Knights began to gather around the training ground, waiting in anticipation for the upcoming duel. All the watchful gazes were starting to make Ega’s heart pump faster. Tightening his grip on the wooden sword, he turned towards Hela.
Despite the years having eroded her body and stained her hair gray, she still exuded an incredible amount of power. Ega wouldn’t even be surprised if she had become even stronger since their last duel knowing her personality. It seemed like even time itself couldn’t hold her back.
As both of them got into their stances, the knights watching suddenly became quiet. There was a tension in the air for a few seconds as Ega and Hela reassessed each other, trying to gauge what had changed about their skills after all these years. But something like that wasn’t something that to see, but to experience.
Ega was the first to cut the tension, charging straight at Hela to set the tempo of the fight. He swung, feinting an attack before twisting his wrist to change the trajectory of his blade.
But Hela had lived too long to fall for such a simple trick. Parrying the attack, she quickly countered with a swing aimed at his sword-wielding hand.
Narrowingly dodging it, he swung back, but the awkward position left his chest wide open. Hela didn’t let the opportunity pass up and thrusted her sword.
Her blade was moving much faster than his, but Ega had already expected this. He twisted his body to avoid the attack, but with such an uneven stance, his attack became too flimsy.
As Hela easily avoided the attack, she brought her sword up to Ega’s neck, ending the duel in an instant. There was a second of silence before the knights suddenly bursted out in conversation at such a decisive end.
“Your stances and footwork got worse.” She drew the sword away from Ega’s neck. “Usually you last for at least a minute. Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten our style.”
“No, all of that is still carved into my bones, it’s just… I’ve been trying to come up with something new.”
During his travel to Ashier, Ega had decided to face the wall that was blocking his progress again. After his fight with Vulf, it was evident that the level that Ega stood at now wasn’t enough. Even with all the tricks up his sleeves, he had barely scraped away a victory.
“Something new? Isn’t our method enough? And you have that unorthodox method you love to mix in every now and then.”
“I know, but those methods aren’t ‘my’ methods, they belong to someone else. If I want to get any farther, I need to find my own style.”
“You’re still trying to follow your master’s teachings? You don’t need to be able to ignite your soul to be a powerful soul bearer.”
Ega knew that. Hela was a prime example of that, and yet…
“It feels wrong to turn away from his teachings. Hell, I’m still unraveling all of his words till this very day.”
The small bits of wisdom, the pieces of advice, the methods and techniques, Ega couldn’t help but find himself stumbling upon the true meanings behind each of those things on his journey through life. And yet, there was still something that he found hard to understand, something that he may never understand even when he took his final breath.
“Well, let me just tell you this, whatever you tried to do wasn’t the right step . Your movements are too stiff, too uneven. Those strikes were a bit too wild, even for someone like you.”
“I can tell…” He tried to throw bits of trickery in response to his battle against Vulf. Being able to slip in strikes perfectly through his defense would have made the fight much easier, but it definitely wasn’t something that would help ignite his soul.
“Regardless, it's good to see you training again. You spent an entire year avoiding training before you left. I thought that the flame inside of you had died, but now…” Hela looked straight into Ega’s eyes. “I still see it burning quite brightly.”
She could still remember the emptiness in his eyes when Ega had arrived in her office. She suspected that it was due to their investigation of Old God’s body after they had fallen, but she couldn’t ask him before he gave her the letter of resignation and left.
“Is that supposed to be a compliment?”
“Take it as you will.” Hela’s eyes suddenly landed on Ella who was still watching from the crowd. “Shouldn’t you be on your way? Your daughter is waiting.”
Hela couldn’t help but chuckle just thinking about how a man like Ega had a daughter, even if they weren’t blood related.
“I told you, we’re not really…” Ega wanted to interject, but with these many people around, he didn’t want to let out any more information on himself.
“I know.” There was still a sly smile on her face. “I hope our paths cross again, Ega. Just know that I’ll be here if you need me.”
As Hela turned away, Ega turned towards Ella who seemed a bit restless. Putting the wooden sword back on the nearby rack, he walked towards her and took her hand. As they began to walk, she suddenly started to speak.
“Y-you did a goo—”
“I apologize for that embarrassing performance, you probably didn’t get to learn much.” Just before the duel, Ega had told her to watch it carefully so that she could gain some insights into fighting. It was also a good way for her to finally use her eyes in a more practical manner, but with how short the duel was, there wasn’t much to watch.
“It wasn’t bad, I—” Ella was quickly silenced as Ega ruffled her hair.
“No need to comfort me. I know how shi… bad I did.”
Despite his words, she seemed a little downtrodden that she was unable to help. But little did she know that her words did make Ega feel better, even if it was just a little bit.
“How about we find a place to stay? Aren’t you getting tired?”
“Anything is fine.”
“Hmm… Alright, let's go around the city for a bit, there’s something I need to see.” As the two of them finally walked out the gate and back into the wide streets of the city, Ega began to roam around, eavesdropping into conversations.
What he lacked the most right now was information. All he knew was that the person who possessed Mithril Blood was somewhere here in this city. Whether it was the person causing these disappearances was still unconfirmed, but he had a strong feeling that they were connected.
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As the two of them walked around, admiring the high buildings of the city and the constant hustle and bustle, Ega began to listen in on conversations that caught his interest.
“Have you heard? Another person disappeared again?”
“Really? Did it happen around the same area?”
Same area. Those words caught Ega’s attention. Was there a specific area of the city that these disappearances were happening?
“I don’t know where the other disappearances have been happening, but it was by street Gal.”
Ega took a mental note of that street before listening in onto the next conversations. Sometimes he’d join in to act like an afraid traveler to fish out some more locations. After a couple hours of roaming, asking, and eavesdropping, he had finally collected a decent amount of information on the recent disappearances.
From what he could gather, people disappearing had been occurring for quite some time now, maybe a few months even. However, the people who had suddenly gone missing were mostly from the slums leaving the Lord of the city unbothered.
However, once one of his mistresses had disappeared, suddenly, the amount of guards patrolling the night increased. When the guards couldn’t even catch the person behind these disappearances, they had called in the Order of Knights for assistance.
As Ega was in deep thought trying to figure out his next move, he suddenly noticed Ella staring intensely through a window of one of the stores. Curious, he stepped beside her and looked inside as well.
Noticing him in the reflection of the glass, she darted her eyes away from what was inside, but it was too late. Looking inside, he couldn’t help but grin as his eyes fell onto a sparkling dark purple dress on display, a dress perfect for Ella’s size.
“Sorry Ella, but I don’t think I can be that free with my money.” Though he still had a lot of money even after buying her winter clothes, the dress on display seemed like a ridiculously expensive item, something that only noble children would wear.
“Ah! No I… sorry…” Ella hung her head down, embarrassed that she was caught staring at a dress.
“What are you sorry for? Nothing wrong with staring at dresses.” Ega looked at Ella and then back at the dress. “It's okay to be a kid, you know. No need to hide it all the time, no need to feel like you need to grow up faster, just enjoy being a kid while you can.”
Those weren’t Ega’s words, but his old master’s. Of course, he never listened to that advice, always continuing to train and push himself to the limit in the pursuit of strength. He hoped Ella wouldn’t do the same, or at least, wouldn’t have to do the same.
“I can buy you another dress some other time, deal?”
“There’s no need to…” Turning toward Ega and seeing his look, she stopped.
His expression was telling her, “What did I just say?”
“T-thank you.”
A smile returned to his lips as Ella seemed to understand his intentions. “Come on, I have to investigate one more thing. After that, we’ll rest up at an inn, sounds good?”
Ella nodded her head, still trying to process everything that he said. Dusk was just a few hours away so the two of them quickly moved their feet toward the direction of these disappearances, or in other words, the slums.
Located just Northeast of the city were the slums, a place riddled with desperate people barely scraping by to keep their souls inside of their body. Ega kept Ella close to himself as he walked down the edge of the slums, the place where normalcy quickly bled into poverty.
The alleys seemed darker and more dangerous, hiding some sort of danger that he couldn’t be sure of.
‘So this is what it looks like.’ Though the houses weren’t as bad compared to the slums in the town of Vitir, they weren’t much more livable.
He kept scanning the area, keeping note of the way the streets winded, the way the alleys ended, and how the buildings, despite being on the edge of collapse, seemed to stand tall. As the two of them walked, however, someone suddenly interrupted them.
“You two look a little lost.” It was a woman in rags, no doubt from the slums. She had dirt on her face and deep underneath her nails. Despite being nothing just skin and bones, there was a strange light in her eyes. “Do you mind if I—”
“That’s alright, we’re just looking around.” Ega wanted to shut her down before anything happened.
“No, no, I don’t mean lost in that sense. Haven’t you found yourself lost since the death of our guardian, Yolu? May I invite you to the Church of Rekindling?” She quickly shoved a piece of paper into Ega’s hands.
Glancing at it, he turned back to the woman, noticing the light in her eyes slowly twisting into a passionate flame.
“I assure you that you will find yourself more whole once you join us. You will come to find yourself much safer even without Yolu, afterall we—”
“That sounds great, but I have to go.” Clutching Ella’s hand a little harder, he swiftly moved away from the slums.
“I truly mean it! Even I have seen the light in this dark situation. When the Outers come for us, we can provide you with a way…” Her crazed ramblings slowly died off in the distance as Ega continued to walk away.
It was only after they were a safe distance away from that woman that Ella started to speak. “Who…”
Shock and confusion was written all over her face alongside a hint of fear.
“Avoid those types of people.” Ega’s voice was stern as he recalled some bad memories. “Just walk the other way and never, even in your most desperate moments, especially in your most desperate moments, take their offer, understood?”
Still a little shaken, Ella nodded her head in understanding. “O-okay…”
The rest of the walk was made in silence as Ega searched for an inn. Dusk was beginning to settle in and worry began to make its way to people’s faces. Fear quickly pushed them indoors, fear of becoming one of the missing people.
Just before the sun had sunken completely over the horizon, Ega had finally found a place of respite. Greeted by the warm glow of lanterns, he stepped inside with Ella by his side.
“Welcome!” One of the waitresses greeted him. “Are you here for a room, meal, or both?”
“Just a room please.”
“Alright, let me just get the owner and we’ll get you a room right away.”
As she disappeared into the back, she quickly returned with a lengthy looking man by her side.
“You’re looking for a room?” Despite his thin stature, the man’s sunken eyes gave Ega an unsettling feeling.
“Yes, just one room is enough.”
Reaching into his brown coat, the innkeeper pulled out a key. “It’s three copper a night.”
While he pulled it out however, Ega couldn’t help but take notice of a strange emblem pinned on the inside of the man’s coat. He had only seen it for a second, but from what he could tell, it was the symbol of a tree.
“Fair enough.” Ega took the key, reading the number “205” on the tag attached to it.
“You can pay me after the night, and don’t try anything funny. I’ll hunt you down for the payment if I have to.” Though his tone wasn’t very threatening, it definitely didn’t feel much like a joke either.
“You won’t have to worry about that.”
“Good…” The innkeeper stared at Ega for a few uncomfortable seconds before turning back to return to his office.
Looking back between the key in his hands the slowly disappearing figure of the innkeeper, Ega couldn’t help but feel the need to keep an eye on that man.
“Room 205…” He looked for the way toward all the rooms, noticing a set of stairs leading to a second floor. “Come on Ella, let's go.”
Slipping away from the warm atmosphere of eating, drinking, and chatting, the two of them finally made it to the room. It was a simple room worth its three copper costs. There was only one bed, but that was enough.
Turning toward Ella, Ega took notice of her droopy eyes. All the exhaustion from traveling and eye training must have finally crashed on her.
“Why don’t you go to sleep?”
Ella was too tired to say anything about it with her eyes half shut. Figuring that she was too tired to even move anymore, Ega scooped her up into arms and tucked her into bed. Though Ella would have a good night’s rest, the night was far from over for Ega.
