Chapter 32: Reclaiming One's Heart

Disclaimer:

This is Day Four of the 5-Day upload schedule! You guys are in for a long chapter so I hope you really enjoy this. For a bit of context, the events in this chapter are slightly based on Chapter 11 where we had the Lucas - Letoile - Alecdora teamup. With that said, enjoy.

The night sky was pitch-black with the shining moon illuminating the streets of the Noble Realm. Since it was past midnight there were no people around and no Magic Knights either, leaving a quiet and empty feeling all around.

As well as the moonlight, there were various lanterns still alight to show the way for anyone who was still out this late.

In the light from the lanterns, many shadows moved past creating the loud noises of footsteps ringing around. The dust on the stone-brick floor moved and vibrated due to the sudden barrage of foot traffic.

Suddenly, they stopped at a certain large house, and they all looked up at it. The group of people smiled as the leader moved towards the door of the house.

"Finally… we've reached House Becquerel!"

The same night, during the same time, one of the Golden Dawn mages were asleep in their bed. However, the sleep wasn't comfortable since the mage was restlessly moving around because of a sense of panic in their dream.

Letoile was in her bed, holding her bedsheets with an intense grip but even the safety of that was challenged due to what she was dreaming about… or having a nightmare about.

"You didn't save me… Big Sis…".

"Why weren't you paying attention?!"

"You killed our beloved son!"

The onslaught of voices were ringing through the Compass mage's head and obviously caused her distress. Her sweat was almost a lake of sweat with how extreme her pain was.

"No… I didn't know that would happen, Lewis…".

"Mom, Dad… please, I didn't mean to!"

"I… I'm sorry!"

The last sentence Letoile screamed and made herself wake up. Her body jerked up in a paranormal manner with how quick and abrupt it was. She sat up in her bed and wiped the sweat from her forehead. However, with the amount there was she figured it would be better if she had a shower instead.


The night passed rather quickly after that sudden event and the Compass mage went on about her daily duties as normally as she could. Though, the thought of her family was swimming through her mess of a mind. She could still hear the voices of her parents blaming her for her little brother's death, though this could have been because it was a nightmare and not what happened in reality. Nevertheless, Letoile was left confused.

The day was a bitter-looking one with many grey clouds covering the high sun above. The breeze was cold, and it looked like it could rain at any second. Nevertheless, Letoile knew what she had to do. She looked at the small, golden bracelet that was on her right wrist and sighed.

"Since we have another day off, I think I can manage a trip to my parents' house. It's about time I visit", she thought to herself as she strolled across the footpath in the base. "Though I do wonder how long this mission for Captain Vangeance is going to take. It's been a while".

The green-haired Magic Knight grabbed her broom from her room but as she looked to get on it, her entire body started trembling.

"Not again… anytime I think about my family or even visiting them, I get so nervous. Maybe I could ask someone to come with me in case I start panicking over there? But who…", Letoile put her finger to her chin.

As if on cue for the girl in glasses, her question was answered. A group of three mages walked past her room and they were the two rookies and the royal.

"Hi there, Lucas, Mimosa, Yuno", Letoile grabbed their attention.

"Good morning, how are you?" The three replied back to which Letoile answered. She didn't bring up her bad night or dream since it wasn't the time to.

As they got their greetings out of the way, Letoile asked Lucas if he wanted to join her in visiting House Becquerel.

"Me? Um, sure. I've had a busy few days with training and some other stuff, so I'd be glad to visit", he replied to which Letoile breathed a sigh of relief.

The duo of Lucas and Letoile left the Golden Dawn base and made their way to the Noble Realm where the destination was.

"I wonder why Letoile wanted Lucas", Yuno asked.

"No idea but Lucas is getting quite popular recently, isn't he?" Mimosa questioned and folded her arms together.

"I'd rather it be him than me", Yuno replied nonchalantly.

Mimosa looked at the Wind mage with a look of defeat. "That wasn't what I was implying…", she thought.


The clouds above started to grow darker, and the air around gave a damp feeling to the skin of both of the Golden Dawns that were en route to House Becquerel. Letoile and Lucas had their own brooms to manoeuvre around with.

"Say, Letoile. I heard that every Noble house specialise in some type of thing that helps run the kingdom. What does your House do?" Lucas asked.

"House Becquerel specialise in acquiring treasure and goods that have long since been buried. They do it with the magic that the Head of the House has as well as his wife. They give out treasure maps to explorers and Magic Knights and take a percentage of the goods that are uncovered and add it to the kingdom's treasury", Letoile explained.

Lucas's eyes turned into flashing stars as he got excited. "Treasure maps?! That's so cool…", he replied. Then, he thought about how Letoile was talking, and it got him thinking. "Why did she call them the 'Head of the House' and 'his wife'? They're her parents so why is she addressing them so distantly?" He wondered.

"Do you know about the other Noble Houses?" The Compass mage asked, trying to change the topic from what was to do with her.

"Not really. I only know yours", the Light mage scratched his chin in thought.

"I can tell you a few of them from our squad at least. You know about House Becquerel, but House Swallow specialise in entertainment. So, things like games, plays, or even gambling and other activities like that are all set up by David's House".

Lucas thought about it and realised it did make sense. "He does have Dice Magic and that is to do with games and gambling".

"As for House Caseus, they specialise in home décor mainly but have extensions with the kingdom's cuisine. You've seen how Hamon is with food so you can guess how his House focuses on that but since his whole family also use different types of Glass Magic, they made it into a profitable business", Letoile added.

She turned her head to look at Lucas and saw that he was just staring off into the distance.

"Lucas, are you listening?" She asked.

"Wh-what? Hm… oh, yes!" He quickly shook his head and locked eyes with the Compass mage.

"No, you weren't!" She frustratingly spoke. However, then she realised… "Wait. Am I… boring? Am I just someone who babbles on too much?" She put her hands to her gasping mouth.

The Light mage had been wondering about the ilk of sadness he had felt from her when she was talking and that distracted him from what she was saying.

Lucas dropped his shoulders not knowing what was even going at this point with Letoile. He tried to comfort her by saying he would listen, but she wouldn't respond to that. Though, it was all in jest as she turned and smiled at the young mage.


After a while on the brooms, Lucas and Letoile reached the area in which House Becquerel was located. The property was surrounded in silver fences that stretched across a large piece of land. The house itself was large and looked to be in a well-kept manner with the building looking clean as well as the area around it being pleasant to the eye.

The grass on the floor was cut recently to a short length and had flowers sprouting from the soil. On the sides of the property, there were small allotments where different kinds of plants were grown and maintained. In the middle, there was a large fountain with water gushing from the middle.

"The place looks the same as when I left five years ago. Nice to see that nothing changed… I guess I was just a hinderance so me leaving didn't affect them that much", Letoile slightly frowned when looking at the building she used to live in.

"So, this is House Becquerel? It looks so fancy!" Lucas mentioned, walking up and looking around at all the eye-catching things he could see. He bent down to smell the flowers and he smiled.

"Of course you'd focus on the flowers, that's so like you", Letoile smiled.

"This place though, I thought there would be more people out and about. You have a few allotments, not to mention the gate to guard", Lucas mentioned.

Letoile paused for a second to take what Lucas said in. "He's right. There's supposed to be the security guard at the gate's entrance. Maybe there's some sort of event happening in the building?" She turned to Lucas and ushered him to follow her.

The two reached the entrance for the house. There was a double-wooden door that was always supposed to be closed, however, this time the right door was slightly open revealing the inside of the building.

"I am not getting a good feeling about this", Letoile muttered under her breath. She had started to get a slight chill run down her spine and it bothered her. She turned to Lucas who still had no idea about why he was here. He was just here because the Compass mage asked him to tag along.

Lucas, as if he had read her mind, asked the exact question regarding it. "Letoile, did you have some event to go to here and decided to invite me?"

The Compass mage realised she hadn't actually told anyone about her history with her family, especially the incident with her own younger brother. She turned around to talk, "I… there were some arguments with my family and I – really bad ones. After five years, I thought that enough was enough and I want to… reconnect with them. Since it's a nervous time for me, I thought I would ask you since I feel comfortable enough around you to tell you about all this", she answered.

Lucas tilted his head and smiled. "Oh, that's fine with me. I hope I can do whatever to make you feel less uneasy about this whole thing. I kinda understand you since my past isn't something I'd want to talk about either", he replied.

However, as he finished talking, since he had tilted his head, he saw behind Letoile who had her back to the inside of the house and saw that it was…

"Completely empty…?" Lucas spoke, walking past the Compass mage and even more into the house.

"Hm?" Letoile thought. She turned around to follow Lucas in and what she saw had completely shocked her.

Lucas and Letoile walked into the middle of the ground floor of the three-story building. The shelf lamps and candles were all put out with small remnants of smoke still being emitted. The four pillars that supported the house had small amount of scratches on the base of them, with a few even having a red liquid stained between the cracks.

"Wh-what happened?" Lucas gasped. His body trembled among the eerie feeling he got when being in Letoile's House.

"This is… Something definitely happened here. A struggle of some sort". Letoile walked over to the pillars and bent down to examine what had happened.

On one knee, Letoile touched the red substance that was in the pillar's cracks and saw that it was still runny.

"This is blood. There's a metallic smell to it and it's not dry either", she spoke to Lucas. She then looked at the scratches on the same pillar. "These are fingernail scratches, a woman's. You can tell since the indents are quite deep and women usually have longer fingernails".

Lucas walked to Letoile, but instead of focusing on the different types of evidence she pointed out, he asked something else. "Why aren't you freaking out right now?"

Letoile walked on, looking around the area for more clues. "I… Ever since my brother died, I've learned to shut off my emotions rather easily. It makes my duty easier when I have a clear head".

"… But we're talking about your family here! Something bad has happened! We should be moving with haste!" Lucas protested.

"I know it's my family!" Letoile broke. "Don't you think I realise the gravity of this situation? I came to visit them but then something awful has happened… but… If I lose it here, then my family will be in even more danger", she quietened down.

Lucas realised how wrong he was to lose his cool over this. Even if the situation was dangerous, keeping calm would most likely be the best option. Though, there was one thing that stayed on his mind regarding what she had said.

"Ever since my brother died, I've learned to shut off my emotions".

"She says that, but every time I've spoken with her, she's been so happy and cheery. Isn't that her showing emotion?" Lucas wondered, though he didn't bring it up as it would hamper the time, they had to figure things out.

Apart from the blood and the scratchings, there wasn't much to off on. The ground floor had been searched but there wasn't a lot to say.

"Should we call for backup?" Lucas asked.

"I already have but it'll take them a while to get here. The best we can do for now is work on this ourselves", Letoile responded.

The two agreed between them that they would split up and search the other floors for whatever had happened with her family. Lucas went to the second floor, whilst Letoile went to the third.


The Light mage looked in one room and it looked like it was largely storage.

"Hm, there's nothing of note here… except…", he turned the corner in the room and saw a group of overturned boxes and the wooden drawers were also empty.

"That's odd. I wouldn't have thought Letoile's folks were messy so maybe there was some sort of struggle?" He looked at the drawers and saw from the dust that sat inside that there were a stack of papers in there once.

"Papers? What kind of papers…!" Lucas realised what may have been in the drawers when he examined them. "Letoile did say that her family were responsible for making treasure maps and being involved with the kingdom's goods, could someone have stolen a bunch of them?"

Lucas opened the other drawers that were around and saw that all of them had been emptied. There were also clear fingerprints on the drawers handles since there were layers of dust from being untouched for so long. He walked further into the room and what he saw surprised him.

"It's… there's a whole archive of drawers where the treasure maps are supposed to be!" Lucas rushed across all of them and, like previously, he saw opened drawers and signs of people rushing around. There were traces of footsteps imprinted on the floor, again, because of the dust that had settled.

"People had definitely come here to steal these treasure maps. I wonder what sort of magic Letoile's parents have to be able to produce so many of these. I guess that's also the reason behind their disappearance. There's been burglary and perhaps even a kidnapping…", Lucas deduced from what he had gathered. He quickly exited the room and decided to look in the other rooms.

Just before he did exit though, he paused for a moment at the door and picked up something that interested him.


The Compass mage was one floor up from Lucas on the third floor and had started to rummage around. First, she entered her parents' room and saw things that she never had thought she'd see.

"My parents room… I haven't been here for more than five years", she gulped. The mage looked around their bed and didn't see anything of notice but when she turned to the right, she saw a desk of drawers. The contents of them was caught her eye, but what was on the top of them.

"Pictures and paintings…", she spoke as she brushed her hand against them. "I would've thought they'd have thrown them away but… they're right here". Letoile grabbed one of the pictures and her breath staggered as she got emotional.

The picture was of her when she was a child, no more than six years old, drawing over her dad's face with a pencil and some ink. It depicted a small Letoile with a bob of short, green hair with her right hand shaped into a fist and grabbing a pen. She had drawn circles over her dad's eyes and an outline around his lips. The picture itself was of her posing after doing what she did and smiling with both of her thumbs up.

"…", Letoile was about to speak but couldn't manage to. Instead, she thought to herself, "I… I remember this day so clearly. I had learned how to draw properly but it was getting boring doing what the teacher's told me to do so my mother gave me the idea to draw as wild as I wanted. She even told me to draw on my sleeping father and use him as a canvas", she giggled. However, as she did so, a tear fell from her face, and she put the painting back.

"… and I ruined those days of happiness by snatching their son away from them…", she gasped.

Letoile, after walking away from the set of drawers, looked around for something that could help her figure out what went on, when she saw a grimoire lying open and face down on the floor by the en suite.

She knelt down to pick up the brown grimoire and realised that it was her father's. "His grimoire… why is it like this? Was there some sort of struggle where he tried to fight against someone?" Letoile picked up the spellbook and turned to see what her dad could have been facing when he tried to use his magic, and she saw something alarming.

The Compass mage peered her fingers through the marking she found which was on the door frame and felt their heat. "Hm, Flame Magic? These people definitely came prepared since my father's magic is weak to flames…".

After looking around the room once more, she exited and went to the next room opposite which was actually her brother's room.

"… Lewis…". Letoile breathed in to mentally prepare herself for what she might see in her younger brother's room.

Slowly, she turned the handle to the door and opened the way in. Letoile had closed her eyes as she wasn't quite there mentally to see what awaited her. Eventually, she did open them, and she saw her brother's room for the first time in five years.

The room was a light-blue colour with displays of maps framed on the wall as well as a black hat that looked much like a pirate's on the middle of the bed.

"Lewis always liked exploring and digging for treasure. It was cool since he had the same type of Magic as me, and we… really connected". The tears started to build up again. Though, as she felt them, she quickly recomposed herself.

"The past is the past… I have a duty now". Letoile looked around for any sort of evidence. She looked at the set of drawers, the en suite, as well as behind the displays but there was nothing.

As she sighed from defeat, she remembered that Lewis had a treasure box under his bed that he had been saving up money just as a normal hobby of his. She looked below the bed and just as she had thought, there was a small black box. Letoile pulled it out from under the bed, but she saw that it was opened, and this angered the Compass mage so much.

"How dare they… take his treasure!" Letoile started to teethe with anger, and she rushed out the room and hastened her investigation.

The Golden Dawn member ran out and went to the final room that was on the floor and it was hers. Instead of pausing like she had done with the other two rooms, she opened the door straight away.

As she was opening the door, she had the thought: "My room is probably empty now. Why would my parents keep the room of the person that killed their son! Still, I need to find anything…!"

The door was flung open, and she saw her room.

"My room… it's… the exact same?"

Letoile looked around and saw that her bed, curtains, floor, walls, as well as her drawers, closet, and toy box were the same as five years ago. "I… didn't think they wanted any trace of me…", she fell to the floor in sadness and shame.

When she did, she realised the floor was completely clean too which made her realise that her parents had kept cleaning her room and keeping it in top shape.

"Why though…? Didn't they want me gone?" Letoile wondered.

As she raised her head from the floor, she saw, on top of her toy box, a pile of papers wrapped in a green string that made them neat. However, on the floor, there were also a bunch of papers that looked like they were in the middle of being written on as well as a pencil. There were also a few scratch markings on the floor, right next to the fallen papers.

"Papers? I don't remember keeping these here… I wonder what they are?" Letoile stood up and walked over to read them.

She scanned across the papers and very quickly saw just what they were.

"Mother wrote letters to me? Why did none ever reach the base?" She thought. The Compass mage read them and instantly put a hand to her face as she was shocked.

All of the letters started with "We're sorry, Letoile, our beautiful daughter…". Letoile sat on the end of her pink bed and read through a bunch of them, and they all had some form of apology written in them.

"We're sorry we caused you such pain…",

"We didn't think about how our reaction would drive you away…",

"You and Lewis are still our pride and joy…",

"Please come home."

Letoile started to cry and hit her knee with her fist. "I… I didn't think they wanted me in their lives anymore because of Lewis? They… they never st-stopped loving me!" The tears from her eyes stained her glasses and the trousers she was wearing.

After a few seconds, she wiped her tears and questioned something. "They wrote so much, but why are they still here?"

She stood up and walked over to the papers that were on the floor and saw that one specific letter was in the middle of being written. It started:

"Dear our daughter, Letoile…",

It carried on with more of the same apologetic writing, but it also spoke about the parents' daily lives. However, the thing of relevance to the incident at hand was the writing at the end that did not match the tone of the letter.

It read:

"L-Let… No… D-downst- airs… Sec- ond s…storage… r-oo…m"

"Let… Letoile? Downstairs… Second… storage room?!" Letoile read through and made what was being said readable. "We have another storage room, could that be?!" She quickly ran outside and ran to the ground floor where she met Lucas again.


The two ran to each other and started talking in a hurry.

"There's another storage room!" They both said in unison.

"How did you…?" Letoile asked.

Lucas quicky responded. "There was a layout of the house outside the storage room on the second floor. I picked it up and saw that they recently built another room, but this is some sort of basement!"

"Then the entrance has to be around here!" Letoile replied back.

The two ran around uncovering every crevice and corner where a trapdoor or any sort of entrance could be. They looked behind curtains, paintings, and even boxes. Eventually, Lucas pulled back one particular curtain and saw that there was a door that was slightly open, and they both rushed down.


Meanwhile…

"Oi, hurry up ya old idiots", a large man with a scruffy black beard spoke with a cigar in his mouth. "We recently raided everything you have. Do this for us quickly and we'll be on our way!"

The large man spoke to two, older people. A man and a woman were tied by their waists against two chairs and were being forced to do something for the large man.

"Brocklan, I think we're pushing our luck too much with this. Let's just go and enjoy what we got from them!" A smaller man said to the larger man.

"Shut ya trap you. Mitch, I'm doing this for you! We'll get them to make more maps for us to enjoy the treasure!" Brocklan answered. "The old man's Map Magic and the old woman's Ink Magic are great attributes and if we can get a bit more then we're sorted!"

The old man and woman were trying their best to do as they were asked to. The Map mage tried to construct his maps, but they were taking much longer since he didn't have his grimoire to boost his productivity. He had tried to ask them to retrieve his grimoire, but they tied a robe around his mouth to prevent him making noise.

The old woman's situation was similar. She was struggling to produce the ink that was needed to mark out the buried treasure sites, but it was because her mind was preoccupied with something seemingly unrelated.

"I was in the middle of writing another letter to Letoile but as I was grabbed, I struggled so much to write down where they would be taking me… Why did I believe someone would read it and reach us? Our daughter hates us and rightly so… is there no hope?" She thought.

In the second storage room, there were two groups of people surrounding the old man and woman. Behind them were the security guards, servants, and other family members of House Becquerel and they were tied and unconscious and in a heap on the floor.

By Brocklan, there were three other mages in black clothes that covered every part of their bodies except their eyes and mouths.

"You're taking too long. What were your name again… Paul and Candice? Take this!" Brocklan raised his arm and was about to hit the two old people. It looked like they had already been beaten with the bruises and cuts to their faces as well.

As the large man was about to hit them, everyone heard two sets of footsteps running towards them. They all paused and turned around and saw the two Magic Knights from the Golden Dawn.

"Don't you… DARE lay a hand on them!" Letoile shouted and pointed. A second hadn't even passed from her entering and she flicked through her grimoire and fired a compass needle at Brocklan who deflected it with his Flame Magic.

The old man and old woman's eyed widened with seeing who had come to their rescue. Since they couldn't talk due to the bindings, their eyes watered as they cried tears of relief.

"My mother and my father… How could you do something this horrid?" Letoile shouted.

"Horrid? I think it's pretty fun what we're doing. Getting rich and using these old bums to help", Brocklan smiled with an eerie expression.

Lucas tried to charge in with his Light Magic at the ready, but Letoile's hand stopped him in his tracks.

She turned to him. "Sorry, Lucas. Can you leave him to me? I think you'll be able to handle those three lackeys there", she smiled before turning back around and resuming her angered expression.

Lucas looked at what was happening and recognised that it would be better if Letoile fought the main boss. "Sure, I can handle them!" The Light mage focused on the group of three that had started to generate their magic powers.

"You will pay for going against the House of Becquerel!" Letoile scanned through the pages of her grimoire and landed on a spell. "Compass Magic: Useless North!" A sharp compass needle generated next to her, and she sent it flying to Brocklan's face.

"You think you can defeat me, the leader?" He laughed as he caught the needle in his arm and crushed it with a burst of Flame Magic that generated from his hand.

"That easily?!" Letoile was shocked to see her spell get destroyed without a drop of sweat from the Flame mage.

"I guess it's my turn, woman. Flame Creation Magic: Spitfire Wing Attack! The enemy summoned an army of flame constructs that resembled himself, but just a bit smaller. They all generated intense bullets of flames and fired them at the Compass mage.

Letoile tried to dodge the onslaught of flame attacks and had managed to do so since her body was quite light and therefore had the agility to do so. However, the amount of quickfire attacks there were, the mage just couldn't evade every single one.

"Tsk! I can't keep being on the defensive… Ah!" She screamed. Letoile had been hit by a few of them in her back and arms which left big damage.

Letoile's parents were in the back and saw everything that was happening. However, the one common thing that they believed was that their daughter would never lose.

On the side, Lucas had started to fight the three lackeys that supported Brocklan. He started with his Light Magic and quickly outmanoeuvred them due to how experienced he was in this attribute.

"Light Creation Magic: Energy Whips". Lucas generated a strong whip construct in his left hand and twirled it around his other hand to give him more flexibility with his magic.

"Poison Magic: Toxic Turnover!" Mitch, who was the smaller man that spoke with Brocklan earlier, used his poison to create a wave of dark-purple waves that went towards Lucas who was busy with the other two mages.

As Lucas used his Energy Whips to attack the other bandit mages, he sensed the other attack that came from Mitch and quickly made his spell disappear and instead brought out his Dual Blades from his four-leaf grimoire.

"The battle against Max in the Royal Capital… These blades slowed down the Water Magic attack so maybe I can do the same here?" Lucas focused on his Time mana and managed to light up the pitch-black blades with the same faint blue tint that he has done on a few occasions now. His eyes also burned a brighter blue.

The Dual mage charged in with his blades in front of him in a crossed shape. The poison wave hit the blades first since they were in front of Lucas's body and since he was imbuing them with Time mana, he managed to reverse Mitch's poison spell back towards him.

"What the? How did he send my attack back at me…!" Mitch worried as he tried to run away from his own attack.

Though, since Lucas only reflected the small amount of poison that came into contact with him, the speed he used to counter the Toxic Turnover, was quicker since there was less of it to deflect. With this, the speed increased much more, and it almost looked like Lucas generated his own Poison Magic and used it as a bullet to attack Mitch.

Mitch's running was all for naught as his own magic caught up with him and quickly rendered him unconscious as he was hurled into the stone wall on the side.

"Phew… that's one down", Lucas looked at his blades and realised just how powerful he could get if he did use his Time Magic more often. "I'm not that used to this attribute since I only recently decided to focus on it, but these blades… they don't just slow the enemy's attacks down but also speed them up". The mage then focused on the remaining two mages.

"Damn it. That kid is strong with his weapons… I need to get rid of him, but this brat is also giving me a headache", Brocklan thought.

"Compass Magic: Needle Storm!" Instead of using one singular compass needle, Letoile summoned an array of sharp needles that formed a circle around Letoile and then fired them all at the same time. "How's this?!"

The Flame bandit gasped with how strong this attack was and knew that it was time to bring out the big guns. "I didn't want to use this since it has a mind of its own. I actually managed to lose it five years ago when we looked to plunder a cave, but I guess the situation calls for it… Flame Creation Magic: Magmous Golem!"

As the large, red and fiery golem was summoned, it tanked the Needle Storm attacks and started to move towards Letoile.

However, instead of Letoile reacting on the front foot, she paused and realised just what was in front of her. "It's… but how?!" She froze in horror. "Why is the golem that killed my brother in front of me?!"

As she spoke those words, almost everyone stopped in surprise to what she said.

Lucas, who was busy preparing for his other battles thought about everything he had experienced with Letoile today. "… Now I think it makes sense. The feeling of her being distant from her parents, how she tried to be level-headed when investigating, and her odd looks of distant thought… she left because her brother died, and she blamed it on herself".

The parents didn't share the same realisation at first as, five years ago, they had reached Letoile and Lewis later after the golem had disappeared. However, with what her daughter just said, it all made sense.

Brocklan took the realisation in a twisted way, though. "I was wondering why my golem was covered in blood and brought an arm to me back then… it was because of your brother!" He cackled.

The golem walked forwards and left cracks in the floor as it did with how heavy it was.

"… I have to defeat them both, but how?" She fell to her knees in defeat.

As she was wallowing in her sadness, she heard a voice from behind her. She looked around and through the blur of her tears she saw her younger brother, Lewis. However, it was only Lucas but since Letoile's vision was obscured and the fact that he already reminded her of Lewis, the resemblance was made.

"Why are you giving up? That's not like you, Letoile! You have a duty to your parents, and your brother to carry this out! You're strong… and even when you say try to hide your emotions, I see the real you. So, why don't you show your real self in this battle?" Lucas shouted to his squad mate.

"Lewis… no, I know that's Lucas… but he said exactly what my brother would have said". Letoile slowly got up. She put her hands on her knees for support but managed to get on to her feet once again.

The injuries she had sustained were big and this caused the blood from the cut on her forehead to leak even more, covering her right eye and also some of her glasses.

She looked at Brocklan and the golem, not with an anger as she had previously done, but with a calm yet focused look where she knew she had to win. As she did and made the declaration that she would be victorious, coupled with the realisation of everything that had happened, her green grimoire started to write a new spell.

Letoile looked at the page and what was inscribed and smiled to herself. "This spell… it's different to what I usually am like, but it mirrors the situation I'm in", she focused on the enemy Flame mage. "Brocklan, this spell is not controlled and a bit all over the place. I hope you're ready…".

"Compass Magic: Polar Onslaught!" Letoile summoned two large towers above and below Brocklan and his golem which also caused the two to float in the air.

"How… How are we floating?!" Brocklan shouted.

Just behind Letoile, the remaining enemy mages who were targeting Lucas quickly redirected their focus to the Compass mage in order to help their boss out.

Though, this was a perfect opportunity for the Dual mage.

"Okay… I've been practicing with my Time Magic. Even though I can't use any spells yet, I can easily increase my speed if I use it with my Light Magic, so, here goes". Lucas generated his Time mana in his right arm and Light mana in his left. He joined his hands together which made the double attributes flow around his entire body and with one step, he was in front of the enemy mages.

"How is he this quick?!"

"We can't even react!"

The two enemy mages blinked and saw Lucas appear in front of them in a quick blue and yellow flash. It looked like Lucas had achieved a huge feat in speed and with this he quickly knocked them out with an Angelic Strike attack from his left palm.

"It's all you now, Letoile!" Lucas shouted.

"I owe you, Lucas", she smiled.

The two towers that were above and below the floating enemies had started to glow and shoot out hundreds of compass needles from the North and South directions. Each individual needle were different sizes, so the opponent never knew how much to block or how much power to put into their defence. They cut through the body of the golem easily and they severed the tendons in Brocklan's arms and legs making him completely immobile.

Eventually, when the attack was over, Letoile, along with Brocklan had fainted on the floor.


A few hours had passed, and the Clover Kingdom bathed in the clear night sky. During the battle, there was heavy rain and storms but once the battle had concluded, everything cleared up. The light from the stars and the moon peered through the curtains of Letoile's room in her family's house and caused her to wake up.

The Compass mage woke up and saw that she was in her room where she enjoyed so much of her childhood. She saw the toy box, as well as the displays but the main thing that caught her eye were the two people that sat beside her looking towards with a warm smile.

"You're awake, Letoile", Candice, the mother, said in a soft tone.

"We've missed you so much", Paul, the father, smiled.

Letoile immediately sat up but still felt a bit withdrawn due to what had happened all those years ago. She covered herself with her blanket and huddled up by raising her knees and resting her chin on them.

"… Where's Lucas?" Letoile asked.

"That young man is just sat outside. He guided the other Golden Dawn members around, who came because of your request, and saw that the bandits were arrested accordingly", Paul explained.

Letoile sighed in relief. She began to get up and walk away but was stopped by her mother.

"Letoile… I think… we should talk", she said.

The three all sat down on the bed and began to explain things again.

"You two… after what had happened with Lewis, you told me you never wanted to see me again for as long as you lived so that's why… I thought… I sh-should respect your wishes since I'm the one that took… L-L-Lewis from you!" Letoile cried.

Paul and Candice looked at Letoile with an immense sadness in their eyes. "We… we were too hasty with what we said. The shock of it all as well as how it happened… we didn't know how to respond", Paul replied.

"I should have never ignored your sad eyes", Candice said. "That day, what we didn't realise is that not only did we lose Lewis, but we lost you too because of what we said", she started to cry as well.

"You were – are our guiding light, Letoile. We hoped that one day we would meet again", Paul explained.

Letoile was taken aback with what they were saying. For five years she had made herself believe that her parents never wanted to see her again.

"Are you two… serious? You… forgive me?" She asked with a sad tone.

"It was never your fault, my dear. From earlier, we realised it was that bandit's fault. Though we didn't only just realise… the day you left is the day we saw our mistake in how we handled things… but it was too late. Our baby daughter was already gone from us", Paul teared up.

"What about the letters? You never sent them to me", the Compass mage asked.

"We… we wanted to, and we were so close to send them every time we wrote but… we thought that you must have hated us and moved on, so we didn't want to burden you anymore. The letters we wrote were because a part of us wanted to believe that you were still with us", Letoile's mother sniffed.

At this moment, Letoile broke down in tears once more. She sat on her bed and cried so hard that her pink bed sheets became damp with liquid. What she didn't think was that as she did cry, she felt two pairs of hands reaching to her and pulling her in for a warm and long overdue embrace.

"Mom… Dad!" Letoile couldn't bring anymore words out due to her condition.

"Shhhh… let it all out and we will too", Paul cried into his daughter's arms.

"Letoile… lovely…" Candice stopped crying for a moment and tried to lighten the mood. "Letoile… I can't believe you spent five birthdays without us and grew up so much…!" The mother tried to lift the mood but as she was talking in a positive tone, she broke too with a bit of laughter and a lot of crying.

Lucas, who was sat outside the room on his chair, smiled at what the result of everything was, and even he had teared up.

Though it wouldn't be a quick fix, Letoile and her parents from House Becquerel had finally begun to heal and started to walk the path together in order to reclaim their saddened hearts.

NOTES:

OMG a HUGE chapter for you guys! This one was brewing for a while ever since I had written Chapter 11 where we first got glimpses of Letoile's backstory.

I hope you guys enjoyed this. I focused more on the emotional aspect of Letoile's story rather than focusing on combat which I think worked.

Originally, I had planned for Letoile to come alone but seeing how comfortable she was with Lucas around, I feel that was the better decision.

I had thought about splitting this in two parts but I decided not to.

I will be having Lucas join back into the canon events soon enough, but we have to have these moments since they're all part of Lucas's story.