It had been a few hours since the events at the village they had passed through before, a time Lily spend quietly. She was contemplating the question Manzo had asked her, and the answers that were made afterwards, but more importantly the consequences that came with these answers. Meanwhile the girl was quietly suffering from her fever, something that came up during the finale of the face-down against the Ronin. Even now she tried her best to bear with it, not wanting to be a burden to Manzo as she quietly followed beside him.

Nyancelot was just as quiet, every now and then shooting a worried glance at his master. He wanted to help her out so much, but even now he didn't know exactly what to say or do. Mercy was something he certainly could see as a part of chivalry, but not at the cost of endangering his master.

"Manzo-sensei..." She whispered softly, her gaze looking up at him. "D-do you regret what you did back there? I can't help but feel that even if you let half of them go, you took no delight in taking the others their lives. You even seemed sad in a certain sense."

Her voice was weak, fragile and uncertain, clearly hinting at her poor condition right now.

WC: 200/1200

In the hours following their assault at the hands of the ronin, and their ultimate victory, they found themselves on the road again. The memory of what had transpired was still very clear in his mind. It put him back on the battle field all those years ago during the crusades, and even further back to when he was a child during the Joyan civil war. Thankfully Lily would break the i silence between the two of them, with a very poinant question.

Did he feel bad about what he had to do out there. That was not an easy question to answer. Because in a sense yes, he did feel very bad about it. In another sense, he felt nothing. It was hard to achieve the balance, and to even explain it. "I'll remember them, their faces will be in my dreams, for a long long time." Manzo said in response to her question.

Probably not the answer she was expecting, but it was his answer. The truth of the matter was simple, his soul and body were bathed in blood more times than it wasn't. Another reason why he had never taken a wife. Why he had never had children. A manslayer is just that, a slayer of men and nothing else. You don't get to have a family, you don't get to be normal, all you can do is keep going, keep killing.

It was a tortured existence, in his homeland he was a demon. A vile being that reaked of iron and smoke. He couldn't blame them for feeling that way. He led a brutal campaign against his kinsmen for the highest bidder since he was old enough to carry a sword. Right wrong, or anything in between, it did not matter.

"When you take a life, you can easily lose your humanity. But life is to be respected, in the way you treat others, and in the way you end others." He said while still looking forward at the road ahead. With any luck they should find a camp sight sooner than later. He could see that a lot of Lily's energy was expended during the fight, not to mention the personality fracture. He was not sure just how long she could hold herself together. It was a concern of the highest order for him. So they would need to stop soon.

403/2000

It were words that clearly carried an immense weight with them. When Manzo mentioned that when one took a life, it was easy to lose one's humanity, the elven maiden turned her gaze at her own hands, trying to think back on the feeling. Although she felt sad now for having ended someone's life, the feeling she had during the moment itself was different. Back then she felt nothing in a certain sense. It was as if whenever she took a hold of her weapon and was forced into battle, she felt like she got caught in some sort of trance. The motions were automatic in a way, simply done without thinking about them. In a way it was similar to acting upon instinct, but at the same time it was more macabre. She had started to become aware of that presence that lurked in the depth of her mind, and even now it terrified her in a way.

To treat others, and how to end others. It had all come down to the fact that life was not something to toy with or take for granted. Even the act of killing an enemy should be respected. It was not like Manzo killed out of joy or some sort of sport, nor was it thrill seeking. In a way he killed out of necessity. Or did he come to consider killing someone as a normal thing?

Fortunately, as they were traversing the road, further up ahead seemed to be a small cove of sorts, the natural layout sheltering one from the elements, and the trees giving enough cover to conceal them from the road. Nevertheless, it seemed they would need to take a break soon, because judging from the light pants of the teenager her fever was getting worse, and she was now barely able to keep that strong front of her up.

WC: 300
Total WC: 500/1200

"Alright, let's get off the main road." Manzo said as he began to lead Lily down a path to a small cove off the road. It had enough cover to make sure that they would not be disturbed by any passerby on lookers. Which was good, the more secrecy they had the safer they would be on their journey which was all they could ask for. In truth, something smelled off too him, and not just the recent ambush. Lily's scent was bothering him, she smelled sickly sweet.

Which could have been a sign that she was coming down with something. In a foreign country where you were treated as hostile such things could spell doom for a traveling party such as this. But thankfully for the both of them, Manzo had his ways of working around that situation, many members of the Mattori clan were still present within the country. Which meant they had some kind of support, all be it indirect.

As the three approached the cove, Manzo would clap his hands together to create a wall of vines to make it seem like there had never been a cover there to begin with. Unpacking the camping supplies and beginning to set up a fire. Perhaps the damp air had gotten to her a bit, or the fact that she was suffering from her identity fracture. It was all within the realm of possibility, which meant that he would need to be off sooner than later in order to gather some herbs from the forest to treat it.

Likely a concoction of the local fungus would do the trick. So once he had set everything up for her, he exited the cave, sealing it up on the way out to make sure she was as safe as she could be.

707/2000

It had not taken long for Lily to take the opportunity to rest a little, and around the same time Manzo was preparing to set off on his journey, Lily had already huddled up near the camping supplies, her breathing growing slowly more ragged. It was clear she wasn't in the best of conditions, something even the Exceed had noticed. Hurriedly he chased after Manzo, wanting to help him in any way possible to find the things he needed to make a remedy as quickly as possible. Even now ever moment he spend away from Lily filled him with concern. And as such the small feline paced behind Manzo. "Her fever seems to be much worse than before." The feline muttered; his gaze still fixated on their surroundings while he continued a moment afterwards.

"And then there was that change in her presence, although Hermes told me about her condition before, this was the first time that sort of thing happened." Indeed, there was no doubt that in that moment Lily had become more than just Lily, the fracture of her soul, and the resurfacing of her old psyche were all telltales to what was happening.

"Before it was just nightmares, dreams of a past long forgotten, but this was as if past and present tried to become interwoven."

WC: 200
Total WC: 700/1200

The idea of losing Lily was too much for him to bare. He had always had concerns over losing a guildmate, but Lily was different. She didn't even know why she was different, part of him felt cruel for not explaining it to her. Though he knew he was not able to tell her. It was for her own good, though perhaps selfishly, he wished he could. He missed Esperia greatly, she was one of his closest friends. In a way, he loved Esperia, much like he loved Alisa.

It bothered him that at many points in his life, the people he loved were torn from him. With Alisa, it was the cultists. He gave himself up to save her from the punishment of Jace. Even though taking the punishment was not something Jace reveled in either. But someone had to go, and Alisa had too much potential for that. He'd had never forgiven himself if she had gone down instead of him.

With Esperia, the two had spent so much time together throughout the years, she felt like his sister, losing her was like losing his other half. Esperia was always so full of life and laughter. Lily was not a replacement for her. But she was her, all at the same time. Such things would wrack the brain of most people, let alone those with his level of trauma. But for her sake he pressed on, because at the end of the day that's all he could do.

Even when trying to push through it, he found himself thinking of the training trip he and Esperia went on. Truly where this all began. Watching her play in the snow and marvel at the flowers, it was pure. But she was gone, she wasn't coming back. No matter how hard he tried to push it from his mind, he could not. He could only imagine how her wife must feel, his pain could only be a fraction of hers.

As he continued walking he felt the rain begin to pour down on him. Standing still for a moment, he raised his head up to the sky, his long black hair soaked and stuck to his face. "Wake up lazy bum." Those words hit him like the first cold snap of winter. He jerked his head down, only to see a phantom of Esperia standing in the distance. "This can't be real." He said to himself. "How long are you going to keep your eyes closed?" The phantom called out.

At a loss for words, he said nothing, not sure if it was the cold and rain giving him these hallucinations. Or, if something far worse was at play. Only one thing came to mind. He had to hurry, he gave his face a few light slaps and shook the rain from his hair and began to pick up his pace. Doing so he would follow his nose to where the scent of the mushrooms could be found.

As he began to pick them, he heard the light snapping a of a twig. Ever on the offensive he turned to see that it was just a rabbit. He gave a sign of relief in that moment. He got closer to the rabbit to see what exactly was up with it. Coming so close to a human was not in their nature. Upon doing so he, saw there was a paper bomb attached to his back.

"Oh shit-" The only words he could get out before the explosion went off. The wolves had come out to play.

1308/2000

A dream, just like the many she had before. However, this time it was way more vivid than the ones that had come before. A mountainous area, light snowfall and a field of flowers.

"Say Manzo~" She called out, turning around to face the man as she smiled sheepishly at him. "Do you know the origin of my name?" The man laughed heartily at her, as if the question had been a jest. There was a reason why he was known as a Green Mage, so obviously his knowledge on the subject was close to having no equal. "Mhmm~ I'm named after these flowers- Esperia~"

The gentle whisper suddenly caused a strong breeze to blow, making the girl shake her head lightly in rejection to the words. "No... My name is Lily! Not Esperia!" Attempting to declare that she reached out for Manzo, yet her hand slipped through the body of her teacher, instead causing the girl to turn around to come face to face with the presence that had been lingering in the shadows for so long.

"Y-you" Lily stammered hesitatingly but instead the obsidian-haired woman slowly approached her. There was not a trace of hostility in her expression as she stopped right in front of Lily, leaning closer to the girl's shoulder to whisper softly into her ear. "There is no time, wake-up sleepy-head."

Suddenly her eyes opened, just in time to see that several cloaked figures had entered the shelter Manzo had made for her, one figure was trying to restrain her, but all of a sudden the body he had been holding had disappeared, reappearing behind the shinobi as she plunged a dagger into his back.

The man let out a muffled sound at the same time one of his allies appeared behind her, some sort of cloth being pushed before her mouth as she felt her strength rapidly fading away. Despite all her squirming and flailing she couldn't overpower the shinobi, and the last thought that drifted through her mind was: Manzo save me!

Before her vision blacked out. Meanwhile in the forest the sudden explosion had made Nyancelot raise his shield barely in time as the explosion knocked him a few meters away. "Ser Manzo!" The Exceed called out while he tried to dash over to where the man was.

It seemed that trouble had find the trio at long last, and this seemed a far more professional ambush compared to the problems they had faced earlier!

WC: 400
Total WC: 1100/1200

Manzo awoke in a field, covered in Esperia flowers. "No no no." He whispered to himself. Raising his head to see in the distance a small table with two chairs. He struggled to raise his arms to pull himself up. But just before he did so, he felt the earth shift underneath him. Popping him straight up onto his feet. "What is this place?" He whispered to himself quietly.

He had never seen somewhere as lush as this was before. It made his greenhouse look almost dead and decayed. "Manzy." He heard a voice call out to him. It was a familiar one, one he had not heard in quite some time. It was the same voice that had called out to him through the nether when he was in the forest. He turned his head in every direction in hopes that he would be able to tell where it was coming from.

"If you don't hurry up, the tea is going to get cold~" The voice wrang out to him again. It didn't make any sense, there was no tea, and there was no one there. Had he died, and was he stuck in limbo? Surely something as simple as an explosion would not be enough to knock him out. Just how strong was that paper bomb anywhere? Strong enough to knock him for a loop, that was for sure.

He continued to look around and yet he still couldn't find anyone. No one here but the flowers. "I can't find you." He called out. He heard the voice chuckle a bit, as the smell of flowers wafted through his nose, leading him down the path to the table. So he did what his body told him to do, he started walking.

After a few moments of that, he found himself at the table. He took a seat, waiting for him was a cup of tea. He picked it up and sipped it slowly. It was Esperia's earl grey, something he had not had the chance to simply sit down and have for what seemed like an eternity.

He put the cup down on the table, taking a deep sigh. "I guess it's just me here." He said silently, before he could utter another word, the scene shifted to an all white room with a film projector in the middle. Then as if by magic, Esperia popped into being, a phantom sitting right there beside him.

"I thought you'd never find this place." The phantom said in her usual playful tone of voice. There was so much to take in, he didn't know where to begin. Truly he didn't, what could he say to her, nothing would ease the pain he felt from losing her. Yet if this was heaven, he had to make the most of the time they had together.

"Well you know me, I've always been a bit slow." The phantom shook her head and smiled warmly at him. Raising her hand, activating the projector. Scenes from the demonic invasion, where he almost died played on the screen. He didn't understand why she would show him this. Yet he continued to watch. "You really don't give yourself enough credit." She said. Of course this confused further. Not knowing what exactly she could mean by that.

"You think you're just some throw away part of a bigger story. The way I see it is, you're the glue, that holds the pages together." Those words struck him deep in his heart. A single tear falling from his fae as he continued to watch. "You never run away you know, so I don't know why you think yourself a coward." It was true, his confidence had waivered. He just didn't know she could see that.

"You may think I'm gone, but I'm not. I'll always be here, whenever you see the blooming of a forget me not. Manzo..." Before the phantom could utter another word the voice of Nyancelot echoed through his head. Suddenly he found himself away on the battlefield. His body burned and bloody, yet he felt no pain.

Picking himself up, he looked over to the exceed with a smile on his face, and tears in his eyes. Feeling the warmth of seeing his friend again, then it dawned on him, what was he doing out here. "Nyancelot, is Lily okay? Did something?" He asked.

2056/2000

Nyancelot was clearly in a panic as he pointed his sword into the direction of their encampment. "It's fire! the encampment is on fire!" The Exceed exclaimed in a fit of panic as he started dashing back into the direction of the encampment, sure that Manzo would follow him. Once there the fire seemingly had started to subdue, courtesy of the rain that had started to fall, but what they found in its wake was even more terrifying. A corpse was lying on the ground, with Lily's dagger plunged into his back. Meanwhile judging from how the soil was disturbed it was clear that a fight had broken out here.

"A Joyan shinobi- but more importantly: They took Lily!" As the Exceed exclaimed these words Manzo would no doubt notice the small container on the shinobi's back, a container that contained a letter with directions to a location and a simple message:

If you value your apprentice's life, come to this location by sunrise. If you don't? You'll never see her again.


WC: 150
Total WC: 1200/1200