Laws was not entirely sure what to make of the current situation.

Truthfully, he was having trouble even processing the fact that he was alive in the first place. When that monster had ever so kindly taken out a chunk of his back, he had come to terms with the fact that his life was going to come to an end. Furthermore, when his mind had faltered and his consciousness started to slip away from him, he was convinced that his comatose body was going to end up as a free meal for any passing monster.

Laws recalled that, before he had succumbed to unconsciousness, he had heard an unfamiliar voice. It hadn't belonged to anyone he'd known, and despite its lack of overt hostility at the time, the fact that his fate had lain in a stranger's hands had provided him with little solace as he'd slipped into an uneasy slumber.

Then again, considering the owner of that voice, his impromptu caretaker that had introduced herself earlier, was right in front of him, perhaps he was in no danger at all.

"Why is a child even out this late?"

"I was replacing the injured knight who was supposed to be patrolling tonight."

"… You can't be older than five-years-old."

"Four, actually."

It was slightly difficult to reconcile the lingering sense of vulnerability from earlier with the scene he was witnessing. Even though he had known the boy for only a day, Laws did not think that he was the type of child to act in this manner.

It was no surprise that Paul's son was quite the oddity. He stood out like a sore thumb, his distinctive red hair and bronze eyes an exotic exception in the village. If Laws didn't know any better, he would not have guessed he was Paul's son, the differences between the two nigh-high unreconcilable when they were side-by-side.

And that was not even his strangest trait. The boy's mannerisms were a whole other beast to tackle—metaphorically, of course. Shirou, simply put, did not act like any child. In fact, he did not act like any person Laws knew, and he had travelled a good deal and met his fair share of people.

Shirou knew the harshness of reality, almost as if its cruel lessons were engraved into his mind. Laws had wondered where such wisdom had been earned, but no explanations he thought of made any sense, so the mystery that was Paul's son remained unsolved.

There was the stoicism he exhibited too. When it came to matters of emotion, especially when it involved his father, the boy became almost aloof, that marvelous mind of his almost detached from his heart. Laws recalled the earlier conversation with Paul and how the man had voiced his insecurities. For a man like Paul, who was not good with words nor at expressing himself, a gesture like that must have taken a great amount of willpower. It was not easy, being vulnerable in front of others, and even despite their friendship for a few years now, Paul still did not easily show that side of him.

However, Paul had done so anyway, baring his emotions openly in front of the one who had caused them in the first place. Laws had watched him his friend, then he had observed Shirou, the opening in the conversation the perfect opportunity for the source of Paul's worries to assuage the man's worries.

Laws knew much of Paul's situation, and from what he could tell, it was a grim place to be in. However, the confusing tangle of emotions that plagued the Greyrats could still be resolved. Before all hope was lost, just the right words, infused with just the right emotions, could save someone.

Laws knew this, and from the glint in the boy's eyes, he knew Shirou understood as well.

And Shirou had done nothing.

Perhaps he was giving the child just a bit too much credit, and maybe Laws was not as observant or as smart as he thought he was, but the child's indifference towards certain matters certainly fit his perplexing behavior.

Well, Laws doubted that he was overestimating the boy. After all, in an act that he was noticing to becoming a growing reoccurrence, Shirou had given Paul a small gesture of reassurance right before they had left, a parting comfort that only took a second. However, to someone like Paul, even if it was a bit late and the gesture itself a bit awkward, it was still appreciated and valued. Hell, considering Paul's own gracelessness in similar matters, maybe the man found it even more relatable.

Did the boy mean it as a consolation for his earlier missed chance? Laws wasn't sure, but it also begot the question on why he didn't do anything earlier.

Regardless, it meant that Shirou wasn't entirely callous. In fact, Laws would judge him as more caring and considering, in the boy's own strange, clumsy way. His treatment of Sylphiette was proof of that. His attempts to distance himself from her was obvious, the wall he was trying to build as plain as day. However, his attempts to do so easily crumbled, and Shirou had not been able to truly push away his daughter.

He was not a bad person, that much was true. Despite the puzzling nature of the boy, that fact was absolutely certain. Truthfully, Laws was growing increasingly fond of him.

If Laws was feeling poetic, he would say Shirou was like an almost impossible existence—crack in a mirror, a flaw in the world. The crack, thin yet undeniable, and just as a fractured mirror shattered the illusion of a perfect image, Shirou's presence seemed to disrupt the natural order, creating ripples in the fabric of normality.

"I forgot to confirm earlier, but did the healing magic working correctly?"

"Are you unconfident in your abilities?"

"Due to the abnormalities during the process, I would like to make sure."

"… I feel fine… Thank you…"

"… You're welcome."

And yet, somehow and someway, the scene in front of Laws seemed to mend that crack, the sight emanating an inexplicable sense of… correctness. It was like finally scratching an itch that tormented him just out of reach or the final piece of an intricate jigsaw puzzle finally slotting into place. There was just something about it that felt… right, a feeling of satisfaction just seeing the pair walking together in front of Laws. At this point, he was half-tempted to excuse himself, feeling like he was intruding upon something.

In fact, he felt so out of place that Laws almost forgot the pressing factor that had caused this situation in the first place.

"The monsters," he started. Shirou and Roxy both turned around at his words, their faces growing serious. "What happened to all of them?"

Silence.

Laws noted the twisting expression of conflict on Shirou's face. Despite being almost unreadable most of the time, there were common moments like this where he, maybe unknowingly, showed his heart on his sleeve. It was strange, but it fit the boy perfectly.

As to what he felt conflicted by, Laws could only guess. Maybe Shirou was afraid of recalling the dreadful beasts? Laws had to keep reminding himself that the boy was just that—a boy. Judging from his tattered and bloody clothing, he surely had encountered a few monsters and had not escaped unscathed. The terror of coming so close to death must have shaken him on some level, genius or not.

"I took care of them." From next to the boy, a small, firm voice spoke up.

Laws raised an eyebrow, skeptical of her claim. "All of them?"

Roxy nodded. "I'm an adventurer. Hunting monsters is my profession." She fished out a small metal card, handing it to the elven man.

SS-rank?

How peculiar… Laws knew that the Adventurer Guild had undergone some reforms in the past few years, but he didn't know that they had added a whole new rank. On some level, he wasn't surprised; the bar for adventurers has only increased ever since the surge of new and more powerful monsters. Naturally, the abilities needed to combat them had to rise as well, and the people who returned alive from the excursions deep into monster territory deserved to be rewarded more, if only to incentivize more people to keep the horde back at bay.

Still, a whole rank above Paul's party? Paul was the strongest person he knew, and had he devoted more time and effort into his swordsmanship, Laws wouldn't have been surprised to see his name on those monuments someday. Paul was a prodigy without a shadow of a doubt and had fought alongside a Sword King. To think that one woman achieved something even beyond them was hard t believe, and he was half-tempted to accuse the woman of marking the card herself.

"Ah, sorry, I didn't realize," Laws said, handing her back the card.

"It's fine," Roxy dismissed. "Truthfully, I'm a bit surprised that I seem to be relatively unknown in these parts, but I suppose it's a bit far out." Despite her words, Laws couldn't find a hint of arrogance, the woman simply stating the truth.

"Still, I'm surprised that you managed to kill all those monsters without any injuries to show for it." Laws was under the impression that magicians were strict backline members in a party, the rest of the members forming a shield around them to give them the time and space to complete their incantations. Roxy looked like she came along, so she wouldn't have had the benefit of a team of people to protect her.

Roxy shrugged, then pointed at something behind and above Laws. The man followed her finger, tracing it to a hazy cloud of grey—smoke, he realized—that came from deeper inside the forest.

"Fireball." Laws turned back around, greeted by a large orb of flames conjured by her staff. "I'm a magician. Large-scale attacks are my specialty," she explained.

"I… see…" Laws responded, having trouble comprehending more due to the destructive magic right next to him than any real doubt of her abilities. At the very least, the mysterious woman was far more powerful than any magician had ever met before if she was able to shorten her incantation to that extent, something Laws didn't even know was possible.

Roxy nodded, the spell disappearing with a swipe of her staff. "Their bodies are burning right now. It should be done by morning." Roxy walked past him, heading towards the village. "In the meantime, I'll escort you two back to safety."

After a moment of deliberation, Laws turned to follow her, and it was only after a few seconds of walking did he realize something was amiss.

"You okay?" There were only two pairs of footsteps, and Laws found Shirou had remained behind, a pensive expression on his face. "If you're tired, we can rest for a bit," he offered. At this point, it must be far past his bedtime.

"It's nothing," the boy said, and he quickly caught up to Laws. The man knew there was something else going on, but he didn't have the energy to pry more into it tonight. Right now, he had to think about how to explain this entire situation to Paul. They were far past the expected time to return, and considering how paranoid the knight was nowadays, there was a good chance that he was probably gathering some people to head into the forest to search for them. Or maybe he was giving the man too much credit, and Paul was going to search for them by himself?

"You look worried," Shirou said.

Laws smiled wryly. "You and I might be in quite a bit of trouble."

A guilty expression crossed the child's face. "I knew this was a terrible idea." he grumbled.

Laws laughed. "Well, maybe you should have voiced that. Then again, Paul probably wouldn't have listened anyway."

Shirou sighed. "I… Yeah you're right." They walked in silence for a bit, mulling over their own thoughts, but Laws could see that the boy's eyes had been fixated upon something specific—or rather, someone.

A teasing glint shone in his eye, a side-effect of having been married to his wife for quite some time. "Something catch your eye?" Laws whispered to his companion.

Predictably, the boy turned a deadpan gaze to the elven man, and Laws could see why Alice had teased the boy so yesterday. "It's rude to stare so intently at me."

"Are you talking about me or about yourself?" Withholding a chuckle as the boy's eyes narrowed, Laws eyed the woman who walked ahead of them, Roxy either not caring for or not hearing their conversation. "She's pretty, I'll give you that, but aren't you shooting a bit too high? Demons are quite long-lived, you know, and they never look their age. For all you know, she could be older than your mother."

Shirou rolled his eyes but remained silent.

"Besides, what would Sylphiette think, seeing you so interested in someone else so quickly?" Shirou shot the man a dirty look, and Laws couldn't help but let out a quiet chortle.

Laws was only half joking. While he was fairly confident the boy didn't suddenly develop a crush on the powerful magician, he was Paul's son, and if he knew anything about the Greyrats, it's that the entire family might as well have been a bunch of rabbits in disguise. Paul had told him stories about how chaotic and ravenous the normally reserved and demure Zenith became in the bedroom—at least, before everything had fallen apart.

Of course, Laws had a good idea on what exactly ailed Shirou's mind. While Roxy didn't seem to harbor any malicious intent, the fact remained that an abnormally strong person had suddenly appeared in their lives, and with great power came an immense amount of risk and danger. No matter how you cut it, the situation was quite strange.

Truthfully, half the reason that Laws was even following her was precisely because she was so dangerous. Someone who had the ability to dispatch so many monsters at once unscathed was definitely someone that Laws wanted to remain on good terms with. Conversely, if Laws had misjudged her character, then acquiescing to her requests was still beneficial, a possible unspoken threat hidden behind the woman's words. After all, he not only had to keep his own safety in mind but also Shirou's. It was the reason why neither him nor Shirou had directly addressed the strange circumstances surrounding the woman, settling for some teasing remarks instead to point his mind towards that direction, assuming the boy hadn't already.

Well, that scenario was unlikely. If the woman wanted to do something, she already would have.

"Please give your daughter a bit more credit," Shirou said before speeding up his gait to catch up to Roxy's side. The woman looked down at boy materializing beside her, tilting her head and blinking owlishly at him before quickly turning her head back forwards.

Laws sighed.

Maybe it actually was like that after all.


Roxy Migurdia had no idea what she was doing.

It was a strange feeling. It wasn't to the point of arrogance, but Roxy took pride in her intelligence, and her varied life experiences only served to complement her natural genius. To that effect, logical thinking and planning were her biggest strengths, and they had enabled her to survive this far into her rather dangerous lifestyle. After all, one did not roam the world as a solo adventurer without constantly having a plan in mind and a myriad of contingencies alongside it.

And yet, for all her intellect and skills, even the infamous magician had been unable to predict how this night had gone.

She wasn't entirely surprised that strange, new variables had appeared. After all, the trail that she was tracking had eluded her for years now, and not once had she been able to satisfy the burning need for answers within her, her efforts only giving her more questions than anything else. By now, she had long since learned not to expect the ordinary nowadays, logic and reasoning almost a scarcity ever since the world decided to flip itself upside down.

Case in point, the child who was walking alongside her.

Nothing about him made sense. The boy was barely to her chest—and Roxy didn't exactly possess a particularly tall frame—and his age could be counted on one hand, and yet when she had stumbled onto the clearing, ready to fight off a sea of flesh and evil that could have swallowed a dozen villages whole, she had found him, standing amidst piles of burning flesh. His visage was splattered with the blood of monsters, yet it bore an expression of eerie calmness ill-suited upon his youthful face. Like an artist before a canvas of death, his eyes swept over the scene with a detached interest that sent chills down Roxy's spine.

And that was not even considering the fact that the boy oozed the same wrongness that had scarred her all these years, a visceral sensation that clawed at her mind and haunted her dreams, the very ghosts she had been trying so hard to dispel all this time.

Perhaps it was fitting, her hunt for monsters ending with Roxy finding someone where the line between humanity and monstrosity became perplexingly blurred. He was a walking paradox, a living contradiction, and his existence presented an unsolvable enigma that Roxy's analytical mind could not reconcile.

And yet, here was the same boy, walking peacefully beside her as if he hadn't been surrounded by charred corpses just a little while earlier.

It was strange. In a way, Shirou almost contrasted against her own nature, making her question reality even more, and his existence was as mysterious as it was dangerous. However, despite everything, she could not bring herself push him away.

She was wary of him, yes, but she did not entirely distrust him. After all, Roxy herself had been a victim of unfair prejudice, her demonic heritage and infamous reputation often preceding her before all else. She was hesitant to cast that same judgmental gaze among someone else; hypocrisy, after all, was a flaw in reasoning that she preferred not abiding by, even if Roxy acknowledged that sometimes, such contradictions were unavoidable, the complexities of reality and the emotional nature of people making infallible rationality impossible.

In a situation like this, where the boy had been entirely cordial with her and hid nothing despite it benefiting him little, reciprocating that honesty would only be fair. The time for questions could always come later if need be.

Then again, perhaps Roxy should not be throwing around the word "honesty" so lightly. After all, she had lied to protect the boy.

"Why?" A quiet voice next to her pierced through her thoughts, the word barely a whisper. Roxy looked down at the boy, whose gaze remained locked forwards, but she knew otherwise. The word had been said quietly even though their companion had disappeared further ahead to act as a scout.

Why?

It was such a simple question, only one word, and yet the implications it carried continued far beyond that. He knew just what she had done, but uncertainty was still laden in his voice.

She was not surprised he did not know. Truth be told, Roxy herself could barely rationalize it herself, the irony not lost on her.

Why would she go so far for a random child she just met? Why put herself at risk?

It didn't make sense, and perhaps it only drove home that fact Roxy was not as beholden to her ideals as she would have preferred.

As the question echoed in her mind, Roxy grasped for an explanation, the true motive behind her actions as elusive as a mirage in the desert. Yet, as the moments were filled with a contemplative silence, something finally emerged from the haze in her mind, and Roxy couldn't tell if she was surprised the answer was fairly simple despite the layers of logic and rationalization it hid under.

"You're different," she started softly, her tone measured. "It has a certain weight, doesn't it? It's both a blessing and a curse. People are simple, rude creatures. They often push away what they don't understand. I know what it's like to stand out in a way that pushes others away. Being alone because of who you are… It's a sad thing. You don't deserve something like that." Roxy couldn't tell whether or not the words were for him or for herself at this point. "Besides, the world will never forget who you are. I'm sure you're well aware of that. Hiding can only get you so far for so long."

"… I see…"

Her eyes were fixed straight forward during the entire explanation, but she didn't need to see anything. After all, the resulting silence told her far more.

No more words were exchanged between the two afterwards, but Roxy liked to think that the lack of conversation wasn't uncomfortable. The elven man was still gone, but she wasn't concerned. There was a higher chance that livestock would fall from the sky than their companion losing track of them.

As they pressed on through the deepening twilight, she heard the man's hurried footsteps, and Laws burst through the trees.

"It's them," Laws said. "We should regroup. They're probably looking for us." Strangely enough, despite having the chance to reunite with his companions, the man did not seem particularly excited.

A search party? It was getting rather late. Assuming the two were out on patrol as Shirou said earlier, no doubt the chaos of the night had delayed them enough that people became concerned.

They continued walking for another minute or so, and true enough, a faint flicker caught Roxy's eye. It was difficult to see through the dense foliage, but the glow was very much real, if a bit far in the distance.

Speaking of whom, the boy tensed slightly at the man's words. Roxy mentally questioned that but made no comment. She could already hazard a few guesses about his unease.

"We're over here!" Laws called out. He repeated himself a few more times, but Roxy doubted the distant group could clearly hear them.

"Here." She raised her staff into the air, a small orb of flames forming at its tip. "Fireball." The flames grew larger and brighter until her staff became a makeshift torch that almost seemed like its own miniature sun in the dark forest.

"Please don't set the forest on fire," Laws said warily.

Roxy rolled her eyes. "I'll be careful, don't worry."

The others seemed to have noticed them because the faint light grew brighter, and the hazy cloud of light turned out to be instead a group of torches moving towards them. Soon, distant voices broke through the tranquility of the forest as both parties moved closer to each other. Before long, Roxy could spot the distinct figures of villagers quickly moving through the forest, their concerned faces illuminated by flickering flames. One of them in particular, belonging to a tall man that was leading the group, was a bit more alarmed than the rest.

"Shirou! Laws!" an unfamiliar voice cut through the forest, accompanied by hurried waves of a torch. The man was sprinting towards them, and his eyes immediately gravitated towards the child at her side and then to the elven man. An expression of relief washed over his handsome features, but his eyes widened as he saw the bloodied and torn clothes on their bodies. Those eyes narrowed once they panned over her, and his expression quickly morphed into one of anger. "You, who are you?!"

The sound of steel sliding against its sheath whistled through the air, and Roxy suddenly found herself gazing at the drawn sword with a raised eyebrow, its edge glinting menacingly in the torchlight. Despite the man still being several steps away, Roxy's intuition told her that she was at a disadvantage, the distance between them dangerously insufficient for her to comfortably fire off a spell. Just from his stance and speed, she could tell he was a cut above the standard swordsman.

The villagers accompanying the man also drew their weapons, swords pointed at her like an angry mob.

She suppressed a sigh. She was used to this by now, but the disappointment still bothered her more than she would have preferred.

The man seemed to be overly emotional and direct, so deescalating the situation would be beneficial. "An adventurer," Roxy answered crisply. "I helped these two while I was dealing with some monsters that were nearby." She made sure to not make any sudden movements, knowing that any perceived aggression could worsen things. If push came to shove, the man seemed like he was the kind to immediately dive into the fray.

The man's eyes narrowed. "Monsters? There should barely be any around here. And what do mean they needed help?" Despite the hostility, the man remained rooted where he was. From his perspective, it must have looked like a hostage situation, so he was probably thinking of a way to separate them.

Laws stepped forward. "Paul, it's alright. She's telling the truth. This is Roxy, and she helped us out of a tight spot."

The man, Paul, looked at Laws with narrowed eyes before slightly lowering the weapon. "And you just trusted her?"

Laws shrugged. "Didn't exactly have much of a choice." He spun around, showing Paul the bloody backside of his shirt. "If not for, I'd either have bled out or be in chunks inside of a monster's stomach by now."

Paul frowned. "She's not lying then?"

Laws shook his head. "If Roxy hadn't taken care of them, then I imagine you would have your hands full dealing with a giant swarm of monsters in the village right now."

"There's no way that many monsters just appeared out of nowhere when they've done nothing all this time."

The elven man sighed. "Paul, you know that I'm not the type to lie. You've seen crazier things before. Why the hesitation now?"

His words caused Paul's frown to deepen. Roxy could see his brain working to decipher truth from fiction, and she could see the exact moment when he realized that he detected no lies within the other man's words. "Shi-…" Green eyes flashed towards the boy next to Roxy, but his voice faltered. "… Shirou…"

Shirou nodded curtly. "Paul."

"… Do you trust her?" The words hung in the air, and Roxy found herself also waiting for his answer with bated breath. She wouldn't blame him if he said no. After all, children were taught to not trust strangers, and they had only met just a little while ago. It's not as if distrust was something she wasn't used to by this point anyway.

"… I do."

Roxy felt her lips curl into a small smile.

He already expressed his willingness to put his faith into her once before, but seeing it again was nice.

A cough brought her attention back to Paul. There was a mixture of confusion and… something else in his eyes, but Roxy made no comment on it. "Well, if these two trust you, then I will too." The sword disappeared back inside its sheath, and the man stepped forward, extending his hand towards her. "I'm sorry about the rough introduction. I'm Paul Greyrat, the knight of this village and responsible for these two."

Roxy extinguished the fireball that had remained unlaunched. "Roxy Migurdia, adventurer," she said, shaking his hand. In a movement she was becoming increasingly weary of, she took out her Adventurer Guild card and handed it to Paul. "Just to verify my identity."

Paul nodded in thanks, and the other villagers relaxed as well, putting away their weapons. "I'm surprised to see a magician out in these parts, especially one alone. Magicians aren't exactly known for working solo. Don't you have a party with you?"

Roxy shook her head. "Not anymore. Besides, I tend to work better alone anyways."

The man paused briefly but continued reading the card and whistled. "Damn, they added new ranks?"

"They did, though I'm the only one in it for now," Roxy explained. She took the card back from the man. "It was given as a show of merit considering the amount of missions I was undertaking, not to mention being the sole survivor of the Cataclysm from a few years ago."

"Cataclysm?" Laws asked.

"It was the incident that effectively separated the Millis and Central continents. I'm sure you've heard of the rumors by now, right?"

"I've heard that area is basically a dead zone by now. No one can even get close to it without shitting their pants, not to mention the things that in it…" Paul made a nasty grimace, an expression that Roxy agreed with. She remembered the nauseating feeling all too well, the chills that raced up her spin, and the heavy weight of dread in her stomach. Not once had she summoned the courage to return back there, so for all intents and purposes, she was stuck on this side of the world. Voyaging by sea was almost impossible with the limitations of combat on a ship, and while she was confident in her abilities, routing through the Divine Continent was not a task for any lone person. She would need a full party with her to even think of attempting the challenge.

"I heard it's getting bigger," she added. "They say the land around the area has only grown more inhospitable as time passes."

Paul rolled his eyes. "As if things weren't shitty enough." The knight let out a sigh, either from exasperation or exhaustion or both. "With the pleasantries out of the way, why don't you all explain what happened? I got worried when you guys were running late, then I saw smoke coming from deeper into the forest and gathered some people to head over."

"Ah, that would be the monsters," Roxy answered. "I'm just disposing of their bodies. They're heavily mutated, so I didn't want to risk their bodies being eaten and causing more issues."

"Mutated… so they were more of them…"

She raised an eyebrow. "You've seen them before?"

Paul nodded. "Once or twice, when we were first establishing patrol and hunting routes. They were always wandering around the village, but they never attacked it. I left them alone since they always felt… off to me, but you're saying a bunch of them attacked you guys?"

Laws cut in. "It was looking like a standard patrol, but I noticed that all the monsters disappeared by the time we were almost done."

Roxy frowned at his words. What he was describing was atypical behavior of monsters. Usually, they would attack with reckless abandon. Laws was almost making it seem like the monsters had some sort of strategy in mind, perhaps coaxing the two into letting down their guard and luring them deeper in the forest before ambushing them.

"Disappeared? What do you mean by that?" Paul questioned.

"As in I couldn't even sense them nearby."

To evade an elf's senses in the forest… They must have scattered quite far.

Paul's frown grew with every word. "That's weird… What could have caused them to just change so suddenly…?" Roxy saw the man's eyes flash towards Shirou, and she questioned how much the man knew. Shirou had said his energy attracted monsters, but that was contradictory to Laws's account of the monsters briefly disappearing. There was something else missing, and maybe probing the boy later might reveal something useful. "Okay, so you noticed something was off. What's next?"

"Well, we started walking back towards the village when we were attacked by the monsters. Like Roxy said, I'm pretty sure these ones were mutated, but they just felt more… vile than the ones we saw from before." Laws paused as a shiver went down his spine. "I… There were so many of them Paul. If they had made it to the village, there wouldn't be anything left." Laws paused, his eyes trembling slightly, but the man gritted his teeth and continued on, "There wasn't any chance we could escape them. Even if we did, they might have just gone for the village. I told Shirou to go grab you and the others while I stalled them."

Paul's eyes darkened. "You were going to sacrifice yourself?"

Laws gave him a dry smile. "What other choice did I have?"

Paul's fists clenched, and he let out a sigh, choosing to just lightly punch the man in the shoulder. "Don't do something so stupid again," he finally said, his voice tired. "And I guess that explains your injuries."

"Yeah, one of them caught up to me and bit me in the back. I thought that was it for me, but for some reason they stopped chasing me. After that is when Roxy found and healed me before I passed out." Laws pondered for a bit before he snapped his fingers in realization. "Wait, before that, I remember feeling something strange, like a pulse of energy. That's when all the monsters went off to chase after that instead." His face twisted into a troubled look. "It felt weird, unlike any magic I've felt before." His face paled, and a grimace overtook his features, one Roxy could not fault the man for.

"I see… I guess it didn't reach the village. I definitely would have felt something like that if I was around." Paul still looked troubled but decided to move on. "Well, I guess that explains what happened with you. What about you, Shirou?" The torchlight almost seemed to focus on the boy, casting in a stark, golden glow that highlighted him from the surrounding darkness. The child looked uneasy with the full brunt of everyone's attention suddenly on him, the most emotion she had seen the somewhat stoic boy exhibit.

"… I also encountered some monsters. There were too many to handle all at once, so I sustained some injuries."

"Where?"

"Nothing major, just some shallow cuts."

Paul hummed thoughtfully. "Laws, how strong would you say the monsters were?"

"They were mainly Assault Dogs being led by Terminate Boars. Obviously they were stronger than usual, so I'd say somewhere around B to A-rank."

Judging from the corpses Roxy saw, she agreed with his assessment.

Paul whistled. "You're not a seasoned adventurer quite yet, but that's still… abnormally impressive." He stepped in front of the boy, a hand lowering towards Shirou's head. It hovered hesitatingly for a brief second before it ruffled the auburn locks. "Well, as long as you're safe, that's what matters. Anyway, so you went to grab yourself a new pair of boots. What happened after that?"

"That would be me," Roxy cut in. "After healing Laws and making sure he would not be harmed, I located the main pack of monsters and dispatched them. I later found Shirou after his battle and healed him. The rest of the time was spent destroying the bodies of the beasts and reuniting with Laws before we agreed to return to the village."

The irony was not lost on her, lying to protect someone to reciprocate their honesty. Roxy wondered if that made her a bad person; she could not even hide behind half-truths, so she had little defense except for the fact that she was doing this to preserve the wishes of a child.

Then again, considering the fact that she was committed to the bit by this point, she had a hard time convincing herself that this was something she would regret.

"Damn, you actually went through the trouble of burning all the corpses?" Paul questioned.

Roxy shrugged. "They weren't in a usable state anyway. Besides, I couldn't risk more monsters cannibalizing them and get stronger."

Paul considered her words for a moment before nodding in acceptance. "I guess I can't fault you then." The man suddenly let out a groan, sighing in relief as he stretched and popped a few joints. "Well, everything makes sense from what you guys are telling me. A bunch of monsters showed up, and someone from the Adventurer Guild showed up to help. A bit convenient but I guess that's luck for you," he summarized.

"I was already investigating the abnormalities in this area, so it's not purely coincidence," Roxy said.

"True," he conceded. "Well, this night has dragged on long enough. I guess I straightened up most things. I still have one question though." Paul looked straight at Roxy. "You're a lone magician, but you don't have a single scratch on you. If what Laws said was true, there's no way you could have taken all that many monsters all by yourself unless there's something else you didn't tell me." His voice was not fully accusatory, but the man was being quite firm.

Roxy sighed. She was hoping it would not have to come to this, but if she wanted his trust, there was little else she could do. Revealing a minor secret was hardly a big price.

She focused, willing energy into her eyes. Her vision sharpened, and the flow of magical energy around her started to come into focus—

"That's because she's not the one who killed all the monsters," a young voice pierced through the air. Roxy's concentration fell apart as soon as she recognized who it belonged to, and she turned to face the child at her side.

Paul regarded the boy with a certain look, but of all the emotions on his face, surprise was not one fo them. "Then who did?"

Shirou met Paul's gaze steadily, his face set in an expression of seriousness beyond his years. Then, Roxy felt the air hum with a familiar energy, and swords, just like the one he had shown her earlier, materialized in the air, five of them hovering in the air between him and Paul. Paul's eyes narrowed, and his lips straightened into a tight line.

Ah, perhaps Roxy should have given him more credit.


A/N: Okay technically 24 hours is still a few hours, but yeah whoops. I intended to finish my edits and upload while I was at work but work was a bit busier than expected, so I could only do it now.

Anyway, we're definitely hitting the end of the little tsundere act that Shirou has been doing for the past ~100k words. It wasn't my intention to drag it on for this long but I think with my writing style, even though very little time has actually passed in this story (really only two days since Ch3), it felt a lot longer. Truthfully, things are going a bit faster than I would prefer but then again, I think going slower would do way more harm than what I'm doing right now.

Alright, so Roxy has finally entered the picture. As you can see, we're doing some mild glazing from both sides. I'm worried it's a bit much, but I was definitely going for the whole "fated" thing Rudeus and Roxy had in canon. There's also the part where straight simping for a girl they just met is exactly what happened in both Fate Stay Night and Mushoku Tensei anyway, so it's not like there's no precedent for this. Another area of concern is that it comes off like Roxy is some mary stu that goes around solving all the problems I've presented for the other characters to solve. I think that's just an execution thing though. While Roxy's presence did jumpstart a lot of development for the cast in canon, it felt it was a bit too easy, so while I want to do a similar thing here, I'm definitely keeping in mind that she's not some deus ex machina I just randomly inserted. In case it needs to be spelled out, everyone has to find their own answers (the reason Sakura killed herself btw), so I have to be careful to not undermine my own themes.

Oh I think I already mentioned this last chapter but the whole eye thing isn't just fluff, it's an actual thing. Yes I gave her eye powers. No I have no regrets. Of course, in my typical fashion, being gifted is not necessarily a good thing. The whole reason she has it is due to events that I've been hinting at throughout the story. There's a bit more here, but eventually I'll probably do a Roxy flashback to give you guys a bit more to chew on. It's not really the most unique or exciting thing ever, but it is the reason she is the way she is right now. I'm trying to make her still similar to canon Roxy, but honestly Roxy never had a particularly strong personality to begin with, so it almost feels like I'm writing someone different at times. Or maybe I just have a completely wrong bead on her character and I'm just writing out of my ass, who knows. Maybe I need to read that Roxy manga…

Aight, I think that's all there is for me. Next chapters should be Zenith returning, Roxy Shirou and Sylphiette have some interesting training sessions, and I'll need to somehow find a way to get Ghislaine over here. Maybe we need a "quick" trip to Roa and meet Eris and Ghislaine? There's a certain someone I want to meet Shirou so I can set up the finale for this arc.

Alright, done for real. Thank you all for reading, please consider leaving a review, and as always, have a great day!