decided it would be fun to jump off the Twin Dragons Bridge you would be right there beside her."

Beside him Fie perked up and looked speculative. He groaned, knowing exactly what was going through her head. He was pretty sure she wasn't actually going to do it, but that was only because of her current status. Afterwords was a different story and he knew he had better be ready to fish her out of the river should-

Crap, Sara was totally right.

Sara basked in her little victory as Fie fumed in annoyance and he fell silent after being chastised. Eventually they returned to normal and made their departure from the hotel. Good thing Sara supposedly knew where they were going in this mostly unfamiliar city, as their tour the previous day had not taken them in the direction they were heading.

The main North Ambrian Provincial Army was at the edge of the city and they reached it before too long. As they approached Rean carefully observed what he could about the place. Compared to most military installations he had visited, this one had far less heavy equipment like Soldats and tanks, and those that were there appeared to be older models like the ones they saw during the Civil War. That being said, the soldiers on duty carried themselves with skill and pride.

The guards at the gate to the main building didn't seem at all surprised by their appearance. "We were told you would be coming. You're free to enter, Purple Lightning, Ashen Chevalier, Sylphid."

With permission, the three of them entered the headquarters. There an aid pointed them towards the office of the Brigadier General in charge of the unit. Upon entering Rean was startled to realize that he recognized the man before them. He was one of the jaegers they had fought at Juno Naval Fortress. A sidelong glance towards Sara showed that she must have realized it too, based on the smile on her face.

"Valestein. It's good to see you again. Same to you, Ashen Chevalier, Sylphid."

"Pretty nice place you got here." The former Northern Jaeger replied. Although it wasn't discussed between them at all, he suspected that Fie was of the same mindset as him to let Sara lead the discussion, as these were her people.

The jaeger-turned-general nodded his head. "It's not much, but it's enough for our purposes. At least for the time being."

"Makes sense. I'm curious, how many people do you have right now?"

"Currently about seven thousand and growing. Not enough to stop even a single armored division, but enough to keep the peace and handle any monsters that crop up. Considering there were only about two thousand of us Northern Jaegers left after the war, I would say we're doing alright for ourselves."

Sara hummed thoughtfully. "I guess that means recruitment has been going well?"

"Quite so. People have been very excited to see the return of the North Ambrian Army. Goes to show just how misguided we had been by becoming jaegers..."

"Your methods were questionable, but you were fighting for your homes." Rean chimed in, thinking about his own experiences.

"I suppose you would understand our reasoning, Ashen Chevalier." The man nodded gratefully. "Still, having you and yours knock some sense into us was probably the best thing to happen, even if not everyone agreed with the idea."

This time it was Fie who added herself into the conversation. "I heard about that. Most of the others ended up merging with Nidhoggr, right?"

The Brigadier General nodded before turning his attention back to Sara. "You know, we would love to have you back. Given that you're the Colonel's daughter, an extremely skilled warrior, and a person with many connections throughout the continent you would be a great asset for us. Shit, if you want, I'll even let you have my office."

"Uh..." Sara looked distinctly uncomfortable by the attention. Needless to say Fie and himself found it quite entertaining. "Sorry, but I gotta decline. It's a tempting offer, but I think at this point I'm stuck in the bracer lifestyle. Might end up transferring up here once we finally get the branch up and running." That was news to them, but not entirely unexpected given how hard she fought for this land during her long life.

"I'll look forward to that day." The officer accepted her answer easily enough. "Regardless, it's nice being on the same side as you again, Valestein. Of course I've already spread the word that you three are to have free reign of this place while you conduct your little tour."

The dismissal was curt, but given how busy the man probably was they didn't mind it much. As they had been giving permission to explore freely they decided to take advantage of it. The next hour or so was spent wandering around the facility as they took stock of the military readiness of the place.

It was a simple enough tour at first, but things quickly changed when they stopped by one of the soldat hangers. Apparently word had gotten out that the Ashen Chevalier, one of the most experienced pilots in the world, was visiting. This caused considerable excitement among the new pilots who chose to swarm him and beg him for tips and tricks to improve their own piloting skills.

Fie and Sara were no help, as was usual, as the two women merely laughed at his misfortune before abandoning him to his fate. While Rean obviously wasn't against helping them out, being surrounded by a bunch of older people who were looking at him like he was Aidios' gift to them was disconcerting. Especially so as many of these people had been out to kill him just a couple years prior.

Still, at least they were interested in him for his skill and not his stupid title. He did his best to answer the questions as they came, but it soon became impossible as more and more pilots got word of his presence and arrived to provide their own queries. Eventually he was saved when he got an orbal message from his traitorous lover informing him that they were all finished and ready to leave. That was all the excuse he needed to make his escape from the horde of adoring jaegers.

He found the others easily enough, and after a few minutes of enduring the misery that was Fie and Sara working together to tease him, the trio made their way to the exit. Fie stopped short when they reached the gate, causing the other two to look back at her. The expression on her face was sour, a far cry from the teasing grin she had held just a few seconds prior.

"Fie?"

Said girl didn't verbally answer, instead pointing a finger to the wall next to the gate itself. Their eyes followed her finger... and noticed a card attached to the wall. A very familiar card. The calling card of Phantom Thief B.

Given that this was a heavily traveled spot and would have been noticed by others, it could only have been placed there in the past few minutes. The obvious conclusion was that it was placed there for them specifically. The three of them managed to sigh together in perfect unison.

"Think we can just pretend we didn't see it?" Fie asked hopefully.

"Oh how I wish we could just walk away from this" Sara looked apologetic. "But we probably shouldn't let him run around to do whatever shenanigans he wants." Despite that, she made no real move towards the card.

In fact, neither of the two did. They were both staring expectantly at him. Truly, the more things changed the more they stayed the same. With great reluctance he stepped forward and removed the card from the wall, turning it over to see the text within. Despite being in no hurry to check out the card themselves, both Fie and Sara were quick to take up spots looking over his shoulders so they could read the contents for themselves.

'To my dearest friends sporting the crest of the supporting gauntlet,

'Tis I, your dearest friend, Phantom Thief B! It has been far too much time since our last encounter in Kreuzen and so I decided that now would be a most appropriate time to rectify that situation. Thus I have taken the time to pay a visit to this most unfortunate province.

Lest you wonder, I have not yet taken it upon myself to liberate this land or its people of any of their treasures. It is not them that I am interested in, after all. That being said, if you choose to not accept my gracious invitation I might find myself getting antsy and we wouldn't want that, now would we?

Assuming I have your interest, I would like for you all to head towards the local house of the man with no face. There we shall have our next conversation.'

"We're totally doing this, aren't we?"

"Yup." Sara was the one who answered Fie's sad question. "You saw what he wrote. I don't think he's the kind of person to physically harm anyone here, but who knows what kind of crazy ideas a fruitcake like him would come up with when bored."

He, meanwhile, was more focused on the message itself. Or more specifically, the clue inside of it. "The local house of the man with no face..."

"Well that hint seems simple enough. The man with no faces has got to be Georg Weissmann, right? The former Anguis known as The Faceless Man."

Rean and Fie nodded in unison. "Right. Estelle and Joshua told us all about him. He was a native of North Ambria, correct?"

"Mmm." Sara agreed readily. "Still, I have no idea where his home would have been. From what I have heard, he lost his childhood home in the disaster and lived among the other refugees until becoming a member of the Septian Church."

That was a puzzle indeed. Rean didn't think records of that time were kept well enough to provide the needed answers either. Something about all this felt wrong...

"I think we're looking at this wrong." Surprisingly, it was Fie who came to the rescue. "It's been a while, but his clues usually aren't so straightforward, right? And look at the way he wrote it. 'Local house.' Bit of a weird way of describing his former home, right?"

His eyes widened in realization as his mind drifted back to a similar puzzle he solved in Leeves a couple years back. "I got it!" With all eyes on him he elaborated. "He was a member of the church, right? The local house must be referring to the nearby church."

"The House of Aidios. Of course!."

Destination in mind the three bracers sought out the nearby church. At this hour the place was mostly abandoned save for the Father who ran the place and a couple Sisters who were busy at work preparing for the next sermon. With their permission the trio conducted a quick investigation before finding the next card sitting in one of the aisles.

'This next one is dedicated to a dear comrade of mine. Seek the place where the cats clad in crimson fought the snakes for supremacy.'

"Well this one doesn't seem too bad. The 'snakes' are obviously Ouroboros. Which means the 'cats clad in crimson'...

"The Horned Lions of Thors." Fie finished for Sara. "Still, it wasn't like we did any field studies up here, and I don't think it's talking about Rean's trip during the Northern War."

He nodded in agreement. "Right. The word cats is plural. I was the only representative of Thors at the time." Sure there were plenty of bracers, soldiers, and Altina alongside him, but none of those would count.

"And the fact that it specifically mentions that they were clad in crimson discounts your Branch Campus students, even though I don't think they ever came here...?" He shook his head, answering Sara's question. "Hmm..."

Fie snorted as the answer presented itself. "He kinda spoiled this one. Look. 'Dear comrade of mine'. We all know of one member of Ouroboros who used to be a main campus student. And if I remember the Imperial Chronicle right, didn't they have a field study up here." She looked to him for confirmation, but no answer was forthcoming. "What?"

"It's just... I didn't think you liked reading the Chronicle." They had been together long enough for him to know that as the truth.

"W-Well..." She looked away with the slightest tint of red on her cheeks. "I was so busy with bracer work at that time that the newspaper was the best way for me to hear the stories about you, you know?" She couldn't help but scowl a bit. "Not that it did me any good that time. That issue barely mentioned you guys in Ordis, instead focusing mostly on the stupid prince and his mission up here."

He couldn't help but share an amused glance with Sara, causing Fie to color even more. He couldn't help himself. Bashful Fie was always cute. "Thanks, Fie. And I'm sure you're right. I remember reading where the archaism factory was, but I am going to need directions to get there."

Unsurprisingly, the secret factory that the society had been using was far off the beaten path, but with Sara's knowledge of the area and him knowing the address it didn't take that long for them to find it. The building itself remained, but appeared to be serving as nothing more than a currently abandoned warehouse. It was locked up tight, but Fie, not wanting to bother looking for the proper authorities, instead kicked in the old door with a dangerous grin on her face.

As expected, the place was completely barren. From the reports Rean had seen of the incident, supposedly there was a vast underground section where most of the production had taken place, but that was completely sealed off as well. That was handy, as looking for a single card in such a massive facility could have taken hours. Instead it only took a could seconds for the sharp-eyed trio to notice the out of place card in the room.

'Seek out that which illuminates the gate to the Devil's throne.'

"Uh... I got nothing." Fie was the first to break the silence as they stared at the next clue.

"The Devil's throne..." Sara muttered thoughtfully. "There are a few things that come to mind, but I really don't want to spend the day running around the city looking for clues. Got anything, Rean?"

The young Divine Blade hummed thoughtfully. Something about those words rang familiar to him. Wracking his brain he soon came to an answer. "Valerie once told me that the former prince, Balmund, became known as the devil after he fled this place." It was a stigma all those related to him still struggled with to this day. "Think that might have something to do with it?"

"Hmm... You might be onto something with that." The native agreed. "That would make his throne the old palace, which was turned into the old parliamentary building after the government reformed."

"Might as well give it a look." Fie piped in.

It was a bit of a distance from the outskirts of the city where the Ouroboros factory had been to the center where the governmental buildings were, but it was nothing the three couldn't handle. Eventually they reached their destination.

"...That's a big building." Rean muttered nervously.

"And well guarded, too." Sara added in, seeing the two guards standing watch outside of the gate, with more almost certainly present within. "Hopefully we can get permission to do a search..."

The youngest of the three let out a yawn. "You guys are getting ahead of yourselves. Remember the rest of the clue?" She pointed to the front gate, earning her raised eyebrows from the two guards watching them with interest. "That's a gate." She next turned her finger a small distance away. "And that's the orbal lamp that illuminates this place at night."

"Oh. Right..." He chuckled nervously. Following her lead he and Sara moved to said lamp and sure enough there was a card present. Naturally Bleublanc had to make things difficult for them and had placed said card near the top of the lamp, where none of them can reach it.

"Time to make yourself useful, Rean." He barely had a moment to notice the mischievous look on his lover's face before she leapt onto him. She was lucky that he caught himself in time to prevent the two from falling. Ignoring his efforts the girl proceeded to climb up his body and used him as a ladder, reaching heights never before reached by the short bracer.

Even with the added height he provided, it was still a stretch for her to reach the card. All the meanwhile he was forced to stand there and awkwardly ignore the amused grin of Sara and judgmental stares of the two unnamed guards. Mercifully, Fie eventually prevailed in her mission and leapt from his shoulders with an acrobatic flip, landing easily on the ground.

"This better be the last one or Aidios help me I'll..."

Fortunately for Sara, not that either of them particularly cared, it was.

'Out of respect for the many dead of this land, this final clue will lack my usual flair. Go to the spot that changed the fate of the world. Lest you worry, our friends from the church shall be busy with other matters and should not bar your way.'

"The spot that changed the fate of the world..." It was the most direct that Phantom Thief B had ever been. There was only one spot that fit that description and they all knew it: The spot where the Salt Pale had risen from the earth to trigger the greatest humanitarian crisis in Zemurian history.

"This asshole had better have a good reason for dragging us over there..." Sara looked like she had bit into something particularly sour.

Rean felt the twinge of guilt inside of him. While he did agree with her sentiment that going to such a place was rather disrespectful, the historian inside of him couldn't help but express interest. Almost everything that had happened in the past decades came about because of the incident that began here. To see that place with his own eyes...

"Let's just get this over with..." Leave it to Fie to cut straight to the heart of the matter. Although her words gave nothing away, he suspected that she was just as interested in seeing the spot of the tragedy as he was.

The spot in question had originally been on the northern outskirts of Haliask, but that area had long since been abandoned as the city and its inhabitants resettled the city southward. Now it stood alone, only witnessed by the members of the Septian Church assigned to oversee the area and keep it safe from prying eyes. Normally impossible for them to venture to, but if the enforcer's words were correct, and they unfortunately had no reason to doubt them, it should be open for them to infiltrate.

And so it was. The initial checkpoints designed to keep the average citizen away were completely abandoned allowing them to pass without issue. "Does this make us accessories to whatever crime that guy is currently committing?" Fie inquired as they passed through.

"...Let's not think about that." He replied. Hopefully whatever Bleublanc was doing to distract the church guards wasn't anything too dangerous.

The sealed area they were in now was about the size of Mater Park in Heimdallr. But despite being an outdoor area, the comparisons with that lively place came to an end there. While salt was no longer present, the effects were still keenly felt as this place was practically devoid of all life. Either no efforts to desalinate the ground had had occurred in this area, or the area was so badly damaged that any efforts were just doomed to failure. The only scenery present were the ruined husks of buildings that had collapsed under the weight of the tragedy.

All in all, it was a depressing place, and one that reminded the bracers of Hamel. It was a good thing they stopped the Twilight when they did, as they didn't need to be witches to instinctively know that the souls of the dead did not rest easily here. Still, the were undeterred as they walked towards the center of this barren wasteland.

All that remained of that once great pillar of salt was a crater in the ground where it had somehow originated from. Were it not for the fact they knew it was here they never would have guessed that this spot led to the single greatest disaster in western Zemurian history.

Rean had to shake himself from his reverie. They weren't there to gawk at the disaster site like tourists. They were in search of whatever it was that the Ouroboros Enforcer had left for them. The last card said that this was the final clue, so they expected to find something. Instead they were met with silence and opted to split up to cover more ground as they explored the nearby ruins.

Something which didn't take long to pay dividends, as one of the building husks exploded near Sara, and out from the rubble emerged a massive archaism. Despite the surprise, the Purple Lightning lived up to her reputation as she immediately evaded the initial attack and drew her weapons for battle.

"A Gespard Gerrod?" Fie mumbled as she looked upon the assault unit. Indeed it was the same machine that Group A had first fought in Roer and they had occasionally encountered during the events leading up to the Great Twilight.

And yet despite being a lot closer to the fight than he was, she made no move to engage. "Aren't you going to help?" He asked as he drew his tachi. Although considering he too was holding back as he waited for her reply he probably had no room to judge.

"Nah. Sara can handle herself. This is payback for all the times she would make us do all the work on missions." Despite the flippant attitude, she did still have her gunblades in hand. If the situation required assistance he had no doubt that she would be the first one in the fray. "You got this, Sara!" She yelled in mock support.

"...Fair enough." He couldn't help but think about all the times their lackadaisical instructor left all her work to him during their school days. She brought this upon herself.

Said woman had just enough time to spare a glance at them and realize they had no intention of helping before being forced to roll out of the way as the tank-like archaism tried to run her over. "You kids are awful!"

In hindsight, Fie's lethargic nature proved a boon as by not moving to fight immediately Rean was able to sense it coming all the sooner. "...We're not alone." He muttered, turning towards where he felt the presence emanating from, with his partner following his lead.

"Oh my! It appears that your Unclouded Eye is just as sharp as ever, Rean Schwarzer!" Came the annoyingly familiar voice just as the tell-tale sign of an Ouroboros teleportation technique appeared at the spot they were looking. "It is ever so good to see you again, my friends!"

"Phantom Thief B..." Rean was actually impressed with just how much annoyance and exasperation Fie managed to slip into her voice there.

Something which the Baron either missed completely or tactfully chose to ignore. "It has been ever so long since last we encountered each other in Kreuzen."

"It was." He confirmed in a neutral voice. While he didn't believe that being civil would resolve this incident peacefully, there was always the possibility of the legendary thief providing some answers. "Why did you bring us out here?"

The enforcer spread his arms wide, delight showing on his masked face. "My dearest rival came to me begging for assistance. How wonderful, is it not? Rumor has it that the two of you are hiding something from the rest of us, and there's nothing more exhilarating than solving a mystery."

"Seriously? Even Ouroboros is prying now?" Fie looked incredibly vexed and he couldn't blame her. He knew that their friends would get curious, but this was on a whole different level. "All we did was take one unscheduled day off!"

His silver-haired lover scrunched up her face in deep thought as she seriously considered his words. Despite it only having been a few days, if Prince Olivert was asking about it... The grim conclusion she must have come to was the exact one he just did. "Everyone knows. They are gonna hound us forever, aren't they... I kinda hope that tank runs Sara over."

"Haha..." Rean chuckled awkwardly. He wasn't sure he would go quite that far, but he probably wouldn't get too upset if this trip ended with her hospitalized for a day or two.

"My rival in love had his suspicions, of course, so he asked me to confirm them for her. As I heard the two of you were already in this tragic land, I decided to pay a visit myself."

Fie still looked quite annoyed, but was able to bring her focus back to the situation at hand. "And what makes you think we're gonna tell you our secrets when we aren't telling them to anyone else?"

It was a sound question, but the agent of Ouroboros appeared unfazed. "I know you won't. But something so trivial as that won't deter me, of course."

Although he didn't elaborate any further, the answer provided itself with a snap of his fingers. Two archaisms suddenly flew in from wherever they were hiding. It took Rean the briefest of moments to realize that these were units he had never seen before. They were smaller than even the smallest of combat scout archaisms, being no larger than the head of an adult human. Its appearance was that of a floating orb, similar to the base form of Black Alberich's combat shell. It was somewhat unusual for an archaism, as they possessed a monitor and keyboard, similar to an orbal terminal. That being said, it clearly possessed armaments as it had one extended arm holding what appeared to be a rather large scalpel. It also had an eye similar to the lasers that other archaisms possessed. One that was glowing brightly as they prepared to fire...

Quickly the two dodged towards each other to evade the attacks sent to their previous positions, weapons already in hand. The unknown machines didn't hesitate at all and instead began flying towards them at extreme speeds. Nothing they couldn't handle, however, as they prepared to intercept the two hostiles.

Or at least that was the plan until Bleublanc himself got involved. Although his magic was seemingly unique to him, both bracers immediately recognized his intent as he drew multiple knives and threw them in their direction - His shadow binding technique.

They knew from experience that his technique had a pretty large radius and would be nearly impossible to evade. That being said, Rean was fairly confident that they were powerful enough to break free, even if it took a second or two. But with those archaisms rapidly approaching he wasn't sure they had that much time to spare...

Luckily for him, Fie, ever the battle savant, already had a countermeasure in place. In the brief moment between the Baron drawing his knives and them connecting on the ground around them the woman had managed to drop one of her gunblades and used the now free hand to draw and prime one of her flashbang grenades. There was no time to throw it, but that was fine, as the weapon followed the laws of gravity and fell from her limp grip as soon as the binding technique halted their movements.

Although both Class VII members had done what they could to prepare for the blast by closing their eyes in the brief moment they had, they couldn't do anything about the noise or the burns created by the blast itself. Fie especially would be sore for the next day or two as the grenade had been right by her feet. Despite having their balance ruined by the ringing in their ears the two fast fighters did what they could to evade the charging archaisms.

They were successful... mostly. Rean grimaced as the little blade the machine was swinging connected with his arm, causing a fairly deep, but not crippling cut to him. Nothing a little orbal healing couldn't fix up once he got a moment's respite. The blade didn't appear to possess any kind of toxin, so he didn't need to worry about that. A glance over to Fie showed that she was far more successful in her evasion, but was still sporting a shallow scratch through her uniform.

The two prepared to counter, but stopped in confusion when the little archaisms immediately retreated back to the enforcer who raised his arms in surrender. "My, the quick reflexes of Sylphid never fail to impress me. I yield the battle to you."

"Huh?" He shared in Fie's confusion, even if he didn't verbally express it like she did.

"There's no need for our continued fighting..." The strange man told them with a wide grim. "...Not when I have just successfully completed my heist!"

But the only thing that had happened was... "Oh!" He exclaimed as he put the pieces together. "You were after our blood the entire time?"

"Indeed I was, Rean Schwarzer. Not the most glamorous of heists, I'll admit that much, but it is a substance that can reveal many secrets indeed. Something which the medical archaisms of Ouroboros are well-equipped to decipher." He gave one of the little orbs a comforting pat.

"...Why do your medical archaisms have lasers?" Although Rean wasn't sure Fie's question was the most pressing thing to be asking, he couldn't help but be curious too.

Annoyingly Bleublanc chose to ignore that question. "Aha! It appears the scans are finish." He briefly paused to glance at the monitors of both drones, his grin widening as he looked at the one that had attacked Fie. "I see my rival's suspicions were right on the mark. Allow me to offer my congratulations to the two of you!"

Ugh. Being congratulated by this guy made him feel uncomfortable. "Uh, thanks?"

"Lest you worry, this news will have no bearing on our plans. We wouldn't want to mess with the happy family, after all." He paused as his eyes spotted something approaching them, causing the two bracers to follow suit. It appeared that Sara had finished her battle and was returning to them. "In fact, allow me to grant the two of you a boon for being such good sports, and for the delightful invitation I received from Vita." That... was fast. It had only been a few days since they passed the message to Emma.

"Are you two all right?" Sara asked worriedly when she arrived, never once taking her gaze off the enforcer opposing them. "What are you doing here?"

The fruity thief repeated what he had told to them. At least up until the end. "Sadly, however, it seems the Prince's suspicions were incorrect. My dear little probes failed to find any medical abnormalities in our happy couple."

Wait. Was he actually covering for them? In that case his boon was actually something useful for a change.

Sara looked positively aghast. "Nothing at all? You're serious?" She will probably kick herself later upon realizing that she had placed her trust in the thief's words, but Rean couldn't blame her. There was something about Baron Bleublanc that made him different from the other enforcers. He had a natural charisma that made him easier to listen to and trust, for good or for ill.

"Indeed. It would seem my mission has been a failure, but that is alright with me. There is such beauty in ignoble defeat, after all. It appears I will have to limit my future investigations to more... subtle methods. As much as I would love to spend more time with my dear friends, I'm afraid our time is up. I would rather not have to deal with the Church at this moment. Until next time!" And of course their opponent left with that stupid teleportation ability the society loved so much. They really needed to figure out a way to block that somehow.

His parting words sank in a moment later as the dozens of soldiers that were normally stationed to guard this area burst onto the scene, weapons at the ready. Beside him Fie started grumbling obscenities while Sara chuckled sheepishly. For his part he merely let out a long sigh while pondering how they were gonna get out of this mess.


"What a waste of time." Sara complained miserably as the three of them relaxed on the airship ride back to Erebonia. "This entire trip was a mess."

It had taken quite some time for the three of them to convince the church officials that they had good reason for being in the restricted zone. The smashed up archaism that Sara had fought helped, but mostly it came down to him grudgingly using his fame to get them out of the mess.

Even still, it wasn't until late in the evening by the time they were free. On the plus side it meant that they were once again able to get out from Sara's grasp as even the older woman was too tired and annoyed after handling that entire ordeal to want to go anywhere but their hotel.

"You know, I was actually starting to think that your secrecy was cause Rean had knocked you up, or something."

"Well, he can be pretty beastly at times." On one hand Rean was impressed at her ability to respond to that insanely accurate guess without giving anything away. On the other hand, he wish it didn't always come at his expense.

The Purple Lightning let out a groan. "C'mon, can't you give me a hint? Oh! Did he catch you cheating on him? Is that what it is?"

"How come you immediately assumed that I was the one cheating on him? Couldn't it be the other way around?" Fie complained.

Sara waved her off easily enough. "Nah. I haven't tried seducing him yet." Her words were confident, as if she truly believed if she wanted to she would succeed. Rean wasn't sure how he felt about that.

"Great." Fie muttered. "She's delusional. Did you start drinking early today?"

The back and forth continued for most of the ride back home. On one hand it was clear that Sara had been lured off the trail by their unexpected ally and seemed ready to give up on prying. That was good.

What was less good, however, was that the more Rean thought about it, the more he understood that if the gossip had made its way to Ouroboros... He had a bad feeling that things were only going to get more annoying from here on out.

Oh well, at least it seemed like he wasn't going to lose that pointless bet now. That had to count for something, right?


Exactly one year ago today, June 28, 2021, was the day I first started writing for this story. I remember that day well. I think I spent two hours with the document opened and only managed to finish two paragraphs, which I deleted and rewrote many times because it didn't feel right and I was afraid my story would suck.

If you had told that me that a year later I would still be going on as strong as ever I would never have believed it. But here we are. And I owe a lot of it to you guys for the awesome support I have gotten along the way!

I still have absolutely no idea how long this story will continue before reaching its inevitable happy ending, but if you guys are still having fun with it than so am I. My brain is full of stupid scenarios that I just can't help but want to put on paper, so I see no reason to stop now. I wouldn't be surprised if this story is still going on when it celebrates its second birthday.

Fun fact: I Still have yet to read any of the previous chapters once I finish proofing them and uploading them. Afraid I would start noticing grammatical mistakes, plot inaccuracies (already discovered a few little things I got wrong during a recent replay of the series), and forgotten threads, which would cause me to lose focus as I go back and try to fix everything. Maybe one day I will do that, but for now I want to keep moving forward.